New clues surfaced this week to the mysterious series of on-again, off-again swimming closures at public beaches that have plagued the Vineyard, when the Edgartown health agent sent water samples to two different labs for testing — and saw different results.
Health agent Matt Poole sent water samples from South Beach in Edgartown to both the Wampanoag Tribe lab in Aquinnah and the Tisbury town lab. The samples sent to Tisbury came back clean, while the samples sent to Aquinnah showed unacceptable levels of enterococcus bacteria, the same bacteria that has forced a series of state-mandated beach closures in West Tisbury, Oak Bluffs and this week Chilmark.
As a control, sometimes called a trip blank, Mr. Poole also sent samples of Poland Spring water to each lab. The sample of commercial bottled water came back from the Tisbury lab clean, but the same sample sent to the Aquinnah lab tested out with unacceptable levels of enterococcus bacteria.
Mr. Poole said the results strongly suggest human error. He consulted with state officials about his test results and was told he could record the Tisbury lab results for his town. If he had used the Aquinnah lab results South Beach in Edgartown would have been closed.
“We’ve been unable to make sense of the results on the Island,” Mr. Poole said. “For there to be pollution there needs to be a source. It doesn’t just mysteriously appear.”
In Aquinnah, Wampanoag natural resources manager Bret Stearns defended the work of the water testing laboratory.
“We have really strict standard operating procedures that we follow,” he said. “If there was a difference in the results it was a difference in the samples. We do split samples all the time, the lab has proficiency tests — we do what we do well. Why the samples came in different I don’t know.”
Five of the six Vineyard towns use the Aquinnah lab, whose services are supported by state funding and free to the towns. Only Tisbury, which has its own lab at its sewage treatment plant, does not test in Aquinnah. No beaches have been closed in Tisbury this summer.
Oak Bluffs and West Tisbury are a different story. In Oak Bluffs four beaches were closed this week, while West Tisbury has had to close several beaches in the past two weeks. On Thursday Chilmark was forced to close Squibnocket Beach when water tests came back showing too much bacteria.
At press time yesterday Inkwell Beach in Oak Bluffs had reopened while Pay Beach, Eastville Beach and Madeiros Cove on the Lagoon remained closed.
In West Tisbury all beaches were open again, including the main town beach at Lambert’s Cove and The Trustees of Reservations beach at Long Point Wildlife Refuge.
Mr. Poole said he has not had to close a beach in Edgartown for years and as a result took precautionary measures by sending out samples to two different labs.
“The results for the beaches were in the same ballpark but they straddled the line between acceptable and unacceptable,” Mr. Poole said. “We all agree that they were not radically different results; however with me it made the difference between having to open or close the beach. The trip blank coming back with a low count but a count nonetheless was problematic.”
Wampanoag laboratory manager Kendra Newick downplayed the varied test results for Edgartown, noting that bottled water is not an ideal control.
“It’s up to those guys how they take the samples, we just ask that they’re sterile,” she said. “We ask people not to use bottled water. Bottled water and sterile water are two different things, and bottled water can’t be used as a reliable trip blank.
“We know on our end that the lab bottles and every piece of equipment are sterile. We do quality control every single day. Enterococcus is a grouping bacteria. You won’t get the same results from lab to lab.”
West Tisbury health agent John Powers said he believed the recent contamination at Lambert’s Cove, which was closed all last weekend, could be a result of fresh water pouring out of a recent breach at James Pond.
“It’s essentially a stagnant dead pond with lots of bird droppings,” he said. “Once it flushes the salinity changes and becomes like ocean water. When it flushed, we’re not quite sure.”
Mr. Powers said he does not believe sampling errors were to blame for the high readings.
“There wasn’t any indication that there was something wrong with the testing,” he said.
An isolated handful of beachgoers complained of illnesses contracted from the water.
On Tuesday two residents complained to the Oak Bluffs selectmen about symptoms developed after swimming at town beaches. Billie Hancock of Chilmark said she was swimming with a friend at Inkwell Beach who complaining of itching and nausea. Amy Billings said her mother developed a rash on her ankles after kayaking at Madeiros Cove.
High levels of enterococcus can be dangerous to young children, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems.
Meanwhile, on Thursday all 13 beaches in and around Boston Harbor were open while four on the Vineyard remained closed.
And as a summer heat wave moved in from the Midwest and temperatures climbed well into the 80s, vacationers and Islanders flocked to the beach.
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