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“Basically, every year I think the towns are getting better because they really do need to understand it’s their responsibility,” he said. “We really need to get towns to contract with portable toilet vendors and encourage parents to make sure kids use it before they go in (the water).”
Kittery has been part of the Maine Healthy Beaches program for about two months. Two weeks ago, the Kittery Town Council amended an ordinance to allow town manager Jonathan Carter to close any of the town’s three public bathing beaches if bacteria levels in the water are too high.
“In the case where the water quality is at a level that people shouldn’t be swimming in it, there should be some tools at hand to enforce that issue, such as beach closures or advisories,” Carter said. “Our beaches are not manned with lifeguards or a system … where you can have people on site doing protective education.”
Over the next few months, Stanicioff said the Healthy Beaches Web site, www.mainehealthybeaches.org, will feature a viewable database of state beaches complete with the latest monitoring results, closure listings, maps and the criteria about how and why beaches are closed.
In contrast is New Hampshire’s beach monitoring program. The state has 15 ocean beaches that are monitored on a weekly basis; however, the 180 freshwater beaches in the state are not monitored with the same regularity. Because only one inspector is assigned to each group of beaches, it’s difficult for one person to make it to each of the freshwater beaches, according to Jody Connor, Limnology Center Director for the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services.
The inspectors test for high levels of E coli bacteria in freshwater beaches and enterococci bacteria in salt water. The standards for freshwater beaches are 88 colony forming units per 100mL of water; for ocean water, the level is 104 units per 100mL.
If a water sample collected at a beach yields high results, Connor said an advisory will be posted. Individual towns can close their beaches if they wish.
“We allow the towns to do that on their own,” he said. “If they want to go the next step, they’re more than welcome to do so. We hesitate to close (beaches) because there’s other things you can do at beaches besides swim.”
The beach in Seabrook was closed after water quality tests on Wednesday, July 20 showed elevated levels of enterococci bacteria. The advisory was posted on July 22 and was lifted on July 23. Connor said the source of the contamination at Seabrook Harbor is unknown, adding that most coastal beach advisories don’t stay up for long.
“They really don’t stay closed for a long period of time, because tides take up (the bacteria) and replaces it with fresh coastal water,” he said.
The Maine Healthy Beaches program began in 2001 with a $57,000 grant from the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s Beach Environmental Health Act. Since then, the program has received about $250,000 a year.
Surveys conducted by the Healthy Beaches program among beach goers have revealed that swimmers want more information about the water, according to Janeski.
“One thing we have come back to us is the public does want to know if the beach is safe to swim in, and they will make a decision on where they go based on the level of information provided,” he said.
For for the future, Janeski Sees continued expansion and education and would like to see private beaches in the state come on board.
“We’ll continue to expand the program and ensure safe visits for all the folks that choose to swim at the coast,” he said.
There’s no legislation on the horizon that would bring beach monitoring under the state’s control. However, Stanicioff believes the current system works well. Having a single agency in charge of monitoring would mean training a large number of new monitors, and the state’s primary laboratory is located in Augusta, far away from many of the beaches.
“It’s a whole learning process for everyone involved, and I’m not sure the state agencies have the kind of resources and staff to do that,” she said. “We have a lot of coastline here, and the regional lab situation works better. I think we’re all open to how this can evolve to be the best it can be.”
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