By Patricia Houser
For Nature’s Sake
Patricia Houser
Every Monday morning from May to September, certain staff from the Milford Health Department show up at the office wearing swimsuits under their clothes. They are licensed sanitarians, equipped with sterile collection bottles and notes, preparing to drive out in city vehicles to each of Milford’s 17 private and public beaches. Once they’ve arrived at each site, their duties include surveying conditions on the beach and then wading out into water three to four feet deep to collect samples.
This weekly ritual can go unnoticed, even by residents of beach communities. Still, what officials learn from those samples – and what the larger data set can tell us about how to live on Long Island Sound while preserving its, and our, health – makes the protocols for testing and closing beaches worth a closer look.
The answers in the Q and A below are based on information from state and federal websites plus input from regional experts on water testing and beach closings.
Q: Where do the water samples go once they have been collected?
A: Samples from across Milford’s coastline are brought back to the health department’s downtown offices, says Milford Director of Health Deepa Joseph, where they are handed over in coolers to a courier from the state Department of Public Health. The courier will then drive them to the state DPH lab at Rocky Hill for testing, with results available 24 hours later.
Q: What are the samples tested for?
A: As established by Environmental Protection Agency standards in the 2000s, the bacteria most often used to measure safety for saltwater bathing has been enterococci. Because enterococci are found in the intestines of warm-blooded animals, say scientists, their presence in a water sample is a good indicator of the possible presence of other, more dangerous organisms and viruses. Labs measure how many colony-forming bacteria are in a 100 milliliter sample (roughly 3.5 ounces), and if the number exceeds 104 per 100 milliliter, according to DPH protocols, officials must go back and retest the beach to see if the levels have lowered.
Q: Who decides whether a municipal or private beach in Milford will be closed?
A: The Milford Department of Health determines when to close a municipal or private beach based on state protocols and local conditions. A resampling that shows enterococci levels still over the safe threshold will close a beach, but the city may also act preemptively (before test results are in) based on a local hazard like a nearby sewage overflow. Beach closures in Milford have been uncommon in the past two years, but when the decision is made, says Joseph, Health Department staff goes out in person to notify beachgoers and posts notices at the site while also reaching out to the press, posting on social media and updating the department’s website.
Q: Who samples the water at the state beach, Silver Sands?
A: According to Ansel Aarrestad, environmental analyst in the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s Water Planning and Management Division, the water samples at Silver Sands and other state parks are collected by DEEP staff from the Water Monitoring & Assessment program. On Monday mornings they can be seen in waders, waist deep in the Sound, scooping up water from state sites; the same staff will transport those samples up to the Rocky Hill lab where the state Department of Health runs tests and interprets results.
Q: If a beach such as Silver Sands is closed one day for sanitary reasons, how can an adjacent swim spot, like Walnut Beach, still be open? Isn’t it all the same water?
A: DEEP’s Aarrestad noted, “Bacteria results can be localized to a specific area depending on winds, tides, and the flow of water across the shoreline.”
Joseph also observed that the shape of the coast in one place or the outflow direction of a particular stormwater pipe can lead to local differences.
An illustration of this, from the 2023 Long Island Sound Beach Report, is the strange case of two Milford beaches that are immediately adjacent to one another. In the report, Anchor Beach #2 earns a place on the list of ten best Long Island Sound beaches for water quality in Connecticut, while Anchor #1, also called Crescent Beach, is on the 10 worst list. The culprit causing lower scores in the past at Beach #1, as explained in the report, is most likely a large stormwater pipe.
Q: What is the main source of water contamination at Milford beaches, when it happens?
A: Sources of bacteria vary by location, but experts agree that stormwater runoff is a leading source of pollution in places like Milford.
Aarrestad explained, “When it rains, especially in large amounts, any contaminants sitting on impermeable surfaces will get flushed into waterways and eventually into Long Island Sound.”
That includes fecal matter from wild animals such as waterfowl, plus dogs and cats. Pesticides and fertilizers from lawns become part of the stormwater flow during a large rain event too.
Q: How does the water quality at Milford’s beaches compare to other beaches in Connecticut?
A: Despite the bad report card grades that Save the Sound’s Beach Report assigned to Anchor Beach #1 in earlier years, in 2022 it scored an A+ average. In fact, weekly testing from the past two years shows Milford’s beaches overall to be among the top beaches anywhere along the Sound.
When asked what more people should know on this topic, Joseph wanted to reassure the public about the rigor of testing procedures and decision-making “based on solid information and in the interest of being as protective as possible.”
She noted what great recreational opportunities our beaches offer.
“We want people to be able to be outside and enjoying that, and so we’re always making sure people are safe while they’re doing that,” she said.
Aarestad, for his part, said DEEP would like people to think about the relationship between what we do on the land and the fate of the state’s waters.
Patricia Houser, PhD, AICP, shares her exploration of local and regional environmental issues in this column as a member of the nonpartisan Milford Environmental Concerns Coalition.