State DEP: Twice Monthly Water Testing of Barnegat Bay Next Step In Solving Its Problems

The Barnegat Bay watershed’s water quality and stream flow is now under constant monitoring by a partnership of agencies, under a new program discussed yesterday, in an attempt to reverse decades of impact on the major body of water.

Water quality monitoring is taking place twice a month at 13 locations on tributaries to the bay and 14 locations within the Barnegat Bay, according to the State Department of Environmental Protection.

The program, which began in June, is called the Barnegat Bay Water Quality Monitoring Network, and is part of an initiative to create stronger water quality standards for the bay. The focus is on creating ambient water quality monitoring network, officials said.

Testers from such places as Monmouth University, Barnegat Bay Partnership and Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Sciences at Ocean County Vocational Technical Schools  are also monitoring stream flow at the 13 tributary locations.

State Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin stopped along the bayfront of Waretown, the same town where more than six month’s ago Gov. Chris Christie signed legislation referred to as the Barnegat Bay 10-point plan.

Among the issues Martin addressed to the journalists and representatives of the water quality team at the press conference is the necessity of compiling data on water quality.

The tests monitor factors such as salinity, oxygenation, depth of the bay and its temperature.

“As we all know the Barnegat Bay has been dying over the last 50 years. We know that the water quality has gone down and the shellfish population has been going down,” Martin said. “Part of what we’re doing here is to look at the water quality.”

Martin also touched on how the plan with point out pollution going into the bay and how to “look at the water across the board.”

A majority of the water testing is sent to a wide array of testing institutions. Depending on what the test is for a sample can be sent to any lab or can be tested with the DEP’s new mobile testing lab. The water being tested goes to a few other locations throughout the state.

“The samples are rushed to staging areas at the DEP's Forest Resource Education Center in Jackson or the DEP's Bureau of Marine Water Monitoring in Leeds Point. The samples are then tested at Leeds Point, the Ocean County Utilities Authority or an Environmental Protection Agency laboratory in Edison,” according to the press release.

Dr. John Wnek, Supervisor of the Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Sciences. Wnek spoke at the press conference as a representative of the education center and as coordinator of the MATES program, which is a marine and environmental sciences program through Ocean County Vocational Schools.

Dr. Wnek had two former students of the MATES program that have tested water quality in the Barnegat Bay. Joe Conbery and Danielle Clancy were in attendance to speak about their work on water quality testing. Their focus was storm water quality monitoring, said Conbery: “We usually test the water in storms and in our baseline sampling.”

Jill Lipoti, the Director of the Division of Water Monitoring and Standards, urged the public to check out the interactive map of which tributaries and monitoring sites are the focus of the program.

“I think the public is going to be happy to learn what we are doing,” said Lipoti. “Hopefully they visit or website, click on the interactive map and say ‘Hey, I live there and this is what they are monitoring.’”

Lipoti is referring to a map of the Barnegat Bay were viewers can monitor the progress of the water testing. You can view the map here: http://www.nj.gov/dep/barnegatbay/plan-wqstandards.htm  

Martin’s main goal at the event was to raise awareness about a new water-testing program instituted by the Christie Administration, a 10-point comprehensive restoration plan for Barnegat Bay that was launched in December.

The commissioner, who spoke about the plan to clean up the water, led a team of journalists and program coordinators to two spots on the property, Lighthouse Camp in Waretown, which is a state-owned environmental center on the bay encompassing 194 acres.  The first stop was to address the attendees about the new incentive program and to display a new mobile water-testing unit equipped to test water’s quality on location. Martin then addressed the media on a dock where he spoke to the water testing team.

"The data collected by this network will provide the foundation for the development of appropriate water quality standards for the bay. At the same time, this research will enable us to focus policies and resources to make sure that we are addressing the complex problems the bay faces as effectively and quickly as possible,” Martin said in a prepared statement.