Newburyport Waters Affected by Overflow in the Merrimack River Upstream

The Eagle Tribune recently reported that Newburyport beaches opened back up after have being closed for nearly two weeks due to upstream sewer runoffs into the Merrimack River that were caused by overworked sewer systems. 

Water quality had been an issue since late August when the tail end of Irene hit the region and caused flooding and overwhelmed sewer systems. Water collection systems take in storm water and sewage and when the system is overloaded, a pipe that leads into the river funnels the excess out of the system.  With this happening all along the Merrimack, Newburyport waters have seen increasing levels of bacteria.

Although the recent overflow has caused issues in Newburyport, Eric Worrall, deputy regional director of the northeast region of the DEP, says that the systems have improved and are working towards addition improvements.

"Improvements have been made, and the number of times that overflows have occurred has gone down. Collectively between $100 million and $150 million have been spent (by communities upstream), on improvements. It's just that this is a big problem, a complex problem."

Read the entire Eagle Tribune article.