Bar Harbor to take part in beach monitoring

BAR HARBOR – Having decided in recent years not to fully engage in the Maine Healthy Beaches program, the local town council voted unanimously Tuesday in favor of participating in the organization’s pollution monitoring and notification system.

Bar Harbor, a popular tourist destination for Mainers and people from out of state, owns two publicly accessible beaches, one by the downtown pier and another at Hadley Point.

In recent years Bar Harbor has helped provide funding to Mount Desert Island Water Quality Coalition, which has monitored Bar Harbor’s beaches and others on the island for bacteria that can make people sick.

At Tuesday’s council meeting Jane Disney, the coalition’s executive director, convinced the council that the town should fully participate in the Maine Healthy Beaches program by posting signs that will indicate when beaches are safe for water activities and when there might be a pollution issue.

“Without a town ordinance, you can never close a beach,” Disney told the board. “If we had a [pollution] issue, someone would have to post the advisory.”

Readings of pollution on the beaches seem to correlate to public use, according to Disney. People walking their dogs or people feeding birds may contribute to high contamination readings in the water, she said. When the public beach by the pier was closed last year due to retaining wall construction, she said, readings were low compared to other years when the beach has been open.

Disney said results are now available within 24 hours of water samples being taken and that over the past three years there have been no readings high enough at the downtown beach to warrant an advisory being posted. The main benefit to posting signs, which would be paid for by Maine Healthy Beaches, would be to educate the public and perhaps change their behavior when using beaches, she said.

The signs most likely would be acquired and erected in time for the 2007 summer tourist season.

According to Town Manager Dana Reed, Bar Harbor has always been responsive to pollution issues at its beaches but has not publicly posted information about possible contamination because the information was dated. In the past it has taken a day or more to process water samples and to confirm the presence of contaminants, by which time the pollution would have decreased to acceptable levels, he has said. Because of the delay, by the time an advisory would have been posted the detected pollution event would have come and gone.

Two years ago, Bar Harbor was labeled along with Kennebunkport as a “beach bum” by Natural Resources Defense Council for not posting warnings at its beaches when pollution issues arose. Reed defended Bar Harbor at the time, saying the label was a “bad rap” and that the town always has sought to resolve any pollution issues.

In a related matter, Disney asked the council to allow the town’s marine resources committee to apply for a grant for restoring eelgrass growth in Eastern Bay off Hadley Point. The council voted 7-0 in support of the request.