Problem

Beachwood Beach West is a recreational bathing beach in Beachwood Borough, Ocean County. This beach is located on the Toms River and has frequent beach closures due to the exceedance of the recreational bathing beach standard. These closures have been associated with rainfall conditions and the waters of this beach are impacted by as little as 0.1 inch of rain.

Response

• The Bureau conducted a sanitary survey to identify potential sources of pollution, both upstream and downstream of the bathing beach area. Sampling stations were strategically picked to represent potential problem sources identified in the sanitary survey.
• Fourteen (14) stations were sampled over ten (10) sampling events. Samples were collected during dry weather, tide cycles, and intensive wet weather storm events.
• The results identified two nearby storm water outfalls as the main contributors of bacterial pollution at the beach. In addition, it was found that the tidal movement and shoreline configuration held the water near the beach area resulting in a longer duration for closures.
• Beachwood Borough, working with Ocean County, looked at a plan to connect the two outfalls and relocate the discharge away from the beach.
• The Bureau, Beachwood Borough, and the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), conducted a dye test to evaluate the impact to the beach from the existing outfall location. A second dye test was also performed to evaluate what would happen if the outfalls were relocated to the proposed location.
• The dye test results showed that the discharge from the proposed outfall location would reduce the pollution impact at the beach. In addition, it also showed that the shoreline configuration near the existing outfalls held the water near the beach due to an eddy.
• Beachwood Borough conducted video of the sanitary line and two areas of cracks and joint separations were found. Repairs were performed on 7/6/2017.

Outcome

• The outfalls were relocated east of the beach area with funding through the Environmental Infrastructure Trust program.
• There is a reduction in the number of beach closures during rain events that total less than 0.5 inches.
• While closures still occur at this beach, they are often associated with rain events larger than 0.5 inches. This is because other sources along the Toms River still have an impact during these larger storm events. Toms River is still under study to further reduce pollution due to storm water runoff.