nothin New Haven Independent | Community Working To End Beach Bacteria

Community Working To End Beach Bacteria

File Photo

Curt Johnson at Johnson’s Beach storm drain last year.

Two of Branford’s public beaches, Branford Point, one of town’s most famous beaches and Johnson’s Beach in Short Beach, have long had high rates of unsafe bacterial contamination.

Some years the level is higher, some years lower. What Curt Johnson, the executive director of Save the Sound, told a group of residents at a community meeting last night at Fire Headquarters is that scientists have found a correlation between bacteria levels and whether the weather is dry or wet. Higher levels of bacteria are typically found in wet weather, lower levels in dry weather, Johnson said.

Johnson raised the issue before summer officially gets underway, noting that two out of three of Branford’s public beaches out of 200 beaches around Long Island Sound have long been at the bottom. We can fix the problem,” he said as he sought to engage the community in finding ways to make this right again.”

This fits with the good news that Alex Cinotti, assistant director of health for the East Shore District Health Department announced at the meeting. He said, I can tell everyone that 2015 was a great year for Branford Point.” And Johnson’s Beach on Clark Avenue reached an acceptable level by the end of August.” The Stony Creek beach has no problem.

The news did not surprise folks in the audience because as Cinotti said, the summer of 2015 in Connecticut was also a very dry summer.

About 50 people from the Short Beach and Branford Point areas of town came to listen and learn about these issues, people from Johnson’s Save the Sound organization along with those from the Short Beach Civic Association and Friends of the Farm River Estuary. Johnson is also the chair of the 3rd district Democratic Town Committee and some members of the committee were also present. 

The data is showing that we have a wet weather problem. Wet weather from stormwater run-off spurs pollutants in the form of bacteria, trash, pesticides, dog waste. Storm water is a serious problem when it comes off our streets,” Johnson said. 

Storm Drains Flow Into The Sound

There are several reasons for high bacteria rates, especially when debris of one sort or another flow into the Sound via storm drains that empty into storm water discharge pipes. In Short Beach the storm drain on Clark Avenue (see top photo) is only a few feet away from the discharge pipe below that Johnson is pointing to. Whether this type of pipe configuration, one that flows directly into the Sound, might be changed was not addressed.

Peggy Carpenter, who lives on Clark Avenue, across from the beach, is one of the volunteers checking into sceptic systems in Short Beach. Some houses are on sceptic systems. It’s up to owners to have their sceptic systems cleaned out on a regular basis.

She urged her neighbors to get engaged. We can make a difference. Talking to your neighbors, telling them to not use pesticides, picking up dog poop, those little things help. If you see someone’s storm drain is full, politely ask them to get it cleaned out, just as a neighbor,” Carpenter said. There are lots of ways that we can make a difference and in this world where our environment is crumbling before our very eyes we have to take action.”

Dog Poop

Then there’s dog poop. Teaching dog owners to pick up poop even in 2016 is still an issue. Many do. Many don’t. Poop left on the street winds up in the Sound. For those who pick up poop and place the plastic bag in a town garbage can near the beach, that might do the trick. But it might not.

Greg Carpenter told the audience that he is not surprised when bacteria numbers are high. Better to bring the poop in plastic bag home and put in the trash, he says. (Or you can even flush it down the toilet bowl.)

Garbage can at Johnson’s Beach

Etta Hanlon, a senior at Branford High School, is also a student intern at Save the Sound. She is studying the impact of rain water in garbage cans placed near the beach. Maybe we should find a way to put a cover of some sort over the garbage can.”

Johnson observed that the worst thing is to put poop down a storm drain. It goes directly into the Sound.”

Town Engineer Janice Plaziak described Short Beach as a compact area, with a good deal of rock ledge. She said it was important to look at the catch basins in the Short Beach area and to improve the storm water run-off. Plaziak and engineer David Murphy of Milone & MacBroom Inc. of Cheshire recently presented a draft of Branford’s proposed Coastal Resilience Plan for Branford’s neighborhoods.

Given Branford’s long coastline and heavy beach and boating population, a good deal of basically everything in Branford ends up in the Sound,” Plaziak observed. The audience nodded in agreement.

Plaziak said there are 50 pump stations located throughout the town. Virtually all the pump stations have generators. If power goes off we know about it. Alarms go off if the power is off the pump,” she said.

Plaziak told the audience that the town has strong Planning and Zoning and Inland Wetlands regulations that help reduce the amount of bacteria that gets into the water.

We are committed to try and help with these things if we can, we do have limitations,” Plaziak added.

Study Pinpoints Sources of Bacteria

Cinotti said his office is engaged in a study to pinpoint the sources of bacteria elevation. The study is analyzing data from the Farm River, which flows into the Sound in Short Beach. Where is it coming from? Horses? Cows? Pigs? Dogs? We need to figure out where it is from.” He said after it rains, his department takes samples and we will find elevated bacteria levels. But it doesn’t tell us if it is human or if it is animal. This study will tell us what is getting into Long Island Sound.” He expects the study to be completed in 2017.

Once we identify the sources we can hopefully try to prevent these things from going into the water,” Cinotti said.

Cinotti says the health department takes samples every Monday between Memorial and Labor Days and sometimes on other days if the bacteria level is high. When it rains we get high bacterial levels. We need to prove that.”

He told the audience that a score of 104 is the standard for bacteria in ocean water. Anything above that, the chances of getting illnesses increases,” he added. Last year, he said, the beaches did well. But the studies continue because not ever summer is dry.
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