Smith Beach third-dirtiest in state, but clean enough for mayor

By Johanna Seltz, Town Correspondent

Mayor Joseph C. Sullivan jumped into the water at Smith Beach Friday to make the point that a national report listing the tiny beach as the third-dirtiest in the state was “yesterday’s news.”

The report from the Natural Resources Defense Council used data from 2009, when Smith Beach was closed for a large chunk of July due to high bacterial levels in the water. The pollution was the result of runoff from last summer’s unrelenting rain, officials said.

The town-owned beach has been clean and open, so far, all this summer.

“It’s a great place, and people need to know that Smith Beach is open this year and the water is safe to swim in,” said Sullivan, who learned to swim at the beach on the Fore River in the 1970s, when it was named Swift Beach.

“We acknowledge that last year was a difficult one due to the weather, more than anything else. But when this report came out, I quite honestly was disappointed in it because it was ... yesterday’s news,” he said.

But a spokesman for the environmental group said the report indicated inherent pollution problems at Smith Beach.

“It is true that Massachusetts had an unusual amount of rainfall last year -- about 35 percent above normal,” said David Beckman, who directs the water program at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

“But we do compare beaches in Massachusetts to beaches in Massachusetts. “The rain didn’t just fall on that beach or that watershed ... so the data do suggest that there were some sources of beach water pollution that affected that beach.

The top two on the group's dirtiest beach water list were Kings at Stacy Brook Beach in Essex County and Cockle Cove Creek Beach in Barnstable County.

Beckman recommended finding ways to decrease runoff, including the use of pervious pavement that allows rain to soak into the ground, and building “green roofs” that incorporate rain-absorbing plantings.

“It’s not enough to blame the rain,” he said. “We have to solve the problem because it will continue to rain.”

Johanna Seltz can be reached at seelenfam@verizon.net