York Town News
EPA praises York's "Healthy Beaches"
Awards $254,700 in grants to the state
By Jennifer L. Saunders
Esperanza Stancioff of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, Sea Grant and Healthy Coastal Beaches Program, is silhouetted against the summer sky and surf of Long Sands Beach as she tests one of several Maine Healthy Beaches Program sites in town while children play in the waves nearby. Long Sands Beach was selected as a spotlight beach by the Environmental Protection Agency for this year's grant award to the state of Maine.
Photo by Jennifer L. Saunders
YORK BEACH - When it comes to keeping its public beaches as safe as possible for swimmers, the town, local volunteers and York Parks and Recreation Director Mike Sullivan are winning accolades from the Maine Healthy Beaches Program and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Under the summer blue sky on Thursday morning, Aug. 3, officials from the Maine Healthy Beaches Program and the EPA's New England office gathered at Long Sands Beach - the site chosen to exemplify the ongoing goals of the program - to announce EPA's award of $254,730 to continue efforts to monitor water quality at participating beaches from Kittery to Bar Harbor.
Town Manager Rob Yandow, who served as master of ceremonies for the event, described the importance of the beaches to the town of York, both as natural places of beauty and for the economic value of the estimated one to two million tourists who flock to town each summer.
"They're coming here because of the beaches … because of what you see here and at the other beaches in York," he told the crowd of media representatives gathered to hear the EPA's formal announcement at Long Sands Beach.
Yandow praised those involved in the program, especially Sullivan, who holds the title of beach manager for York and who was instrumental in bringing the program to town, as well as Jeff Patten, head lifeguard, who is in charge of the weekly testing of about a dozen sites at York's four public beaches.
Yandow also credited the efforts of the town's Planning and Code Enforcement departments as well as the Cape Neddick River Association, and spoke of new initiatives to better protect water quality, including the approval of a new shoreland officer by the voters in May and the ongoing drainage study of the York Beach area.
And, he said, with the beauty and benefits that come with York's beaches also comes an obligation to protect the resources - one that Yandow and others present praised Sullivan for being willing to undertake as soon as the Maine Healthy Beaches Program became available to the town.
"I'd like to thank the EPA for the funding and technical support that makes this program possible," Yandow said.
The funding is part of EPA's regional "It's a Shore Thing" Campaign. Since 2001, when the program began with a handful of pilot sites across the state, to today, when 46 beaches are enrolled, Maine has been awarded more than $ 1.3 million to continue efforts to monitor and improve coastal water quality.
"Because Maine's beach season is so short, it makes every beach day a precious one," said Ken Moraff of the EPA's New England office, who attended last week's event. "Active monitoring of water quality not only helps to reduce the number of days our beaches are closed, but also helps us find the source of any potential contamination."
Like Yandow, Moraff praised Sullivan and the town's staff and voters for supporting the protection of its beaches.
With the summer season short to begin with, Moraff pointed out that beach closures across New England have resulted in the loss of about 800 beach days to residents and visitors.
"That's 800 days too many," he said.
Although the overall number of beach closures in any given year in Maine has been low, most recent Healthy Coastal Beaches Program data indicates there were 82 closure days at coastal beaches statewide in 2005 because of elevated bacteria samples - a substantial increase from 2004 beach closures.
Long Sands Beach, Moraff said, was chosen as the site for the grant ceremony because it exemplifies the goal of the program: no beach closures due to harmful bacteria, he said.
Paula Thomson of the Maine State Planning Office described Long Sands as a "showcase beach" for the program, adding, "We all appreciate the hard work that communities like York do."
Sullivan was on hand for the event, along with Patten and others who assist with the program, and stood by as Esperanza Stancioff of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, Sea Grant and Healthy Coastal Beaches Program tested the Long Sands waters after speaking to the crowd.
Thanks to the program, Stancioff said, "We are able to provide safer water recreation," adding that it is the dedication of people like Sullivan and Patten and the many volunteers at the local level that has made the program so successful.
According to the EPA, polluted runoff and untreated sewage released into the water can contain bacteria, viruses, and protozoans, some of which can cause minor illnesses such as gastroenteritis or more serious diseases such as hepatitis.
And the sources of that polluted runoff can be as varied as pet waste, wildlife, leaking sewer pipes, failing septic systems and boats.
York has been a participant since 2002, and Stancioff said York's commitment - from its volunteers to its voters - to finding sources of pollution and mediating those problems speaks volumes. She said that commitment has been evidenced not only in voter support for funding to study drainage issues and support resource protection personnel, but in stricter animal control ordinances to address pet waste on the local beaches.
"In York we have a stellar group of monitors that I would personally like to thank," she said, praising Sullivan and the program participants for their dedication.
Both Sullivan and Yandow said they were pleased York was chosen to host this year's event.
York Parks and Recreation Department and Healthy Beaches Program volunteer monitors continue to check the waters off York Harbor, Cape Neddick, Long Sands and Short Sands Beaches.
To date, York has had no closures, with the vast majority of this past week's test results coming in at miniscule levels of five or 10 parts per 100 milliliters of sample water. One of the 10 sites tested had a count of 86 parts of enterococci per 100 milliliters and one had 31 parts.
According to Environmental Protection Agency regulations, a beach would be required to close to swimmers if testing results yielded 104 parts of enterococci bacteria or more per 100 milliliters of sample water in five or more samples collected at the site during a 30-day period.
York's beaches are tested every Wednesday through Labor Day week.
For more on the Maine Healthy Beaches Program, visit http://www.mainecoastdata.org/public.
