DPH LETTER REGARDING BEACH TESTING The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
U19Executive Office of Health and Human Services
Department of Public Health
Bureau of Environmental Health
250 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02108-4619
CHARLES D.BAKER MARYLOU SUDDERS
Governor Secretary
KARYN E.POLITO MARGRET R.COOKE
Lieutenant Governor Commissioner
Tel:617-624-6000
www.mass.gov/dph
May 25, 2022
David Greenbaum
Salem Board of Health
120 Washington Street,4th Floor
Salem, MA 01970
RE: Contract Laboratory Support for 2022 Bathing Beach Season, Beaches Required to Post After
One Exceedance, and Release of Annual Report
Dear Mr. Greenbaum,
With the 2022 beach season quickly approaching, we wanted to provide you with information
pertaining to beach testing in your community.
Contract Laboratory Support
According to our records, Salem has 11 weekly marine beach testing sites. Please review these
numbers and let us know by June 3, 2022 if this information needs updating.
It is the responsibility of the municipality to conduct sampling in accordance with the required
protocol and to preserve each sample until it is turned over to the laboratory. DPH has
contracted with Biomarine, Inc. to analyze the samples for your community again this year.
Routine samples collected between June 13 and September 5, 2022 will be eligible for this
analysis, and the laboratory will bill DPH directly. If additional samples are required because of
bacterial exceedances, the additional cost will need to be paid by your municipality. We
encourage you to contact Jim Groleau at Biomarine, Inc. at (978) 741-1800 to coordinate the
delivery of the sterile sample bottles and pick-up of the samples.
The laboratory is required in its contract with DPH to electronically report sample results to DPH
via the bathing beaches website as well as directly to the local health departments. The
laboratory will also enter information from the field data form, such as field observations, days
since last rain, and water temperature, via the website. Therefore, the field data form needs to
be filled out in its entirety before delivery to the laboratory. These forms and other information
are also available through the DPH website at www.mass..ciov/dish/beaches.
Online Beach Postinq Form
Municipalities are required to notify DPH whenever a bathing beach is posted (i.e. closed for
swimming)and subsequently reopened. This notification can now be done using an online form,
which can be accessed at https://redcap.link/beach posting form.
Beaches Required to Post After One Exceedance of Single Sample Standard
At the vast majority of beaches statewide, if a sample exceeds the water quality standard for a
single sample, then posting is not required provided that a resample taken the day following the
initial sample collection is in compliance with water quality standards. However, beaches with
less than four years of complete data and those with a history of elevated bacterial levels will be
required to post after each instance of elevated bacteria. A"history" is defined as one or more
consecutive exceedances in two or more of the last four beach seasons. If a beach in your
community is required to post after every exceedance during the 2022 beach season, it will
appear on the attached list.
Release of Annual Repo
As you know, the data you submit each swim season form the basis of the DPH beach water
quality report, which we are required by statute to produce each year. This report, funded in part
by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, summarizes beach water quality data collected at
marine and freshwater bathing beaches throughout the Commonwealth. The latest annual
report, 2021 Massachusetts Beach Testing Results, is available to the public on the DPH
website, htt].)s://www.mass.c;ov/lists/annual-beach-ref)ort . We encourage you to download a
copy.
Thank you for your continued assistance and cooperation in performing the regulatory tasks
associated with monitoring beach water quality and protecting public health in Massachusetts. If
you would like to discuss these items, or if you have any other questions, please feel free to
contact the bathing beaches staff. Michael Beattie can be reached at(781) 445-3439 and
Yashika Dewani at(617)624-5757.
Sincerely,
Is,-4' 6
Marc A. Nascarella, Ph.D.
Director, Environmental Toxicology Program
Bureau of Environmental Health
cc: Jim Groleau, Biomarine, Inc.
Nalina Narain, Director, Bureau of Environmental Health
Logan Bailey, Recreational Water Quality Section Leader, BEH/ETP