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Ocean Outfalls Close Waters.to Shellfishing

(From Page!) Ag*in v the word may Some of the back bay waters between Ocean City and the mainland which are currently cloaed to shellfishing mpy be upgraded once the new MCA plant has bhen in operation and the backbay outfalls from Uie old treatment 'facility are no longer a source of possible pollution However, one of the individuals who had a hand iff mapping the new offshore ' closure area told the newspaper late last week that once the most obvious soufce of potential shellfish contamination is.removed 'that js. the old backbay outfalls), it mdy be determined that other ■ possible sources of pollution remain •OSCK A TRKATMENT outfall would be eliminated, we have to look at storm water runoff where the street drains go. and how much of an impact they have after, say. a half inch or quarter-inch of rainfall;' commented Bill Swoninen, prin cipal environmental specialist with ’the Estate Bureau of Shellfish Control

“We don’t know how much impact they buld have once the treatment plant outfall is gone. There might be a masking ef fept or a compounding effect.” tccorSing to Mr. Swoninen, whose Job it is I to monitor ocean shellfish growing witere between Sandy Hook and Cape May. discharges from boats and marinas injthe backbay areas may also prevent the rkbay waters from being opened to •llfish harvesting even after backbay effldent from old treatment plants is eliminated. URINO HIS EXPLANATION to the spaper of what goes into the classificatiffri of shellfish waters, the environmental ialist emphasized the degree of uncertainty about favorable reclassification of thJv backbay waters: "Once they [the treatment plant backbay outfalls] are climm-'itcd, then hopefully—and I have tb that in quotes—hopefully the areas thty [formerly] discharged into can be .'lassificd." Closure of the .offshore waters im-

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tely north and south of the MUA outin Ocean City came about even before 'the plant began operations because the state—using criteria established by the federal government-assumes that any sewage effluent, regardless of how well U is treated, is a possible source of cmu lamination to shellfish. And because of Ow nature of the beast, the government takes no chances when it comes to shellfish contamination. As explained by Mr. Swoninen last Friday and confirmed Monday by Louis Lamanna, the county’s public health coorN dinator, shellfish have the Ability to concentrate contaminants, whether it be bacteria, viruses, heavy metals or petroleum by-products. Mussels have the greatest ability to concentrate contaminants. followed to a somewhat lesser degree by other shellfish including oysters IT IS BECAUSE OF its ability to concentrate by upwards of ito-fold that .shellfish are so closely monitored and theii: growing waters classified. And even the possibility of a source of contamination results in a shellfish closure order going into effect ."We have to make the closure before the plant [goes oiT line). So that means we have to make some assumptions." Mr. Swoninen said, explaining that once a treatment plant becomes operational the reliability of the plant becomes a factor. He acknowledged that in first establishing the shellfish closure area around a new outfall, the government is purpdsely conservative. . "If anything, we do make [the closure area] on. the larger size because we are dealing with public health, and if we're going to err, let’s err on the larger size," he said, noting that once a new plant is'dberational. "it might take a couple of yeare of data gathering—bacteriological data and goyig thru the plant and following thru with their records—to see how the plant is operating." AND WHILE HE acknowledged that closure areas can sometimes be reduced, the state environmentalist also pointed out a couple of factors which often preclude any significant reduction. "We have found, in some instances, that we were able to reduce the closure [cut] sometimes there’s not too much we can do, because one of the things we have to be able to do is to delineate a closure area. And out in the ocean, we just can’t put big long stakes saying This Area Condemned. We nave to have something that a clammer is reasonably able to follow, like a water tank or a pier or something predominate that’s hopefully on a nautical chart that someone can follow.” That’s one factor; the other is, again, the nature of the beast—in this case machinery, not shellfish: "THERE ISN’T A PLANT around, nothingfnechancial—no matter what kind of backup units or fail-safe units you have, something will go wrong: It usually does," Later Mr. Swoninen—who holds a plant operator's license and has been involved with the operations of a 100 million gallon per day treatment facility—reiterated it has been his experience that when it comes to machinery, one must expect something to go wrong eventaully. The Cape May Cpunty MUA is more opt imistic. and its chief engineer believes the shellfish closure area off Ocean Cfty,will be reduced once the state has the opportunity to monitor actual operations and effluent. According to Charles Norkis, chief MUA engineer, the state is indeed "very conservative" in its closures but later has reduced by as much as one-half closures initially imposed om treatment plants with ocean outfalls in Ocean and Atlantic counties * "And we expect the same treatment," Mr. Norkis said Monday. IT ISN’T KNOWN at this time the exact size or delineation of the shellfish closure

areas which will, be imposed once the remaining MUA treatment plants and outfalls come on line later in this decade. Three other regional facilities are planned: A 3 miliiongallon per day (mgd) facility '' serving the Cape Mays which may, depen dihg upon government mandates, either . tie into the WildwoOd/Lower MUA system or discharge Irtto Delaware Bay via the current outfall pipe at the foot of Sunset Blvd..r& 14 mgd plant serving the Wildwoods and portions of Lower' Township (unless the state, following its possible decision regarding the Cape May outfall, allows the Lower Township MUA to maintain its existing Delaware Bay outfall in Coxe Hall Creek) with an ocean outfall on th<l JVildwood Crest-Lower Township botmdary line near Diamond Beach . . .a 7.8 mgd plant serving the 7-mile Beach/Middle twp. area with an ocean outfall at the foot of Avalon Blvd. ACCORDING TO MR. NORKIS. the * ' MUA engineer, the length of the oce&n outfalls of the subsequent MUA treatment plants won’t be quite as long as in Ocean City because the offshore, is somewhat steeper along the mid- and southern 0or- , tions of the county's shore' line. Nonetheless, each of the outfalls (with the possible exception of the Cape May outfall if permitted in Delaware Bay) wjH be upwards of a mile offshore. Mr. Norkis said the st^te may decide it doesn’t want the existing Cape May outfall to extend too far 'into Delaware Bay because 6( possible adverse effects effluent from an extended pipe might have on the shellfish beds in the bay off Cumberland County.' One thing is definite: Any ocean outfall will result—at least initially—in a shellfish closure, the state emphasizes. %fniE NEW MUA PLANT in Ocean City has a 6.3 mgd capacity. Like this first » plant, the’remaining MUA facilities will, according to MUA engineer Norkis, b& engineered to have a 100 to l dilution ratio at the outfall—meaning the ability of the receiving ocean waters to 1 : dilute the treated effluent by the ratio of 100:1. There are a number of factors which determine the size of the offshore shellfish closifre area—dilution ratio, length of outfall. direction and. velocity, of ocean currents, bottom profile, landmarks, etc. It appears there will be at least several more thousand ocean acres plated off limits once the other treatment plants become operational,— given the size of the Ocean City closure and the similarities of the MUA facilities yet to be constructed in the mid and southern sections of the tyEXACT FIGURES ON the size of the backbay areas currently condemned for shellfishing weren't available at press time this week. According to a source in Trenton, thousands upon thousands of estuarine acres are involved. And a source at the County Planning Board said that with the exception of a couple small sections of which are open, and some others which are available only during the offseason (when pollution from the increased summer populace is absent) — most of the waters between the resort islands and mainland are closed to,shellfish harvesting. » The question now becomes: will the new MUA system — despite its relatively advanced degree of treatment — end up adding to'the condemned waters? Noted the state environmental specialist: "...we’re not realty spttiking of actual pollution. We’ve found that for the most part, the regional systems have been very efficient, the times that we have tested them...Even though we find very, very low levels of bacteria in the outfall Vicinity, we’re still bound to keep the closure. It’s based on their potential moreso than their actual..."

A PORTION OF the MUA’s Ocean City treatment plant last October before it became operational. The multi-million dollar facility provides advanced secondary treatment of waatewater*