Something Stinks In South Seaside Park

by Patricia A. Miller

The state Department of Transportation’s massive Route 35 reconstruction project after Superstorm Sandy was supposed to help, not hinder life on the peninsula.

But according to many residents who spoke at the Aug. 24 Township Council meeting, it’s been anything but a help.

First of all is the smell from odors emanating from the pump stations along Route 35. A smell like no other, Roberts Avenue resident James Fulcomer said.

It got so bad residents thought maybe there was a gas leak and asked New Jersey Natural Gas to investigate for leaks. None were found, he said.

“In all the years I’ve lived in my neighborhood, we’ve had no orders,” Fulcomer said. ”I have never experienced so many unpleasant odors.”

Township Councilman James J. Byrnes blasted the state Department of Environmental Protection for not being more proactive dealing with a plume that appeared in Barnegat Bay off 8th Avenue in neighboring Seaside Park and spread quickly to other areas.

“The DEP is supposed to be our protection agency,” Byrnes said. ”I don’t know what part of environmental protection they don’t get. It should be the Department of Fining and Harassment.”

DEP spokesman Bob Considine said the outfalls are sampled on the regular basis, in addition to the routine sampling of the bays each week.

“It’s unfortunate that Mr. Byrnes would make such an unfounded statement when we actually started monitoring the outfalls the moment we were notified of the plume and have done extensive sampling since then on all of the outfalls and nearby beaches since,” Considine said.

“In addition to the work of our Water Monitoring Team, our Compliance and Enforcement team and Land Use inspectors have been working with DOT staff and contractors over the past few weeks to identify and resolve any issues relating to the pipes and connections,” he added.

Byrnes and William McGrath, chairman of the township’s Waterways Committee went out and took samples recently from an outfall pipe near the plume.

“We paid to have our own sampling down,” he said. ”The sample had to be taken from inside the pipe, where the effluent is.”

Byrnes said he had the results last night, but wanted to share them with Township Council members first.

Jamie Fox, commissioner of the state Department of Transportation has said the DEP and Ocean County have both tested the water and found it safe.

Save Barnegat Bay Executive Director Britta Wenzel raised those concerns at a joint hearing in Lavallette of the Senate Environment and Energy and the Assembly Environment and Solid Waste committees, saying the group had taken samples from seven of the nine new pumping stations to test for nitrates, phosphorus , fecal coliform, mercury and lead, according to an NJ.com report on the meeting.

The plume is six blocks long, from just south of the Mathis-Tunney Bridge in Seaside Heights and is just blocks from a children’s swimming beach and the Seaside Park Yacht Club.

The pumping stations, installed along Route 35 from Bay Head to Seaside Park to alleviate flooding problems, are part of $200 million in infrastructure work on the barrier peninsula.

The DEP sampled the water on Thursday, the day after the photo of the plume. The results, which can be found here, show low levels of three primary bacterial, with fecal coliform levels of 16 cfu/100 milliliters, E. coli of less than 3 cfu/100 ml, and 19 cfu/100 ml for Enterococci. Beaches are closed to swimming when the levels of any of those bacteria exceed 104 cfu, according to the Ocean County Health Department.

Wenzel has said she was told the pipes to the pumps were supposed to be watertight and only operate during major storms, but that that has not been the case. Wenzel said the pumps run constantly, including one in town that gushes “like the Niagara Falls.”

“Unfortunately, now if something ends up in the storm drain, it gets immediately pumped into Barnegat Bay,” she said, according to NJ.com. “We need to know that these nine new point sources are not going to damage Barnegat Bay.”

Several residents at last night’s Berkeley Council meeting also complained about flooding problems, which they said have worsened since the Route 35 project began.

“This is the beginning of the end, unless something is done,” one woman said. ”I’m flooding continuously.”

“Go to 20th Avenue on the north side and smell and listen to the groundwater rushing down the street,“ another man said. “On a nice calm evening, you can really smell it.“

Fox has said the DOT’s Route 35 reconstruction project is not yet complete. While the reconstruction of the highway is nearly done, there is ongoing work on the drainage system and pump stations, as well as landscaping that needs to be completed.

“To help reduce runoff pollution to the Barnegat Bay, the new drainage system includes 76 manufactured treatment devices, or MTDs, that separate trash, oils, and sediment out of the water before it flows to the bay,” according to a DOT news release. “This is the first time runoff into the bay will be filtered and cleaned, improving the quality of water discharged into the bay.”

Fox said the DOT investigated the cause of the plume to ensure everything is operating properly and found it was a combination of silt built up in the system from the months of construction activity in the area and silt from the bay floor that was turned up by the force of the water exiting the outfall pipe.

“It is important for everyone to remember that we are still working on the system,” he said. ”As we continue to work on the system, there is a possibility more silt is turned up, but we can ensure that there is no impact to the bay or the public, and that this is not dangerous,” Fox said.

The DOT is now cleaning manholes and pipe joints and applying hydro-cement to ensure there are no leaks in the system, he said.

”Once the pipe sealing is complete, the pumps should run less frequently,“ Fox said. ”The DOT also will be trying to mitigate disturbance of the bay bottom by laying a broken stone/concrete matting on the bay floor.”

Considine has said residents who are interested in the water samples and test results can check the DEP’s Bureau of Marine Water Monitoring website.

Photo credit: James J. Byrnes.