Marblehead's Gas House Beach Reopens After Bacteria Closing

MARBLEHEAD, MA — Marblehead's Gas House Beach reopened on Wednesday after being closed to swimming for five days because of high bacteria levels.

The town announced the reopening on its municipal website shortly before noon.

Gas House Beach was closed to swimming on Friday after high bacteria levels were found on consecutive days of testing. Marblehead Director of Public Health Andrew Petty said that the Enterococci samples exceeded acceptable state levels.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: "Enterococci are a type of bacteria mainly found in the gut and feces of animals. They are used as an indicator organism for groundwater because they closely link water quality with contamination by human feces. Some Enterococci can cause disease in humans."

The average of Enterocci colonies exceeded the maximum of 35 per 100 milliliters at both beaches.

The mean was 48.9 at Gas House Beach as of Friday.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)