See How Greenwich Beaches Rank with State Closings

On the eve of the holiday weekend with hordes of people headed to the beach to cool off, Save the Sound, a program of Connecticut Fund for the Environment, released the findings of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s 2011 Testing the Waters report.

This annual report examines national water quality and beach closings data for 2010, breaking down the information state-by-state and beach-by-beach. This year, Connecticut saw an increase in beach closings and advisories in 2010 to 143, a 32 percent increase from 2009.

Greenwich's Byram Beach was listed as a Tier 3 beach because the number of closures last season - 7. Island Beach was closed twice, and Great Captain's Island and Greenwich Point beaches, once each.

Environmental Services Director Michael Long of the Greenwich Health Department explained that Byram Beach is a cove that has less tidal action than the town's other three beaches, has a marina and there's a 48-inch storm sewer line near the marina. All of that coupled with a sudden downpour create a situation for beach closings.

Long explained the process of deciding when Greenwich beaches are closed. The beaches are tested on a regular basis and each have a  graduating rainfall scale on which closures are based. (Please view video for explanation.)

Also attached is the report which compares beach closures on a county-by-county basis throughout Connecticut.

Here is an explanation of how water testing is conducted:

Monitoring practices at coastal beaches are the responsibility of local health authorities (for municipal beaches) and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (CT DEP) (for state park beaches), who follow state guidelines that samples be taken in water that is 3-4 feet deep, 12-18 inches below the surface. Beaches are assigned to tiers at the end of every bathing season. These tier assignments are not related to extent of beach use or potential for beachwater contamination, but are instead assigned on the basis of the sampling frequency reported by local health departments and the CT DEP for their respective beaches and the number of beach closing events for those beaches.  Beaches that were sampled weekly and had no more than one closure event during the previous swim season are assigned Tier 1 status, beaches that were sampled weekly and had two or three closure events during the previous swim season are assigned Tier 2 status, and beaches that were not sampled weekly or that had more than three closure events during the previous swim season are assigned Tier 3 status. Sampling frequency and the number of monitoring station locations at a beach are not assigned based on beach tier.

Editor's  note: this story has been updated to include description of the 48-inch sewer line handles stormwater runoff.