Around Atsion And Other Things

[Teegate]

All,

We headed to Atsion to again look for the Hugh Phillips monument along the tracks but came up empty. I have narrowed it down but may have to wait until fall. While in the area I made a new Then And Now photo with help from the Batsto Citizens Gazette.

The 1960's or early 70's most likely, and today.

http://teegate.njpinebarrens.com/09172011/Clinker_Slag.jpg

I also checked out the Mullica near Atsion Lake and found this pretty interesting view on the river

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke4i8KTsT1g

A few other things not quite related to the pines. Have you ever bought corn on Route 70 at the Eckert stand near the Red and Green Top Farm Markets? I stop there all the time and today apparently the male owner was there. I asked where the farm actually was and he told me it is the field on Carranza Road just past the feed store if you are heading from Tabernacle towards Carranza. I would assume that is here.

http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.83638756190501&lng=-74.70610857009888&z=17&type=h&gpx=

And he told me when he was a kid in High School his family owned the feed store property and raised cattle there.

And have you ever changed your gas filter in your car or had it changed? Maybe you should if your car has a fair amount of miles. We did this today after arriving home.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ0eBIWefjo

Guy

 

[Boyd]

That's a lot of foam! After the hurricane, there was some similar looking foam at spots along the creek out back here, but not nearly that much. What do you think causes that? A mixture of mud and phosphates from fertilizer runoff possibly?

 

[Gibby]

This link has information about foam in the environment. The end of page two and most of page three is interesting.

http://www.dec.state.ak.us/water/acwa/pdfs/fy05_arri_foamfactsheet.pdf

 

[Teegate]

This was just downstream from the canoe launch in Atsion, and when we got to the canoe launch there was plenty more coming down. We could see it hitting the large accumulation downstream and I suspect by the end of today that foam length will be really long.

Guy

 

[bobpbx]

Guy, if you zoom out from the corn fields, you'll note two things....one is that area is a MAJOR headwater source for the Batsto River. Secondly, you'll note why we are seeing more and more non-native plants along the Batsto. That area is polluting the Batsto with fertilizers, and probably pesticides.

 

[Teegate]

That has been going on for 100 years in Tabernacle. I don't see how we can stop it if we want to eat.

Guy

 

[Boyd]

That article was a good read, but since the study was done in Alaska I wonder how applicable it would be here? When I bought a house on Atsion Rd near the Medford Twp line in 2003, I remember that phosphates were the only thing that tested a little high in the well water.

 

[Pan]

I like that then and now photo. That wee tree in the left foreground has now grown up.

Yow, I never saw foam like that down there! There used to be a tiny bit around the edges sometimes, but I never saw anything even remotely like that. I think that maybe John McPhee's statement that all the Pine Barren river water is pure and potable might not hold true any more.

Holy smoke - some quicksand!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ncdZvc2u-I&feature=related

 

[ecampbell]

That feed store is called Allen's, we shop there often. In the back where the feed is stored is a cement floor and stalls where the cows were milked. I like getting up close to the silo's, they are big and have light ports in them. I bought hay from Lester Eckert back in the 70's, it was lousy hay. His house is just south ofAllen's.
Was that filter clogged from Wa Wa gas?

All,

A few other things not quite related to the pines. Have you ever bought corn on Route 70 at the Eckert stand near the Red and Green Top Farm Markets? I stop there all the time and today apparently the male owner was there. I asked where the farm actually was and he told me it is the field on Carranza Road just past the feed store if you are heading from Tabernacle towards Carranza. I would assume that is here.

http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.83638756190501&lng=-74.70610857009888&z=17&type=h&gpx=

And he told me when he was a kid in High School his family owned the feed store property and raised cattle there.

And have you ever changed your gas filter in your car or had it changed? Maybe you should if your car has a fair amount of miles. We did this today after arriving home.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ0eBIWefjo

Guy

 

[Teegate]

Was that filter clogged from Wa Wa gas?

I have never bought gas at WaWa. That is just general dirt collected from gas over the years. I worked at a Sunoco gas station for 4 years and watched Sunoco's maintenance men come every few months and siphon the water and sludge from the bottom of the tanks. They usually got about 2 or three gallons every time. I suspect the gas stations today do not do this as often and this starts to accumulate. If you see a gas truck filling the tanks at a station never buy gas there for a day. The gas going in stirs up the sediment and it get pumped in your car. Obviously, we all get gas right after a truck has left because we didn't see it, so changing the filter more often is a good practice.

Guy

 

[manumuskin]

The Maurice was really foamed up from the dam at union lake way down below the 49 bridge.The kids asked me what the foam?was it pollution.I told them no,actually the river was made outta root beer and the foam was the head.
My kids are in their twenties and only one of em believed me,the dittzy one.On the other hand I got all of my grandkids

 

[Boyd]

There is frequently a LOT of foam below the Lenape Lake dam in Mays Landing. It looks like a washing machine with too much soap. I have wondered whether this is caused by detergent from household wastewater or fertilizer from the Blueberry fields upstream?

 

[pinelandpaddler]

I thought the foam was mostly made up of iron oxide. Is that not the case?

 

[Gibby]

A simple test can be your nose. If the foam smells fishy or musky than it is origins are organic.. If it has a sweet fragrance then it is caused by detergents. However even though the foam may be organic, the blooms (algae,etc.) that caused it could be the result of fertilizer run off.

 

[MarkBNJ]

Wow, that's a lot of foam. I've seen it pack up along the edges under the trees here and there on the Mullica, the Batsto, and the Oswego, but never anything like that. Has to be related to the heavy runoff from Irene and Lee and the general wetness of the last few weeks. I'd love to know whether it is agricultural or natural. I've always assumed it is caused by fertilizer (which is getting spread on a lot of lawns this month, though that probably doesn't affect these rivers much).

When McPhee stated that all the rivers rose in the barrens and flowed out of them, and were thus pure, were the woods bigger? I thought some of these places around the headwaters have been farmed since long before his time. Makes me wonder whether he ever could have backed that statement up. He might have been indulging in a little poetic license.

Bob, great video of you, um, probing that hole.

 

[bobpbx]

I thought the foam was mostly made up of iron oxide. Is that not the case?

In this case, as the streams overflowed, they picked up all the dead plant matter adjacent to the creeks. This can cause foam.

Source: http://www.dec.state.ak.us/water/acwa/pdfs/fy05_arri_foamfactsheet.pdf

Somewhere I read that Sweet Pepper Bush releases a lot of organic surfacants....but I never researched it.

 

[manumuskin]

and sweet pepperbush fills the swampslove that august smell

 

[Pan]

Wow, that's a lot of foam. I've seen it pack up along the edges under the trees here and there on the Mullica, the Batsto, and the Oswego, but never anything like that. Has to be related to the heavy runoff from Irene and Lee and the general wetness of the last few weeks. I'd love to know whether it is agricultural or natural. I've always assumed it is caused by fertilizer (which is getting spread on a lot of lawns this month, though that probably doesn't affect these rivers much).

When McPhee stated that all the rivers rose in the barrens and flowed out of them, and were thus pure, were the woods bigger? I thought some of these places around the headwaters have been farmed since long before his time. Makes me wonder whether he ever could have backed that statement up. He might have been indulging in a little poetic license.
...

I've wondered about that myself, and even back in the days when I'd haunt those woods - the 70's mostly - the little bit of foam I saw and seeing the biplanes spraying fertilizer or bug spray or whatever it is on the cranberry bogs (and one memorable time on me!) made me hesitate to drink the tea-colored water.

 

[woodswench]

Hello! (First post here). I see that foam at the canoe landing across from Atsion Lake in both winter and summer. I've always wondered what it was from. It sure is funky looking, but I sit in the water there and my dogs swim there, and I've never been afraid of it. Should I be?

 

[Teegate]

Welcome!

Guy