Jeff Chelgren and his husband Stephen Harrington moved to Lynn, right at the Swampscott border, 30 years ago, hoping to be a part of both communities and enjoy the nearby beaches, especially King’s Beach. They built their lives in the area, renovating their home and choosing to retire there five years ago, because they felt supported by both the town and the city.

Around 25 years ago, Chelgren planted a yew bonsai tree, along with rocks and other vegetation, on a traffic island at the corner of Humphrey Street and Lynn Shore Drive. The tree originally stood only up to about Chelgren’s knee, he said, and now it towers over him. He sponsored a plot of land in Swampscott, like other residents, to spruce up the area and add a touch of themselves to the community.

But now, after more than 25 years of maintaining the spot, Chelgren plans to remove the entire installation on Monday, August 11, and return the space to Swampscott for reassignment to another volunteer.

“I’m looking to do this to draw attention to our narrative because we are being run over time and time again,” Chelgren said. “That’s unfair.”

Chelgren is among a group of residents who have issued a legal notice over noise from the Swampscott-Lynn ultraviolet (UV) treatment project at King’s Beach. The project uses UV light to kill bacteria in the stormwater drainage before it reaches the ocean, ultimately creating a cleaner beach for Swampscott and Lynn residents. 

The water quality issues at King’s Beach date back nearly a century, when Stacey’s Brook, which empties into the beach, was converted into a sewer and stormwater system for both Lynn and Swampscott. In 2023, King’s Beach failed nearly half of its water quality tests, according to Lynn’s website. 

Since June 20, water treated through the UV system has consistently tested at or below 10 colony-forming units per 100 milliliters (cfu/100 ml)—except on June 28, July 24, and July 26.The Massachusetts Department of Public Health specifies that safe waters have at or under 104 bacterial organisms cfu/100 ml.

Meanwhile, water quality tests at Swampscott and Lynn’s Stacey’s Brook have failed more often than not. Swampscott has had more no test days, but in the tested days there have been 21 days over the safety levels out of 41 days. In Lynn, the waters were not safe in 51 out of 54 days tested.

Beachgoers are able to check the bacteria levels at the Department of Public Health’s interactive website. The data is on a 24-hour lag, however. 

At the time of writing, the site lists King’s Beach as closed on the Swampscott side.

For Chelgren and other residents, however, the issue is not the beach getting cleaned but the noise it is causing.

“It’s very sad, but I can’t believe that our belief in these two communities has turned so quickly,” Chelgren said.

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection regulates that no one “shall willfully, negligently, or through failure to provide necessary equipment, service or maintenance…cause, suffer, allow or permit unnecessary emission” of sound. 

A sound is in violation if the source is more than 10 dB above ambient noise.

Some residents – including Chelgren – commissioned a noise study from engineering firm J. & A. Enterprises, which specializes in noise and vibration analysis. The study, which was released on July 24 and later obtained by the Swampscott Tides, measured the area the night prior, on July 23 between 11:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m.

Ambient noise levels were measured at 44.9 dB, largely attributed to wave lapping sounds during high tide. Noise from the UV project, measured on the sidewalk in front of homes across from the plant, ranged from 61 to 65 dB. J. & A. Enterprises called this “far in excess of the allowance of 10 dB above” the ambient noise permitted by the Department of Environmental Protections, equating the noise at the residences to “that of a busy industrial site.”

Lynn Communications and Strategic Initiatives Manager Valerie Vong previously told the Swampscott Tides that officials have “worked closely with neighbors to communicate about the project, involve them wherever possible, and address their concerns.” She also called the  claims of illegal air pollution “simply not true,” suggesting that the generator meets Tier 4 emission standards, established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The EPA Tier 4 emission standard, however, focuses on reducing pollutants like nitrogen oxides and other particulate matter. Its primary goal is not sound regulations.

“These last four, five months have really changed my opinion about what kind of communities we’re living in,” Chelgren said. 

The group in charge of the UV project “used the manufacturer’s specifications and the project team’s experience with this type of equipment for planning purposes,” according to Vong. She added that her team has “raised the fences surrounding the generator and added additional sound barriers.”

Chelgren said he feels town and city officials are dismissing residents’ concerns, offering “half stories” about fencing and sound blankets while ignoring the elevated noise levels.

In addition, months prior to the start of the pilot project, engineering consultant Kleinfelder noted in a report that there are low-risk noise concerns due to the fact that the “equipment exceeds noise requirements for Swampscott and Lynn,” according to a letter obtained by the Swampscott Tides. Kleinfelder suggested to mitigate the concerns by using “electric pumps instead of diesel to reduce noise” as well as the possibility of creating “sound attenuation barriers around [the] generator and pumps to meet noise requirements.”

“They knew this was in violation, and they willingly subjected us and our neighbors here to a violation with potential health effects,” Chelgren said. “It’s a known violation.”

Vong shared that the diesel generator was not the first choice for the project, but “National Grid was not able to fulfill our request of connecting electric power to the area of the project.” 

On Monday, August 4, Chelgren said he was able to have his doors open to allow in the summer air for the first time — because the UV project is currently turned off as a new generator is installed.

“My husband and I even talked about selling the house and moving, just because we’re so upset,” Chelgren said. “We built what we consider to be a beautiful home in what we consider to be a beautiful area in what we used to consider to be very wonderful communities, the latter part has changed.”