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OCEAN COUNTY OFFICIALS TEAM UP TO BATTLE 'BLOB' Date: 040603 From: http://www.app.com/ By Don Bennett, Ocean County Observer Staff Writer, 6/03/04 Toms River - The problem of algae blooms in dead-end lagoons is not new, but it is getting worse, and the Ocean County Board of Health is determined to join the battle to keep nutrients dumped carelessly on lawns, gardens, streets, driveways and sidewalks out of the waterways. Board members agreed yesterday to work with local boards of health and state biologists to try to ease the problem of nonpoint source pollution. County Environmental Health Coordinator Robert Ingenito said he has seen algae blooms like last summer's blob in a Little Egg Harbor lagoon, and this year's slimy mess in one off Bayview Avenue in Berkeley Shores, for 31 years. Nutrients from fertilizers, lawn and pet wastes are washed into the dead-end lagoons through storm sewers, where they accumulate and create "a perfect food source for algae to grow," explained Public Health Coordinator Joseph Przywara. Ingenito said the lagoons are under the jurisdiction of municipalities, and two of them, Little Egg Harbor and Stafford, help clean out lagoons. Dover used to, he said, but he was not sure if that practice is continuing. "They're very difficult to clean up because they (the algae blooms) break up very rapidly," Przywara said. Ingenito said state regulations might be needed on cleaning the lagoons and what design changes can be made to ease the problem. Sen. Robert Singer, R-30th, who chaired yesterday's Board of Health meeting, said bulletins should be sent to local officials on ways to ease the problem once that information is developed. "People who live near the water have to use environmentally friendly chemicals," Singer said, saying that message should be distributed in April, when people begin fertilizing lawns. "It's really a problem. It would be helpful if we could be more vocal on it," said board member Arlyne Rehak. Przywara said it is not only people who live near the water who should limit what they put on their lawns. "It's people away from the water, too. The Toms River starts in New Egypt," he pointed out. "All the new construction all over," is part of the problem, Singer said. So are advertisements for fertilizer promising greener lawns and bigger flowers, which he said encourages people to use too much fertilizer. Combined, he said, the use of fertilizers is "quadrupling" in the county. Warren Wolf asked if the problem was localized or widespread. Ingenito said dead-end lagoons, those far from the flushing action of the bay, are the biggest problems. Those were manmade in the 1950s and 1960s to create more waterfront housing sites from bayfront wetlands. The wetlands were dredged and the muck dredged out of them was piled up to form building lots. Lagoons with good tidal flows do not have the problem, Ingenito said. Those without it are places where whatever is washed in or dumped in the water ferments. "It smells," he said. The depth of the lagoons is a factor, too, Przywara said. The shallow lagoons warm faster and increase the impact of nonpoint source pollution. "We need to develop and make recommendations," Wolf said. Singer said many people who moved here from cities believe what goes into sewer grates is treated before it is discharged. That doesn't happen because the grates are part of the storm-sewer system that empties into the streams that feed the bay. Ingenito said new state stormwater regulations require messages on new storm-sewer grates telling people where the water goes from that grate. Nonpoint source pollution is also the primary target of the Barnegat Bay National Estuary Program, which has developed a program to try to reduce its impact on the entire 660-square-mile watershed. * * * Copyright (c) 1997-2003 IN Jersey
