Long Beach Island Bay Beach Under Swimming Ban

SURF CITY, NJ — A swimming ban is in place for Surf City's bay beach after water tests showed high levels of bacteria, state officials said.

The bayfront beach at 16th Street in Surf City showed bacteria levels exceeding the maximum allowable level of enterococci, a bacteria that lives in the intestinal tract of animals, in Monday's test, and a retest on Tuesday of two samples found elevated levels in one sample, leading to the swimming ban.

The level in Monday's sample was 110 colonies per milliliter of water, just exceeding the maximum of 104 colonies, the state Department of Environmental Protection said. Tuesday's samples had 120 colonies in one, and 10 in the second, the DEP said.

Enterococci are typically not considered harmful to humans, but their presence in the environment may indicate that other disease-causing agents such as viruses, bacteria, and protozoa may also be present, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

There have been a handful of advisories at the beach over the five years, including three weeks in August 2017 where high levels led to swimming bans.

Any initial sample that exceeds the water quality standard requires that the local health agency issue a swimming advisory at the bathing beach where the sample was collected. Swimming advisories warn the public of potentially unhealthy water conditions. Additional sampling is conducted until water quality results are again within the standard.

The DEP test water samples from beaches on the bays and the ocean every Monday from May through September.

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