Swampscott Weighs $400K UV Light King's Beach Treatment Pilot Expense

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — The Swampscott Select Board will revisit in two weeks funding a proposed UV Light treatment pilot program at King's Beach designed to determine the effectiveness of making the water swimmable at the beach to the extent where it can be open during predominantly dry days this upcoming summer.

The discussion at this week's meeting raised more questions than satisfied answers for the Select Board — including whether the town should split the $800,000 cost with Lynn evenly despite Lynn contributing much more water flow to the Stacey's Brook culvert area and considering that the temporary pilot treatment location would be on Humphrey Street in Swampscott for three months this summer.

Select Board members also questioned what the next steps would be — and how much that would ultimately cost — if the UV program appears promising.

The Swampscott Water Advisory Committee voted 5-3 to support the program at its meeting earlier this week.

"The most important questions I found are the questions I have been asking forever," Select Board Chair MaryEllen Fletcher said. "Let's say this works and it's great. Where are we going to put it? What are the costs? What are the long-term operating costs? And how long would this process really work for?"

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While the ultimate cost estimate has been somewhat elusive, one figure floated was a baseline of $25 million for a program that would have a lifespan of 20 years.

The UV Light solution emerged as a viable one over the past three years in conjunction with Swampscott and Lynn both continuing to address source elimination for sewer seepage and stormwater runoff within the pipes.

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Other potential solutions appear to have some support in certain circles with opposition in others as environmental concerns could preclude a chlorination or oxidation technique and plans for a 4,500-foot outfall pipe have apparently run into opposition from Nahant and among the state delegation.

That leaves the UV solution as the one most widely embraced that could bring the most immediate results for a beach that has been ostensibly closed to swimming for two straight summers.

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"Given the fact that this has been such a long and drawn-out problem that we've been dealing with in the town," Select Board member David Grishman said, "and that the focus has been on addressing this, moving forward and looking to solve the problem, this is an incremental step. This is an important step so we can figure out how we can learn about this technology, which is a technology that is mainly used for wastewater, if it can be implemented for stormwater.

"I don't know if it's going to work for stormwater, which is why we want to do this test. It only makes sense for us to vote for us to have this in place for the summer beach season. If we are going to wait and have this in place for October, it doesn't help us get that information that we so desperately need."

Fletcher called the appropriation "a real tough call" with other Select Board members requesting a revisiting of the cost-sharing with Lynn, more information on how the program will be scaled if data proves encouraging, and better indications on the ultimate annual cost before the Select Board takes up the proposal again in two weeks.

(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.)