Elevated E. Coli Levels Found at Mansion Beach

The Wayland Health Department is working on signs warning visitors of the Mansion Beach area of Dudley Pond that slightly elevated E. coli levels have been detected in the water there.

Steve Calichman, director of Wayland’s Health Department, explained that Mansion Beach is not a public swimming beach, but is still used by residents from time to time.

According to a report emailed by Mike Lowery, a member of the Surface Water Quality Committee but writing on his own behalf, to town officials and media, samples returned Tuesday, June 28, indicated an E. coli level of 240 colony forming units (CFUs) per 100 milliliter sample. According to the finding returned by G & L Laboratories, which tested the sample, the maximum contaminant level is 235 CFUs. (Fax returned by the lab is attached).

Because Mansion Beach is not officially a public bathing beach, there is nothing for the Health Department to close, Calichman explained. However, at Tuesday evening’s Wayland Board of Health meeting, board members authorized the health director to post signs warning users of the levels.

Calichman said the Health Department begins testing the water of the Wayland’s public beaches about two to three week’s before the Wayland Town Beach opens and concentrates its efforts on the Town Beach. The Surface Water Quality Committee has been collecting additional samples at Dudley Pond due to concern of a possible cesspool overflow and sending those to the lab used by the Health Department.

Calichman said those tests revealed that overflow from a failed septic system likely did not reach Dudley Pond or, if it did, the contamination was minimal.

Lowery’s email report indicated he did not suspect this E. coli finding was related to the failed system but was rather “part of the overall condition of the pond.”

“There’s always a concern when people are swimming in areas that aren’t public beaches that generally aren’t sampled on a regular basis,” Calichman said of his reaction to the “slightly elevated” levels found at Mansion Beach. “When people swim in a body of water like that, they really are swimming at their own risk.”

He said that two other sample locations, one at 123 Dudley Road and another from, he believed, somewhere in the middle of Dudley Pond, returned levels acceptable for swimming.

Lowery’s report indicates that he suspects the elevated E. coli levels are likely due to animal waste and said he suggests encouraging pet owners to clean up after their pets. He noted that pet waste bags will be available at Mansion Beach soon.

He added that water fowl are likely also culprits in creating the elevated levels and recommended residents be encouraged to avoid feeding the birds and clean up food scraps left behind on the beach. In addition, plastic coyotes recently placed in the area as “scarecrows” could also help keep fowl away.

Though Mansion Beach isn’t officially a public beach, it is used frequently and the Board of Health at its Tuesday meeting agreed weekly testing of the water should continue for a four-week cycle, according to Lowery’s email report. Further testing will be reassessed at the end of that period.

“Because we know about it [the elevated levels], we feel we should just alert the public that they shouldn’t be swimming or wading at this time,” Calichman said.