Earth Protect Blog

Two New Jersey legislators held a press conference in Belmar last week to underscore the importance of improved water quality testing to make ocean waters safer for swimmers.

Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-6th District) and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), who coauthored the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act (BEACH Act) 11 years ago, held a press conference Aug. 17 at Taylor Pavilion to promote new legislation that would strengthen standards set in the original bill.

“The truth is, as good as the BEACH Act is, we can do even better,” Lautenberg said about the Clean Coastal Environment and Public Health Act he and Pallone will introduce in Congress.

“Our new bill will protect the current level of federal grant funding to strengthen local protection programs.

“The bill will also streamline a warning system so that the public can get timely warnings for when contamination occurs,” he added. “This will push EPA [Environmental ProtectionAgency] to come up with quicker safety testing methods.” Pallone said the new legislation he and Lautenberg will introduce in Congress would reauthorize the original bill with expanded provisions, including mandating a speedier response in closing beaches.

“Right now if you test for the ocean water quality, you don’t get the results for 24 hours,” he said. “We want more rapid testing, certainly no more than six hours, which is what’s in the bill.

“If it is contaminated, we want to close the beach sooner so people don’t get sick.”

Pallone also said that the bill would require any organization that receives grant money for water testing to create a public online database.

He also said the bill would create a pollution source tracker so that funds could be targeted to try to prevent water pollution.

Lautenberg, a member of the Senate Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard, explained what the original bill accomplished.

“This landmark bill was passed 11 years ago and turned the tide,” he said. “Thanks to the BEACH Act, every coastal state in the country, with the exception of Alaska, adopted water quality standards and established a monitoring and notification program.”

Lautenberg said that as important as the original act was, it is now time to strengthen the bill.

According to Pallone, who is a member of the House Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs, if the bill becomes law, it would empower members of the public.

“I call this a right-to-know bill; in other words, individual residents will be empowered if they know information about pollution,” he said.

He said that in 2010 there were more than 24,000 beach closures throughout the country, an increase from 2009.

Pallone said that the new bill would ultimately give more responsibility to the EPA.

Lautenberg said that there are some Republicans who want to weaken funding to the EPA and even eliminate it.

Clean Ocean Action Executive Director Cindy Zipf said at the press conference that the heavy rain onAug. 14 caused beach closures across the state, but not soon enough.

“This deluge we had over the weekend caused at least 30 [instances of ocean contamination in excess of safety standards] but they took over 24 hours to determine,” she said.

She credited the original BEACH Act with requiring water testing, noting that prior to the bill’s passage, New Jersey was the only state testing for water quality.

In June, beach activists released the National Resources Defense Council beach report, which ranked New Jersey second in the country for clean beaches in 2010.

According to the NRDC, an environmental action group, only 2 percent of the water samples at beaches in New Jersey exceeded the national standards for water that is safe to swim in.

The sampling season runs from mid- May to mid-September. Sampling is done by local or county health departments, which select monitoring stations.

In 2010 there were 109 closures or advisories issued throughout the state, including 17 in Monmouth County.

Lautenberg said that the shore area is a crucial resource, which makes the bill even more important.

“We cannot take this vital resource for granted,” he said. “All 127 miles of our beautiful coastline must be protected from waste and pollution.

“Our precious waters add life and enjoyment to citizens and districts, and a day at the beach should never turn into a day at the doctor’s.”

Pallone was late to the press conference because he said he was stuck in traffic, which he said is a positive sign for the shore economy.

“The reason I was late was because there was so much traffic,” he said. “That’s a good thing because one of the shining stars in this economy is tourism, and most of that is based at the Shore.

“The fact that a lot of people are coming down is a good thing, and the only way it is going to continue is if we have clean beaches,” he added.

Zipf said that because of the water quality mandates, government has more of a desire to find the root of the pollution problems.

“Because of the closures, there was the economic incentive to find the sources and address those sources,” she said. “There is nothing like a beach closure to shock a town into action.”

Surfrider Foundation Northeast Regional Manager John Weber also spoke at the press conference and called the bill “tax money well spent.”

He said that he is excited about some of the discussions ongoing about mitigating ocean pollution.

“Even though the funding levels are going to remain the same, now we are hearing serious talk about the solution to these problems, especially storm-water runoff,” Weber said. “We are hearing people talk about low-impact development ordinances.

“We are hearing people talk about green roofs over our heads and rain barrels and state- and county-run storm-water utilities,” he added. “Most people had never heard of these terms 11 years ago and now they are seriously talking about policy changes.”

In New Jersey, it currently takes two days of water sampling in order to make a decision on whether bacterial content is too high to allow swimming and an advisory or closing notice is issued.

Enterococcus bacteria is an indicator of sewage and waste in the water, and the sampling threshold level indicates 20 out of a thousand swimmers would become ill due to the presence of that amount of bacteria in the water, COA staff scientist Heather Saffert explained previously. If bacteria levels exceed the single sample standard, the beach water is resampled immediately. If the second sample exceeds the standard, the beach is closed.

Contact Kenny Walter at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .