Clean Water In the News

Stormwater swamped New Jersey beaches with pollutants last year, causing a slight increase in closures and swimmers' advisories, according to an environmental report released yesterday.

And the trend has continued, with runoff after rain contributing to nearly all of the 55 ocean and bay closures so far in 2008.

The National Resource Defense Council's 18th annual beach quality report found 142 closures in the state in 2007, up from 134 in 2006, even as the number declined nationally.

Most came from pet waste, pesticides, fertilizers, oil, litter, raw sewage and other pollutants washed over paved surfaces and into storm drains.

"We're making Barnegat Bay the state's largest detention basin," said Doug O'Malley, field director for the nonprofit Environment New Jersey. "Developers are loving the Shore to death."

Fortunately, said Nancy Stoner, director of NRDC's clean water project, almost all of New Jersey's closures were "preemptive, as opposed to waiting for test results that are out of date. That's a very good practice."

Culture-based water samples generally take 24 hours to yield results, by which time swimmers can be infected by viruses or bacteria, she said.

Swimming in contaminated water can cause ear, nose and eye infections; skin rashes, and stomach, respiratory and intestinal ailments. For the old and young and those with weakened immune systems, the illnesses can be fatal.

Environmental groups have called for same-day testing. The state Department of Environment Protection and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are piloting "rapid testing" this summer in Monmouth County.

Elaine Makatura, DEP spokeswoman, said New Jersey was proud of its cooperative coastal monitoring program, which is among the first in the nation. The agency does the testing, and communities decide whether and when to close their beaches.

Stoner advised checking Web sites before heading to the beach and looking for posted warnings at lifeguard stands.

"If there is any doubt, or the water smells bad or looks dirty, stay out of it," she said.

Nationally, water at 131 of the 3,500 beaches included in the report failed to meet safety standards for swimming 25 percent of the times they were sampled.

Among repeat offenders were five in New Jersey: at the Hancock testing station in Seaside Heights, Maxon and the River station in Point Pleasant, Beachwood Beach West in Beachwood, and Money Island in Toms River, all in central or northern Ocean County.

The number of closing and advisory days due to sewage spills and overflows more than tripled nationally from 2006 to 2007, largely due to outmoded systems built in the 19th and early 20th centuries. But the largest known source of pollution was stormwater, which caused more than 10,000 closing and advisory days.

So far this year, New Jersey's ocean beaches have been closed 28 times due to pollution from rain runoff and once because of a sewage spill, according to the DEP. Bay beaches have been shut once because of fuel spill, seven times for rain runoff, and 18 times because of high bacteria after intense rainfall.

Solutions included redesigning medians and road berms to filter water, Stoner said.

"You need to change how development is done," she said. "It's easiest to do it the first time, but you can redo a lot of individual measures in the built environment."

To read "Testing the Waters: A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches," go to http://go.philly.com/waters. Information on New Jersey DEP beach monitoring is at http://go.philly.com/njbeach.