Tag Archives: Saratoga Creek

PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION TO CLEAN THE GOOD HARBOR BEACH CREEK!

Our beautiful Good Harbor Beach is in very serious trouble. Over the past several years the water at the tidal creek has tested with increasingly higher and higher levels of Enterococci Bacteria, indicating there is fecal matter in the water. Swimming at the Creek is no longer allowed at any time of year because of the astoundingly high levels of bacteria. Surfers surfing at the mouth of the Creek have come down with dysentery-like symptoms. Families are unfortunately allowed to play along the banks of the Creek in the sand, where fecal matter levels may even be higher, but without comprehensive testing, there is no way of knowing.

From the EPA – Enterococci are indicators of the presence of fecal material in water and, therefore, of the possible presence of disease-causing bacteria, viruses, and protozoa. These pathogens can sicken swimmers and others who use rivers and streams for recreation or eat raw shellfish or fish.

The Clean the Creek grassroots action group has organized a petition. Below is the description of the petition as well as a link to sign the petition, a link to the Clean the Creek website, and a link to a health form. If you have become ill after swimming at Good Harbor, please report as it will be very helpful in organizing data

Website: https://cleanthecreek.org

Petition: https://www.change.org/p/clean-the-creek?recruiter=1301225170&recruited_by_id=413c14f0-c4d8-11ed-9ed2-c185d585f8a6&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_term=us_web_gs_ua_sap_20220830_generic-petition_conversions-sap&utm_medium=copylink&utm_content=cl_sharecopy_35728476_en-US%3A3

Health Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfFetMaHkCEd_N48CkNezWtJ6SKW_KMNLZErjDs1LdVbYEzUw/viewform

CLEAN THE CREEK Petition Description

According to a recent investigation by the city, sewer infrastructure is one of the main causes of GHB creek pollution. Also heavy rains lead to significantly higher levels of bacteria such as enterococci. Enterococci bacteria is an indicator that there is fecal matter in the water. Exposure to Enterococci Bacteria can cause symptoms such as fever, abdominal pain, pain when urinating, fatigue, chills, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, bleeding gums, and subsequent infections that include meningitis, endocarditis, UTI, wound infections, sinus infections, and periodontitis. In our ongoing surveys a lot of these symptoms have been reported.

Clean the Creek is a grassroots organization devoted to creating a healthier ocean environment at Good Harbor Beach and surrounding water bodies of Cape Ann. Please help us reduce the ongoing bacterial water pollution impacting our health and environment. We are asking that the City of Gloucester act on the following:

●  Increase testing frequency and expand to other  areas.

●  Find the underlying cause(s) to address the issue head-on.

●  Partner with the State and Federal government to gain the  necessary

support needed to solve the problem.

●  Make it a top priority to find the proper supporting staff for our Board

of Health to champion this issue.

●  Hold DPW accountable for monitoring the safety and well-being  of

our waterways in regards to sewage overflow, upkeeping infrastructure, and oversight of new

projects which add to increased waste.

Sign the petition to act for our Mayor and City Council in Gloucester, MA!

*Must be a resident of Gloucester*

LINK FOR CLEAN THE CREEK HYBRID MEETING THURSDAY EVENING AT SURFARI AT 6:30

Rory McCarthy, who is spearheading the effort to Clean the Creek, writes –

Greetings!

Hope everyone is doing well. We have a hybrid meeting this Thursday, March 16th. The meeting will be at Surfari and on zoom at 6:30pm.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/75690729110?pwd=5P3oTDuadOJfBTkloBEw8TVACdkZz1.1

Meeting ID: 756 9072 9110
Passcode: asiA43

Agenda:
1. Our mission and how we can work together to resolve the problem with the city
2. Governing and decision making structure
3. Committee involvement…ribbed mussels, citizen science, data, beach walk through, press etc.
4. Public Outreach
5. Health data collection…if you have gotten sick please, please, please fill out the form – it is super important
6. Goals for the next 3-6 months
7. Plans of action: emails, signs, grants/funding, etc
8. What are we missing? Please let us know if you think we need to address something

It is super important that we all work together, get the word out, and empower each other by sharing our ideas and experiences. We need to work with the city to better understand the problem in order to provide solutions.

Let’s work together to Clean The Creek!

Best,

Rory and Lyndsay

CLEAN THE CREEK HYBIRD MEETING AT SURFARI!

CLEAN THE CREEK

HYBRID MEETING AT SURFARI

THURSDAY, MARCH16TH at 6:30 pm

Bacteria levels (fecal matter) at the Good Harbor Beach Creek are unacceptably high, actually at astoundingly high levels. This is not just a summertime/warm weather issue any longer. Please come to the meeting to learn about how we can all help, short and long term plans to mitigate the issue, how development is impacting the bacteria levels, the wide ranging area from where the bacteria is being emitted (it’s not just “one broken pipe”), and plans to seed Mussels at the Creek.

Rory from Clean the Creek shares information on the upcoming meeting:

Greetings!

Hope everyone is doing well. Christian has kindly opened up Surfari for another hybrid meeting for Clean The Creek next Thursday, March 16, at 6:30pm. There will be a zoom link sent out next week for those that can not make it in person. Hope to see everyone soon!

We are moving ahead and gaining traction. With that said, here is a list of committees that are available to join, including an e-board. If you would like to start your own committee, please reach out and we will incorporate it!

Committee options: community outreach (going to local residents, restaurants, and places like the blue shutters), Graphic design that can create a flyer/yard sign, posting flyers around the city, working with the Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Board (organizations that support Gloucester and its economy), citizen science – finding ways to test the water and maybe partner with a local university/organization, and a group to work on finding grants/working with our local congressmen to find funding.

Next week we will discuss our next steps, continuing public outreach, setting a date for a low tide creek walk through and beach cleanup, finding economic data related to GHB, citizen science opportunities, grants/federal fund updates, and any other information that you want to share. Your experience and opinion is important and we want to hear it!

For those that have gotten sick from swimming or surfing in and around the Creek, we need your help. It has been recommended to collect the details of everyone that has gotten sick in a more formal way. We would greatly appreciate it if you could fill out a form. We will compare the dates of your illness to water data. This form can be anonymous and you will be listed as “anonymous stakeholder”.

Looking forward to Clean The Creek!

Best,

Rory

 

GOOD HARBOR BEACH LOVELY SUNSET OVERLOOKING SARATOGA CREEK

Sunset last night from Good Harbor Beach

SOARING BACTERIA LEVELS AT THE GOOD HARBOR BEACH CREEK = 140 TIMES THE ACCEPTABLE AMMOUNT

Please, whatever you do on your next visit to Good Harbor Beach, please do not go swimming in the Creek and please keep your kids out of the water. Even toe-dipping is not safe!

The City  of Gloucester has been working very hard everyday to find the source of the raw sewage contamination. According to Board of Health Assistant Director Rachel Belisle-Toler, the City has hired an outside engineering firm and are fairly sure the source has been identified. Before they can say for certain, a specific type of rain storm is needed to confirm. When storm drains overflow is the optimal time time to ascertain the source.

The state of Massachusetts’s absolute limit for enterococci bacteria at beaches where people swim is104 CFUs (living colony forming individual bacteria) per 100 milliliters of water. Currently the level is at 14,000 CFUs or approximately 140 times the acceptable level.

From the EPA – Enterococci are indicators of the presence of fecal material in water and, therefore, of the possible presence of disease-causing bacteria, viruses, and protozoa. These pathogens can sicken swimmers and others who use rivers and streams for recreation or eat raw shellfish or fish.

The official name for the Creek is Saratoga Creek. When my kids were little, I never took them swimming at the Creek because it never smelled right to me. As recently as three years ago, there wasn’t any odor coming from the Creek and I let Charlotte swim there. Last year and this have been a different story. The stench was so bad last Sunday, it was almost unbearable. The nose knows!

MAGICAL RAINBOW MOMENT OVER THE GOOD HARBOR BEACH MARSH THIS MORNING #vistahotel #oldnugentfarm

Lovely surprise at Plover Patrol this morning!

WHY IS THE CREEK AT GOOD HARBOR BEACH CLOSED TO SWIMMING AND RECREATION?

Bad times as Good Harbor Creek closed by high bacteria levels

Ipswich Local News

John P. Muldon

GLOUCESTER— The Gloucester Health Department has said that the creek at Good Harbor Beach will stay closed for “the foreseeable future, due to high bacteria levels.”

“The closure is restricted to the creek only; Good Harbor Beach itself remains open and swimming can safely continue,” the department said in an update on Monday afternoon.

Good Harbor Beach and its creek are tested weekly to ensure water quality and safety. Recent testing shows higher-than-safe levels of enterococci bacteria in the creek, which can cause infections, bacteremia, and endocarditis.

“Enterococci are bacteria that live in the intestinal tracts of warm-blooded animals, including humans, and therefore indicate possible contamination of streams and rivers by fecal waste,” according to the federal EPA’s website.

“These pathogens can sicken swimmers and others who use rivers and streams for recreation or eat raw shellfish or fish,” it said.

“Other potential health effects can include diseases of the skin, eyes, ears, and respiratory tract. Eating fish or shellfish harvested from waters with fecal contamination can also result in human illness,” the EPA said.

“Important clinical infections caused by Enterococcus include urinary tract infections, bacteremia, bacterial endocarditis, diverticulitis, meningitis, and spontaneous bacterial peritonitis,” Wikipedia said.

The creek was initially closed for the day — “out of an abundance of caution” — on June 3, then temporarily on June 10 and 11, and was closed for the foreseeable future on June 17, the health department said.

“A preliminary survey of the shoreline upstream from the creek has revealed no obvious signs of pollution,” it added.

The city will sample water upstream to narrow the possible source(s) of the problem. Results will be shared with the state Division of Marine Fisheries, which also conducts sampling in the area due to active seasonal shellfish beds at the north end of Good Harbor.

Signs will be posted along the creek informing the public about the ban.

NO SWIMMING AT THE CREEK!

Due to storm overflow, no swimming at the Creek until further notice.

From Gloucester Beaches –

As a result of the storms that traveled through the area on Wednesday, our weekly test results were not favorable and therefore the creek at Good Harbor Beach is closed to swimming until further notice. We’re optimistic that the next 2 tide cycles will bring the levels back to acceptable. And will reopen as soon as it is safe to do so.

Saratoga Creek, Good Harbor Beach

LOVE IS IN THE AIR – COYOTES IN THE BLUE HOUR

Prior to dawn this morning, two Eastern Coyotes were spotted perusing Saratoga Creek and Good Harbor Beach. They appeared to be a pair; the huskier of the two was definitely the ‘alpha’ Coyote, with the smaller trotting after the larger. Before crossing the Creek, they both stopped to go pooh and pee in a pile of seaweed.

The larger (am assuming a male, but not entirely sure) has a more mottled snout with a black tail tip, while the smaller of the two has a very black snout and no black on its tail tip.