On a warm and dry summer day in Massachusetts, nearly 65 beaches across the state were closed, primarily due to bacteria in the water, according to the state’s publicly available water quality dashboard. In all, 63 beaches were closed as of the 12:30 p.m.
update to the dashboard on Tuesday. The closures spanned from Amherst to Worcester to Boston to beaches on Cape Cod. Of the 63 beaches closed in the state as of Tuesday afternoon, most were attributed to an excess of bacteria in the water.
The remaining closures were attributed to harmful cyanobacteria blooms, sewer system overflows and simply “other” reasons. Some beaches, like Puffers Pond in Amherst, listed multiple reasons for their closure. In Amherst, Stanley Street swimming hole was closed due to excess bacteria on Tuesday, one of the reasons listed for the closure of Puffers Pond.
The dashboard also listed Springfield’s Bass Pond is closed, with a harmful cyanobacteria bloom listed as the culprit. A total of four Worcester beaches were closed Tuesday afternoon — Indian Lake Public Beach, Lake Park Beach, Point Beach and Shore Park — with cyanobacteria blooms blamed for the closures at both Indian Lake and Shore Park. In the eastern part of the state, one beach in Boston — Tenean Beach in Dorchester — was closed on Tuesday.
The single city or town with the most beaches shuttered as of Tuesday was Salem, where the dashboard listed eight beaches as closed. On the Cape, Longnook Beach in Truro was closed — and may remain closed the entire summer — due to safety concerns from eroding cliffs. On Nantucket, Sesachaca Pond was closed due to a cyanobacteria bloom on Tuesday.
“If a beach is closed, do not swim or enter the water at that location to avoid risk of illness,” the dashboard warns. More News The dashboard is updated twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, and shows the results of recent water quality tests at beaches across the state. More than 1,100 public and semi-public beaches in the state are regularly monitored.
And despite the closures, state officials say the beaches are still perfectly safe for recreational activities aside from swimming. The full list of closures is below. If you can’t see the chart, click here .
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