County to Start 2011 Cooperative Coastal Monitering Program

COURT HOUSE – Freeholder Gerald Thornton is pleased to announce that the 2011 Coastal Water Monitoring Program will begin on May 16th and continue through September 5, 2011 in Cape May County. The Health Department, in cooperation with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection is continuing its Cooperative Coastal Monitoring Program. Thornton said, “The monitoring program reaffirms our commitment to the surveillance and protection of the public’s health, coastal environment and natural resources.”
There are a few changes in the monitoring program for the summer of 2011, but the indicator organism, enterococcus, remains the same, which complies with US Environmental Protection Agency’s intent to provide one standard for water quality for all ocean and tidal marine bathing beaches in the United States. The maximum estimated enterococcus bacteria in marine waters shall not exceed 104 per 100ml of sample. Two consecutive counts of 104 per 100ml at a sampling site constitute a closing. Only designated recreational bathing sites are being tested this year. A total of sixty-one (61) ocean and eight (8) Back Bay recreational sites have been selected for weekly monitoring.
The cooperative Ocean Outfall Program will maintain its scheduled eight (8) sampling trips from May through September. This program is dedicated to monitor sewage treatment plant effluent discharge to the Atlantic Ocean from outfalls located one mile off Ocean City, Avalon, and Wildwood Crest.
Algae blooms and waste water incidents such as overflows should immediately be called into the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection hotline number (877) 927-6337 and to the Cape May County Health Department at (609) 465-1209 Monday through Friday, 8:30am to 4:30 p.m. After hours, including weekends and holidays, emergency health services can be accessed through local police departments.
For additional information please contact the Cape May County Health Department Division of Environmental Services, at 465-1209. The public is invited to call the Cape May County Water Quality Hotline at 463-6581. Closings will be on the hotline as well as on the Health Department website at cmchealth.net.