With the promise of brilliant, sunny skies this weekend, health officials await bacteria test results today to see whether the 33 beaches closed to swimming yesterday can reopen.
Tweet diggYahoo! Buzz ShareThis Waters from Beverly to Swansea to Chatham showed high bacteria levels in tests taken Wednesday or Thursday, and beaches in 14 cities and towns were closed yesterday.
State officials said rain has probably caused the increase in bacteria. The Quincy health commissioner speculated that bacteria built up during a brief dry spell last week and then washed into the ocean during storms Tuesday night.
Bacteria levels regularly jump after storms and return to normal within days. Officials said new test results will be posted on the Department of Public Health website as they become available today.
Revere Beach, Nantasket Beach in Hull, and most of the beaches along Cape Cod remained open yesterday. But swimming was banned at three state beaches in and near Boston: Carson Beach in South Boston, Tenean Beach in Dorchester, and Wollaston Beach in Quincy, where levels of enterococcus — which can cause skin irritation, vomiting, or diarrhea — were most pervasive.
Swimming was also banned at nine of Quincy’s 13 city beaches, the most closings in about five years, Health Commissioner Andrew Scheele said.
At Wollaston early yesterday afternoon, nine people were in the water, five of whom did not know it was contaminated. They later complained that the red flags at lifeguard chairs were not enough warning.
“No, there would be signs,’’ Maiya Werba, 11, said skeptically from the water when a Globe reporter told her swimming was banned.
“Why wouldn’t they tell us to get out of the water?’’ asked her sister, Olivia, 12, of Sharon, suspiciously weighing her options.
Once the signs, waving in the wind about 50 yards away, were pointed out, the group of four girls got out of the water.
“How are we supposed to know what a red flag means?’’ Maiya Werba asked. “A sign saying, ‘Do not go into the water,’ would be much better.’’
Earlier, Nancy Gargiulo of Norwood floated on her back in the water.
“To know that is disgusting,’’ she said when told of the bacteria levels after getting out. “I wasn’t aware of that at all, so I’m probably going to go ask the lifeguards why they’re not telling people who are going in the water.’’
The lifeguards should have been telling swimmers about the bacteria, said Wendy Fox, spokeswoman for the Department of Conservation and Recreation.
“Well, that’s too bad,’’ she said yesterday. “I know the lifeguards do their best.’’
Fox said the department may consider adding more signs or altering the flags with a picture of a swimmer crossed out.
While many weekends this summer have brought beach closings, there have been fewer than last summer.
With yesterday’s closings, 405 beaches have been closed because of bacteria this summer; 503 beaches were closed because of bacteria by this time last year, DPH spokeswoman Jennifer Manley said. The decrease in closings probably comes with the decrease in rainfall, she said.
Tweet Be the first to Tweet this!Submit to DiggdiggsdiggYahoo! Buzz ShareThis Of the 33 beaches showing elevated bacteria levels at about 11 a.m. yesterday, many were in patches spread across the state’s coast: seven on the North Shore; 12 in Greater Boston; six on the South Shore; five in the Southeast; two off Chatham; and one off Martha’s Vineyard.
Scheele, the Quincy health commissioner, said rainfall and an exceptionally high tide on Tuesday carried into the ocean bacteria that had been forming during a dry stretch.
“We haven’t had rain in a while, so anything in the storm drains had been sitting there for a week or 10 days, so it’s had a chance to putrefy,’’ he said. “And any of the seaweed or anything of that nature that [had] been sitting in the sun putrefying, when the high tide came, it grabbed that.’’
Scheele’s explanation made sense to meteorologist Bill Simpson of the National Weather Service, who said isolated storms dropped heavy rain on parts of the state Tuesday night.
“When torrential rains happen, the sewer system can’t do its job,’’ he said.
Scheele said he retested the Quincy beaches at about 1 p.m. yesterday and was confident that by 1 p.m. today, many would reopen.
“Mother Nature does a wonderful job flushing out,’’ he said.
Fox said the state should know if Carson, Tenean, and Wollaston would reopen by this morning. Results will be available on the DCR beach hotline at 617-626-4972. Tenean has closed nine times because of bacteria this summer; Carson six times; and Wollaston five, including Wednesday through yesterday.
But groups were still scattered at Wollaston yesterday, including two parents letting their children wade to their knees.
“She wanted to take off her shirt and shorts and go in the water, but we told her she couldn’t,’’ Andrea Marckmann of Stoughton said, referring to her 6-year-old daughter.
Marckmann said she was aware of the swimming ban, but was not worried about going in up to her knees.
But not her 7-year-old son, Victor, who said, “I’d rather swim with the sharks than the bacteria.’’