Bridgeport's Seaside Park beach just received a D grade for water quality — its worst ranking in over two decades of testing. The beach had to be shut down multiple times last summer because of dangerous bacteria levels. This summer, residents are paying nothing to get in while out-of-state visitors pay up to $100 — but nobody should be swimming in water this contaminated at any price.

The problem is not a mystery. Bridgeport runs on a combined sewer system — antiquated pipes that funnel both storm water and sewage through the same lines. When it rains heavily, that system is permitted to discharge partially treated sewage directly into Long Island Sound. The same storms that bring families to the beach are the ones flushing waste into the water they swim in.

Two-thirds of Bridgeport's sewer system has been upgraded so far — but that is not enough, and it is not fast enough. The city's West Side treatment plant upgrade doesn't even begin until this summer, with the East Side plant to follow after that.

Seaside Park is one of Bridgeport's greatest public assets. Families, children, and residents deserve to swim in clean water — not bacteria-contaminated runoff from parking lots and aging sewage pipes.

We're calling on the City of Bridgeport and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to accelerate sewer infrastructure upgrades and make clean water at Seaside Park a guaranteed reality — not a lucky exception.