2024 Beach Season Water Quality Report Card
South Boston Beaches’ Water Once Again Ranked Among the Safest for Beachgoers in the Country
Wollaston Beach continues to rank among the most improved beaches in Massachusetts
(BOSTON, MA) June 16, 2025 – In the 2024 Beach Season Water Quality Report Card by Save the Harbor/Save the Bay, the data has shown that South Boston’s beaches remain the cleanest urban beaches in the country. Pleasure Bay and City Point each maintained a perfect 100% safety rating, and Nantasket, M Street and Carson Beaches received high grades as usual.
Meanwhile, Wollaston Beach in Quincy continued to perform well, scoring 88% for the third year in a row after improving their stormwater and sewer systems over the past several years.
"It is no surprise to us that so many of these spectacular Boston area beaches continue to be some of the cleanest urban beaches in the country,” said Save the Harbor/Save the Bay Executive Director Chris Mancini. “That’s the power of strong science, dedicated advocacy and community organizing.”
"Through decades of smart policies and investment in critical infrastructure, our beaches continue to remain safe, clean spaces for gathering and enjoyment," said Senator Brendan Crighton, Co-Chair of the Metropolitan Beaches Commission. "With the acceleration of climate change and growing threats to this environmental progress, we must double down on that commitment to ensure our beaches remain resilient, equitable spaces for everyone.”
“As a Commission, we are incredibly grateful to DCR for its commitment to maintaining a rigorous testing system for our swimming beaches, and to Save the Harbor for continuing to provide this terrific resource,” said Rep. Adrian Madaro, Co-Chair of the Metropolitan Beaches Commission. “The Report Card has been a great tool to show the great overall quality here in Massachusetts and I hope it will give people the confidence to get out and enjoy our spectacular state beaches.”
The 2024 Beach Season Water Quality Report Card uses data collected by the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) to assess water quality at public beaches from Nahant to Nantasket including Lynn, Nahant, Revere, Winthrop, East Boston, South Boston, Dorchester, Quincy, and Hull (see table below).
Though most of the region’s beaches performed consistent with expectations, Save the Harbor did note a dramatic drop at Savin Hill in Dorchester, and a low rating for Nahant Beach, typically one of the region’s cleanest beaches.
“Nahant Beach and Savin Hill are historically clean beaches,” said Mancini. “In an effort to understand what is happening at Nahant Beach, we are partnering with DCR, Save King’s Beach and Northeastern University to collect daily samples this summer. We hope the additional data will indicate either that there is a declining trend at this beach – possibly due to warming ocean temperatures or a new source of contamination – or that it’s simply coincidental variability due to the timing of the weekly test. The latter is the likely cause of the Savin Hill decline, as it is adjacent to Malibu Beach and typically performs as well as that location.”
“At DCR we're committed to ensuring that all Massachusetts residents have access to clean water for recreation and that our beaches are welcoming spaces that provide a safe and fun environment to cool down for rising summer temperatures," said DCR Commissioner Brian Arrigo. “DCR performs water quality testing throughout the summer at all our waterfronts, and we work with our partners at the Department of Public Health to inform the public of these results on our park alerts page and their water quality dashboard. Despite the rainfall so far this year, diligent water quality testing has shown that our beaches remain safe places for families and residents to recreate. We urge all beachgoers to wait 24 hours after heavy rainfall before hitting the water, to keep their animals away from waterfronts, and to monitor DCR’s park alerts webpage for any impacts to their favorite swimming locations.”
Aside from these exceptions, beachgoers can choose from 12 other reliably clean beaches, most of which are accessible by public transportation.
Currently the beaches use a posting and flagging system to alert the public to high bacteria levels. Unfortunately, the best technology available takes 24 hours to return results, meaning by the time the posting goes up, the information is already out of date. Save the Harbor recommends people get familiar with their beach’s individual characteristics by using Department of Public Health’s interactive beach water quality website.
Save the Harbor/Save the Bay thanks Dr. Judy Pederson, former Chair of their Beaches Science Advisory Committee, Bruce Berman, former Director of Strategy & Communications at Save the Harbor/Save the Bay, and Kelly Coughlin of Stony Brook Partners for their guidance in developing the methodology used in this report.
The organization commends Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Ron Mariano, Metropolitan Beaches Commission Co-Chairs Senator Brendan Crighton of Lynn and Rep. Adrian Madaro of East Boston, and each of the legislative and community members of the Commission for their commitment to clean water and the region’s public beaches from Nahant to Nantasket.
They also thank the Healey/Driscoll Administration, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, The Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
This work is supported by JetBlue, the Richard M. Saltonstall Charitable Foundation, The Barr Foundation, and The Rose Family Foundation.