By JOSEPH KELLARD
"Of course it's disappointing," said resident Barbara Boulton, who over decades has watched her cousins, children and grandchildren compete in these races for kids, ages 4 to 14, held on or around Labor Day weekend since the 1930s. "You feel bad for the kids who were in swimming classes and look forward to the races. But these things happen."
What happened is that once rainfall exceeds an inch-and-a-half, as it did on Aug. 25, the Health Department closes county beaches as a precautionary measure, and conducts a series of standard tests on the storm water runoff that empties into bay or beach waters from street drains and basins. This street drain water can carry anything from oil, gas and other automobile byproducts, to fertilizers, pesticides and bird droppings, all of which can elevate bacteria levels. The tests look for any number of disease-carrying pathogens from E. coli to fecal coliform and enteroccus.
If and when the tests come up negative for bacteria, the beaches are usually reopened within 24 hours of their closing. "There's been more laboratory testing for several years now, but it hasn't necessarily resulted in more beach closings," said Cynthia Brown, a spokeswoman for the Nassau County Department of Health.
Nevertheless, due to the above-average rainfall this summer, the county has closed its South and North Shore beaches more frequently in 2006. But Island Park Mayor Jim Ruzicka said that closing the beach in Island Park about three times this summer is not unusual. "The rain on most days just hasn't come up enough to the inch-and-a-half amount of rain fall," Ruzicka said.
"Historically, these are the beaches where, in the past, there have been problems, especially after rain," said Brown, who stressed that the beach closings are strictly precautionary. " Š We haven't found higher levels of bacteria."
According to the Bureau of Environmental Sanitation, a division of the Department of Health, there have been no outbreaks of disease in the county due to bathing water quality in 30 years.
The Labor Day races were canceled for the first time since the 1990s. This, in part, was due to other factors, including the tide flow and a concert and fireworks display the following Sept. 2 weekend.
"We sometimes schedule the Labor Day races a week before the holiday weekend so we could have the kids swim with the tides, like we did this year, but then it got rained out," Ruzicka said, noting that the village also had to set up for the concert on the beach and for the fireworks display on the main dock this Saturday evening.
Boulton said that she and others will suggest that the races be held even earlier next year, so that there can be more than one weekend rain date.
Moreover, beach closings don't affect revenue from the Masone Beach, since the village only sells summer-long beach passes.
"We don't really make a lot of revenue off the beach anyway," Ruzicka said, "because we keep the cost minimal."
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
