Residents are warned to “avoid contact” with the waters of the Nahant Bay and King’s Beach for 48 hours. 

The town put out a notification Wednesday advising residents that “due to heavy rainfall…the overflow consists, or likely consists, of untreated or partially treated sewage and waste.” 

Stacey’s Brook flows into the beach. It was converted into a combined sewer and stormwater system serving both Lynn and Swampscott. Issues have persisted since 189, and until this year, King’s Beach ranked as the second-most polluted beach in Massachusetts.

In 1985, Lynn invested $65 million into a wastewater treatment facility and worked to ensure no sewer-to-storm drain connections continued to empty into King’s Beach. Similarly, Swampscott has moved forward with its source elimination work, with the projected investment of $10 million over several years to repair and line sewer mains and service laterals to prevent sewage from entering the storm drains and emptying into Stacey’s Brook culvert.

As of the notification, the combined sewer overflow discharge has ceased.