|
Stormwater Management Increasingly Vital Issue For Shore Region
By Bill McLaughlin
Stormwater management is hardly a headline-grabbing issue for our times, but according to some, one that increasingly merits our attention.
At the bi-monthly Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders pre-board meeting July 11, the subject came up in a discussion
of the rising costs of keeping
the Shore's top natural resources - Barnegat Bay and the Atlantic
Ocean - pollution free.
Freeholder Gerry Little illustrated the lack of public awareness of how and why stormwater drains should be kept free of trash.
"A highly-intelligent high schoolaged friend of my son took a drink from a plastic bottle and tossed it in the storm drain," Little said.
The freeholder asked why he did that and the teen replied that rain water would carry the bottle
to a recycling plant.
"That told me a lot," Little said. "How little education is being done
if an intelligent young man - an honor student at a public high school which shall remain nameless - like this doesn't know that our storm water drains filter right out to the bay and ocean."
Little said he had a similar experience a few years ago at a pocket park in Surf City, where dog owners would pick up after their pets then dump the waste in the storm drain.
"And sadly, they think they're doing the right thing," Little said.
"We really need to make some PSAs (public service announcements) and put shows on Comcast and on radio to tell people what to do," said Freeholder Director John P. Kelly. "We can make a difference."
Freeholder James F. Lacey introduced the subject as an update on rain runoff management for his board colleagues. Lacey said the aim was to keep the waterways pollution free. He said ways to prevent leachates from spilling into the estuary were being discussed, including planting English gardens, rain garden basins and other means of controlling chemical runoff.
"Stormwater management is the No. 1 issue when we talk to (Ocean County) mayors every year," Lacey said. "(The cost) of this particular issue has overwhelmed all others."
As Ocean County engineer Ronald Lotrecchio and road supervisor Stephen Childers displayed trucks that would be used in leachate runoff prevention, Kelly made an observation on the cost of such vehicles.
"In my little town (Eagleswood), where a $12,000 expenditure is a big deal," he said, "(paying) $300,000 for a truck that you would use two times a year is a very big deal. It doesn't make sense."
Freeholder John C. Bartlett Jr. said he was skeptical of generally accepted statements about the amount and cause of leachates into local waters.
"I would like to see the scientific evidence of nitrogen loading in the bay," Bartlett said. Most soils have runoff from soils. We have a very sandy soil here. You rarely see fertilizer in the street. (What is put on a lawn) goes straight down into the ground. It seems evident to me we're not having runoff into the bay."
Bartlett said he doubts the science that says chemicals used to cultivate a healthy lawn could be a large part of the pollution afflicting
Barnegat Bay.
"Lawns often times are blamed," he said, "and I'm not sure that's the case."
Joseph H. Vicari said he thought certain weather phenomena might be the exception that proves the rule.
"Long-duration storms," Vicari said, "which scour the land could cause nitrogen runoff. That and grass clippings."
Lacey said the problem of migratory birds such as Canada geese, which have adopted the New Jersey wetlands as home all year long, share some of the blame.
In the end, the freeholders agreed on an educational program explaining why people should not use storm water drains as garbage receptacles or rake, sweep or blow grass clippings and leaves into the rainwater drains.
| 
