Testing continues along town's shoreline, rivers
By Suzanne Hodgson
Staff Writer
On any given Tuesday morning in the summer, John White and Linda Lyman can be spotted on riverbanks and knee deep in Kennebunk’s seawater.
After a summer of heavy rain last year, Kennebunk’s Gooch’s Beach was rated one of the 10 most polluted beaches in Maine. But White and Lyman, along with a team of volunteers, have worked all year to improve water quality along the shoreline.
Some things are out of their control, such as Mother Nature’s sporadic rainstorms that sweep pesticides, fertilizers and animal waste into storm drains. Storm drains will always have a small amount of water in them, but when it’s been an especially dry summer like the one this year, the storm water is usually filled with bacteria.
“From last year to this year I think we’ve had some really good improvements. Certainly not having the rain helps,” said Town Manager Barry Tibbetts.
Recently the town has installed new storm drains at Gooch’s Beach that have a smaller basins specifically designed with better collection areas so it could be pooled into the drains, which Lime and other bacteria reducers could be added.
“Rain definitely affects the water quality, no question. Whether it’s well water, lake water or ocean water, it’s all affected,” said Lorri Maling, analytical lab director at Nelson lab in Kennebunk.
Kennebunk volunteers go out every Tuesday morning to five locations along the shoreline: two on Gooch’s Beach, one on Middle Beach, one at Mother’s Beach and one in Libby Cove. According to White, approximately five samples of 55 have exceeded the allowed limit this summer and all were taken at the western end of Gooch’s Beach in front of the Narragansett Condominium.
Four of the five samples were taken during the week of July 13, right after a storm. Gooch’s Beach was tested three more times in consecutive days until the reading showed low levels of bacteria. The fifth sample was taken on Aug. 10, after another small rainstorm. On Aug. 11 the sample was under the bacteria threshold.
“There’s a sequence of events that can happen that leads to a high bacteria count that can include rainfall and spring high tides that happen once a month,” White said of the bad reading in August. “Sometimes the water is clear as a bell and some days with the surf you can tell. We say ‘uh-oh, we’re going to have a problem today.’”
White and the rest of the volunteers are trained every year on how to carefully bag samples of ocean and river water to bring to Maling at the lab in coolers with temperatures at 4 degrees Celsius or a little cooler.
Once the 300 to 400 milliliter samples are brought to the lab, they are put into a database and given a number.
“Everything gets a number to prevent having a relationship with the samples. We don’t want anyone to have favoritism to a beach,” Maling said.
The water is then shaken to break up groups of bacteria, diluted and fed what Mailing calls “bacteria food” – Enterolert. After the water has been fed, it’s put into a tray with many different sections and heated to allow bacteria the optimal growth habitat.
After 24 hours, the tray is put under a black light. If too many sections glow, the water has a high bacteria count.
The sample must have 104 parts bacteria per 100 milliliters of seawater to be considered unsafe. When that occurs, volunteers test the water again and an advisory is placed on the beach. Yellow flags fly on lifeguard stands when the beach is under advisory.
John Suttie, lifeguard captain on Gooch’s Beach, also helps collect water for testing and said the beach is in a unique position because of all the residential properties nearby.
“When you have heavy rain there is a lot of runoff on the beach itself, but the beach is very well kept; it always looks clean and we try to keep it clean,” Suttie said.
Four years ago, Maine Healthy Beaches, the group that looks at bacteria levels in the water and tries to keep the beaches clean, started the testing program, which ranks more than 60 beaches up the coast. Long before that, White and Lyman worked with Kennebunk River Conservation groups to change the way some residents used the Kennebunk River.
Last year the Kennebunk River Committee donated a public station for boats to pump human waste instead of dumping it in the water. Three years ago the conservation group asked Kennebunk and Kennebunkport sewage treatment plants to sanitize its water before putting it into the Mousam and Kennebunk rivers.
Lyman helped get doggie bags placed on the beach so dog owners could clean up after their pets and volunteers helped place restroom facilities on the beach so human waste wouldn’t affect water quality.
These conservation-minded volunteers, along with a host of others in town, are not done cleaning up the waters yet. White said all the testing leads them closer each week to finding out what is causing high levels of bacteria in the Kennebunk River and on Gooch’s Beach.
Staff Writer Suzanne Hodgson can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 233.
Staff Writer
On any given Tuesday morning in the summer, John White and Linda Lyman can be spotted on riverbanks and knee deep in Kennebunk’s seawater.
After a summer of heavy rain last year, Kennebunk’s Gooch’s Beach was rated one of the 10 most polluted beaches in Maine. But White and Lyman, along with a team of volunteers, have worked all year to improve water quality along the shoreline.
Some things are out of their control, such as Mother Nature’s sporadic rainstorms that sweep pesticides, fertilizers and animal waste into storm drains. Storm drains will always have a small amount of water in them, but when it’s been an especially dry summer like the one this year, the storm water is usually filled with bacteria.
“From last year to this year I think we’ve had some really good improvements. Certainly not having the rain helps,” said Town Manager Barry Tibbetts.
Recently the town has installed new storm drains at Gooch’s Beach that have a smaller basins specifically designed with better collection areas so it could be pooled into the drains, which Lime and other bacteria reducers could be added.
“Rain definitely affects the water quality, no question. Whether it’s well water, lake water or ocean water, it’s all affected,” said Lorri Maling, analytical lab director at Nelson lab in Kennebunk.
Kennebunk volunteers go out every Tuesday morning to five locations along the shoreline: two on Gooch’s Beach, one on Middle Beach, one at Mother’s Beach and one in Libby Cove. According to White, approximately five samples of 55 have exceeded the allowed limit this summer and all were taken at the western end of Gooch’s Beach in front of the Narragansett Condominium.
Four of the five samples were taken during the week of July 13, right after a storm. Gooch’s Beach was tested three more times in consecutive days until the reading showed low levels of bacteria. The fifth sample was taken on Aug. 10, after another small rainstorm. On Aug. 11 the sample was under the bacteria threshold.
“There’s a sequence of events that can happen that leads to a high bacteria count that can include rainfall and spring high tides that happen once a month,” White said of the bad reading in August. “Sometimes the water is clear as a bell and some days with the surf you can tell. We say ‘uh-oh, we’re going to have a problem today.’”
White and the rest of the volunteers are trained every year on how to carefully bag samples of ocean and river water to bring to Maling at the lab in coolers with temperatures at 4 degrees Celsius or a little cooler.
Once the 300 to 400 milliliter samples are brought to the lab, they are put into a database and given a number.
“Everything gets a number to prevent having a relationship with the samples. We don’t want anyone to have favoritism to a beach,” Maling said.
The water is then shaken to break up groups of bacteria, diluted and fed what Mailing calls “bacteria food” – Enterolert. After the water has been fed, it’s put into a tray with many different sections and heated to allow bacteria the optimal growth habitat.
After 24 hours, the tray is put under a black light. If too many sections glow, the water has a high bacteria count.
The sample must have 104 parts bacteria per 100 milliliters of seawater to be considered unsafe. When that occurs, volunteers test the water again and an advisory is placed on the beach. Yellow flags fly on lifeguard stands when the beach is under advisory.
John Suttie, lifeguard captain on Gooch’s Beach, also helps collect water for testing and said the beach is in a unique position because of all the residential properties nearby.
“When you have heavy rain there is a lot of runoff on the beach itself, but the beach is very well kept; it always looks clean and we try to keep it clean,” Suttie said.
Four years ago, Maine Healthy Beaches, the group that looks at bacteria levels in the water and tries to keep the beaches clean, started the testing program, which ranks more than 60 beaches up the coast. Long before that, White and Lyman worked with Kennebunk River Conservation groups to change the way some residents used the Kennebunk River.
Last year the Kennebunk River Committee donated a public station for boats to pump human waste instead of dumping it in the water. Three years ago the conservation group asked Kennebunk and Kennebunkport sewage treatment plants to sanitize its water before putting it into the Mousam and Kennebunk rivers.
Lyman helped get doggie bags placed on the beach so dog owners could clean up after their pets and volunteers helped place restroom facilities on the beach so human waste wouldn’t affect water quality.
These conservation-minded volunteers, along with a host of others in town, are not done cleaning up the waters yet. White said all the testing leads them closer each week to finding out what is causing high levels of bacteria in the Kennebunk River and on Gooch’s Beach.
Staff Writer Suzanne Hodgson can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 233.
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