5 Ocean County Beaches Closed After Medical Waste Washes Up

TOMS RIVER, NJ — At least five Ocean County beaches were closed to swimming Wednesday after medical waste washed up, state officials and a report said.

The state Department of Environmental Protection closed beaches from the Normandy Beach section of Brick Township south to the Chadwick Beach section of Toms River, along with Mantoloking's beaches and the Maryland Avenue Beach in Point Pleasant Beach, said Caryn Shinske, a department spokeswoman.

The swimming closures, "out of an abundance of caution to protect public health and visitors," were in response to "various debris, including home-use diabetic-type syringes, washing ashore" on Wednesday morning, Shinske said.

"Based on weather forecasts and modeling, the DEP expects this matter to resolve Thursday (7/15) afternoon," she said.

The closures come days after similar closures affected beaches in Monmouth County on Sunday.

Shinske said "home-use diabetic-type syringes" had washed up at Seven Presidents Park in Long Branch and in Monmouth Beach, with the Joline and Atlantic Avenue beaches in Long Branch and Pavilion Beach in Monmouth Beach closed for the day Sunday.

The beaches reopened Monday morning after extensive cleanup and beach raking, as well as inspections by Monmouth County Health Department staff that found no additional debris on the beaches, she said. Parks and beach patrol staff, as well as lifeguards and members of the Monmouth County Health Department and Monmouth County Regional Health Commission, removed the debris and disposed of it properly, Shinske said.

Shinske said the floatables found in Ocean County and those that washed up Sunday came from outfalls in and around the New York-New Jersey Harbor following what she said are "combined sewer overflows" from the heavy rain that fell in the North Jersey and New York City area on followed by Tropical Storm Elsa.

Combined sewer systems are shared underground piping networks that direct both sewage and stormwater to a central treatment system before being discharged into a waterway. During heavy rainfall, the systems overflow, discharging mixed sewage and stormwater to the waterway.

"The overflows, in addition to wind direction, surface currents and tides, directed the floatables onto the affected beaches," she said.

The beaches that were affected by washups were being raked throughout the day Wednesday and were set to be raked again after high tide, around midnight Wednesday, and again early Thursday morning, Shinske said.

The Ocean County Health Department will inspect the beaches to determine beach status, including swimming, on Thursday morning.

Beach patrols and lifeguards will continue to monitor the situation and notify local health authorities if any additional floatables are found or wash ashore.

Brick Township officials said the township-owned ocean beaches were open Wednesday.

"Brick has been proactive based on the recent events with needles washing up on the beaches," business administrator Joanne Bergin said. "We have used the beach rake and gone up and down the entire length of Brick’s public and private beaches — all 2.6 miles of beach — and completed six passes. We then shifted into foot patrols of lifeguards walking the shoreline looking for any medical waste."

"Ocean County is aware of our efforts and we will continue to keep them informed of our findings," Bergin said.

The closures come days after similar closures affected beaches in Monmouth County on Sunday. Seven Presidents Oceanfront Park in Long Branch was closed Sunday as a result of the washups there, which included syringes.

Shinske said the state's Cooperative Coastal Monitoring Program uses a variety of initiatives to monitor recreational beach water quality from mid-May through September every year.

"Throughout the beach season, the Cooperative Coastal Monitoring Program coordinated by the DEP utilizes the resources of the state, counties, and local governments to regularly sample bathing beaches for bacteria, complemented by DEP aerial monitoring," Shinske said, calling it one of the most successful beach monitoring programs in the country.

Water samples from New Jersey ocean beaches are within the standard more than 99 percent of the time, she said.

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