Swampscott OKs $1.8 Million In ARPA Funds On King's Beach Sewer Work

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — Swampscott will spend $1.8 million out of $2.5 million in state ARPA funds on sewer source elimination work on the pipes that feed Stacey's Brook and the polluted King's Beach after two nights of debate led to a unanimous Select Board vote on the spending Monday night.

The Board discussed the allocation for more than an hour last week without coming to a resolution on how to divide the funding but was able to consolidate around the figures Monday with $400,000 of the ARPA funds going toward design work on the next round of source elimination, $1.8 million on the actual work of sleeving pipes and fixing leaks in the hundred-year-old system that allow sewerage to seep into the Stacey's Brook outfall and, ultimately, has made King's Beach largely unswimmable, up to $100,000 on a peer review of the work done so far and the expectations for what should be expected through future source elimination expenditures, and about $200,000 on paying the balance on a recently completed asset management report as well as examining other complementary strategies to cleaning up the most polluted beach in the state.

"I can make that work," said Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald. "That's better than compromise. That's collaboration."

The Select Board elected to table discussion and a vote on an additional $2.1 million in town ARPA funds that had been proposed to ticket, in part, present and future pollution concerns at Fisherman's Beach until an upcoming meeting within the next couple of months.

The collaboration on the $2.5 million came after Select Board members were able to sort out competing priorities for the money. Select Board member MaryEllen Fletcher had sought most if not all of the entire $2.5 million to go toward the physical pipework, while Select Board member Katie Phelan had sought the peer review as a priority to help determine the effectiveness of past and current spending to help inform the future dollars the town expects to pour into the pipes.

"I want the (newly formed Sewer & Water Infrastructure Committee) to be comfortable with the scope of the peer review as such that it is providing us with the necessary feedback on the next $10 million we are going to spend on this project and what those expectations should be and what we can expect with those results," Phelan said. "Managing the expectations with the effectiveness of what we are doing and what we should be experiencing relating to output at the end of that investment."

Another sticking point in moving around the numbers was the stated desire that the cost of any "complementary strategies" — such as the proposed UV light treatment and an extended outfall pipe to essentially dilute the contaminated water before it's dumped out into the ocean — be split with Lynn.

"We need to be rock solid clear that we may have been very generous about (paying for the engineering report) but doing this work we've got to share this at least 50/50 with Lynn," said Select Board member Doug Thompson, who prepared a motion on the allocation divide that eventually passed. "That's only fair."

The Select Board also on Monday night approved the framework of the new Sewer & Water Infrastructure Committee, which will be charged with monitoring the construction and maintenance of the town's sewer system with the goal of helping slow or halt the pollution at King's and Fisherman's beaches.

Monday's meeting was the second straight that the Swampscott Select Board held virtually only because of an increase in COVID-19 cases across the North Shore.

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