Connecticut Beaches Have Been Closed Thousands Of Day

Tag : Sound Filter
By DAVID FUNKHOUSER And JOSH KOVNER Courant Staff Writers

June 29, 2008

On a recent sweltering afternoon at Byram Beach in Greenwich,Barbara Beqiraj reclined in the shade of a pavilion and recalledthe time she startled the daylights out of her Albanian-bornhusband, a recent immigrant who hadn't seen much ocean in his life.

He'd sprinted joyously across the sand at Byram and was just aboutto dash into Long Island Sound when Beqiraj screamed, "Don't go inthe water!"

Stopped him cold. She chuckled at the memory and added that shehasn't gone into the water at Byram in five years. A few yardsaway, a well-worn "beach-closed" sign was stuck in the sand,punctuating her point. Seven-tenths of an inch of rain had fallenthe night before, more than enough to raise the bacteria count andshut Byram Beach.

Many swimming areas around the state, coastal and inland, shareByram's plight. Though by and large they are well-groomed andwell-managed, on any given summer day, dozens of swimming spots arejust one good rainfall away from closing. The problem: storm waterrunoff that carries feces from wild animals or pets, andcontaminants from highways, subdivisions, malls and farms into thewater.

Over the last decade, swimmers lost at least 3,000 days tobacteria-related closings, based on The Courant's examination of 10years of closure data for Long Island Sound beaches and stateparks, and four years of records for other lakes and ponds.

And while it's hard to track how many people are getting sick as aresult, federal officials say instances of water-born illnesscontracted in recreational waters are on the rise around thecountry.

Already this season, the 10 most affected areas have lost at least45 swimming days to contamination.

Some areas have only occasional problems, and a few are virtuallypristine — Hammonasset Beach State Park, the busiest in thestate, has not had a closure in at least a decade, according to thestate Department of Environmental Protection. And beaches east ofFairfield County, including West Haven, have steadily improved.

But several areas continue to suffer persistent problems, and theproblem does not discriminate by location or real estate value.

The 10 most troubled areas include remote spots such as Hop BrookLake Beach in Middlebury, where signs advise hikers they may seebear in the woods; pastoral suburban parks like Mixville Pond inCheshire; heavily developed areas such as Wharton Brook State Parkin Wallingford; and Byram Beach, tucked into a densely settledshoreline of opulent estates with locked gates.

The sources of contamination vary.

Geese droppings at Mixville Pond prompted Cheshire to hire anexpert with a kayak and two trained terriers to discourage theonce-migratory birds to camp elsewhere.

Runoff from farms and condominium complexes plague Hop Brook Lakeand Northfield Brook Lake in Thomaston, both operated by the U.S.Army Corps of Engineers.

A stew of wastes washes off interstate highways and heavilydeveloped urban areas to pollute places such as Wharton Brook andByram Beach.

Uncollected pet feces, improperly maintained septic systems andovertaxed sewage treatment plants contribute to the problem.Over-fertilized suburban lawns or golf courses add nutrients thatset the stage for bacterial growth. Insufficient water flow andsiltation can make a pond more susceptible to contamination.

"There's not a single smoking gun," said Lee Dunbar of the DEP'swater protection and land re-use bureau. "You can't point yourfinger at a single, responsible party."

In some places, public health and environmental officials aretrying to mount a defense; in others, they have essentially givenup.

Not So Gold At Byram Beach, local authorities plunk down a "No Bathing orFishing" sign whenever they get a heavy rain without even botheringto test for bacteria. They know from history that runoff willcontaminate the Sound, and that the beach's sheltered location neara marina makes it harder for the tides to wash away the problem.

Beqiraj, 48, is a lifelong resident who used to swim in the Soundwhen she was a youngster.

"I don't go in the water in Greenwich whatsoever. It's disgusting,"Beqiraj said. "I [went in] once several years ago and got a badskin rash. Never again."

Fairfield County beaches sit below land paved over with homes,malls, highways and industry: When it rains, instead of filteringthrough the soil, water is likely to run into storm drains and intothe Sound, taking oils, dirt and other contaminants with it. Also,tides flush more lightly here than in the deeper, eastern end ofthe Sound, where contamination is less of a problem.

At the 144 beaches along the Connecticut coast that report testingdata to the state, there were 65 closings for one or more days in2007; 56 of those were in Fairfield County.

Most closings were pre-emptive — that is, authorities closedthe beaches in response to a set amount of rainfall, based onhistorical patterns of contamination. But when closings are basedon bacteria tests, they can lag behind the actual contamination,because it takes up to 24 hours to get results.

Because of lower rainfall during the swimming season, 2007 had thelowest number of closings in five years, said Jon Dinneen, anassociate research analyst with the state Department of PublicHealth. The DPH helps cities and towns test their water.

Under the federal Beach Monitoring Program, local healthdepartments test weekly for bacteria at saltwater swimming areas.Inland ponds usually get the same treatment, and the DEP does thesame for its four Long Island Sound beaches and 18 inland stateparks.

What they test for are bacteria — E. coli in freshwater,Enterococci in saltwater — that indicate the presence of moreharmful types of bacteria from human or animal fecal matter thatmay cause a range of health problems.

Illnesses On The Rise Neither state nor federal health officials have statistics on howmany people are getting sick from swimming at saltwater beaches,lakes and ponds in Connecticut.

It's often hard to make the connection: Swimmers may be long gonefrom the beach when they fall ill, may not report the incident topublic health authorities, and could have been exposed to othersources of contamination, such as beach sand or picnic food.

Nationally, more outbreaks of illness contracted from recreationalwaters were reported in 2007 than ever before, according to thefederal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That includesswimming pools and water parks as well as natural areas.

What you can catch from dirty water ranges from ear and eyeinfections and skin rashes to diarrhea, respiratory problems andeven, rarely, neurological diseases. The most common culprit is"crypto" — Cryptosporidium, a chlorine-resistant bug foundeven in treated water such as swimming pools. The single-celledpathogens can be transmitted through fecal matter and causediarrheal illness.

"About two-thirds of outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness relatedto swimming are crypto, most in treated or disinfected swimmingpools," said Michele Hlavsa, an epidemiologist with the Centers forDisease Control and Prevention.

Exact numbers are hard to find, but Hlavsa said they are low whencompared with the estimated 350 million trips to the beach takenlast year in the United States.

State public health officials reported 10,000 cases ofcrypto-related illness to the CDC in the past year, but Hlavsa saidshe could not tell how many were from swimming. People can contract crypto illness from drinking water or eatingfood contaminated with the feces of infected humans or otheranimals. The number of crypto-related cases has tripled since 2004,and Hlavsa said the bug "will likely pose an even bigger challengein the future."

The water testing in place at most swimming areas depends onbacterial cultures that take 24 hours to get results. In manycases, an agency will test two days in a row before closing abeach.

That means people could be swimming at a contaminated beach fordays before the problem is detected and the beach closed. And sincecontamination incidents usually last only a day or two, beachesthat wind up closed may actually be safe by the time the signs goup.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency is looking at a fastertest, one that uses DNA sampling and gets results in just twohours. But the agency needs to study whether the new tests areaccurate and says it is years away from implementing a newprocedure.

The Natural Resources Defense Council has sued the agency to getnew standards in place sooner, said Nancy Stoner, director of theenvironmental group's Clean Water Project. That case, in federalcourt in California, is expected to go to trial in August.

Two bills before Congress have a similar goal. One, the BeachProtection Act, approved by the House and under consideration bythe Senate, would force the EPA to finish its assessment by 2010and get new rules in place the following year.

The bill also would authorize increased federal spending to helpstates find the sources of pollution. More significant, the Senateversion would provide additional money to help clean it up, Stonersaid.

Finding, Funding A Fix Local authorities have been using a wide range of tactics to attackthe sources of contamination. At Mixville, they chase the geeseaway. At Wharton Brook, the state wants to install a filtering damwhere a brook feeds into the pond. At Hop Brook Lake, the ArmyCorps of Engineers will try to increase flow when the water leveldrops later in the season.

Repeated contamination at Bicentennial Pond in Mansfield promptedthe town to undertake an extensive watershed study several yearsago. They found failed septic systems upstream, and the town gotthose residents to correct the problems.

To deal with Canada geese, the town installed a fence to blockaccess to feeding areas. "That has greatly reduced the problem,"said parks and recreation Director Curt Vincente, who said the pondhas not had a closing in at least eight years.

Norwich faced a unique problem at Spaulding Pond Beach, one of themost troubled swimming spots in the state. Residents who hadreceived live ducks as Easter gifts had turned them loose in the14-acre pond. Combined with low circulation in the swimming areaand other wildlife, that spelled trouble year after year,recreation department Director Luis DePina said.

Last year, the parks division found someone willing to adopt theducks, reducing the waterfowl population. The city also installedtwo aerating fountains, and in 2007, for the first time in years,there were no closings at all.

In some cases, cleaning up the problem will take a whole lot ofmoney.

A half-million-dollar project to install storm drain filters inNorwalk has achieved mixed results, said Terry Backer, a staterepresentative from Stratford and head of the Soundkeeperenvironmental group.

The program dropped 300 filters into a system with 10,000 drains.The filters caught a lot of grease and sediments and some bacteria,Backer said, but the water gets recontaminated as it flows on downthe system.

"I don't think we can point to it as having prevented beachclosures," Backer said. He said a better solution might be toinstall vaults with filters at the end of the storm drain pipes.Old-fashioned drain maintenance and street cleaning help, too, hesaid.

In a similar program, the state will use another $500,000 grant toplace filters at drains at state facilities along the shoreline.The use of such filters "could be hugely expensive on a broadscale," said the DEP's Dunbar.

An even more ambitious project took place at Jordan Cove inWaterford. A 10-year, million-dollar study looked at the impact ofrunoff from two very different subdivisions.

One was built in a conventional style; the second was built usinglow-impact principles, including smaller building footprints,permeable driveway surfaces, grassy swales and other featuresdesigned to catch and filter runoff. Residents were encouraged toadopt less polluting practices, such as picking up pet waste andstrictly controlling their use of fertilizers and pesticides.

"We were able to demonstrate that by using what we call low-impactdevelopment practices, we can keep the water on the site similar topre-development conditions," said John Clausen of the University ofConnecticut's Department of Natural Resource Management andEngineering. "Less water leaving the site means less pollution,less bacteria, less everything."

UConn worked with the development team, the town, the DEP and theEPA on the project. The question now, Clausen said, is whetheranyone will put the results to good use.

Contact David Funkhouser at dfunkhouser@courant.com .

For an interactive map of the state's worst swimming holes, visit www.courant.com/swimming


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