10 H Herald & Lantern 27 June '84

Pollution Cited v | Swimming Banned at Cox Hall

' By E.J. DUFFY • / TOWN BANK — Lower Township residents will find out today that Cox Hall Creek and its sewer discharge into the Delaware Bay are severely polluted. Mayor-elect Robert Fothergill was notified Monday morning when, "the i county i Board of Health .called Me." rej questing the township. post the bayfront beach to warn against bathing near the ^ outfall. "As soon as I can. I'll have signs made .. ." he said. "No reason we can't get 'em up in the next 48 hours." According to Charles Chabot. operator of the Lower Township Municipal Utilities Authority sewage treatment plant at the headwaters of Cox Hall Creek, bacteria contamination is "probably worse" at the bayfront outfall than farther upstream County Health Department officials singled out the creek for an extensive special study earlier this month when they measured bacteria contamination from human waste off the creek at 926 MPN • most probable number) on June 4. Fifty MPN is considered the maximum safe level on the state water quality scale. CKKKK WATER TESTED at 110 MPN on June 12 and last week exceeded the scale peak of 2.400 MPN. according to Health Department figures. Although county health officials last \ week asked several municipalities to post \ warnings near bathing beaches where I sewer outfalls are located. <see related | story) Lower Township was not among — ) therp. apparently because the bayfront at the Cox Hall Creek discharge pipe is not regarded as a bathing beach. "In all the years I've been going there and sampled there, I've never seen that." Clay Sutton, county environmental program administrator, said of bathing near the outfall. Nevertheless, township residents and their summer guests do swim and play nearby , children also play and crab along the banks of Cox Hall Creek and its tributaries. Despite the lack of specific county notice to the township until Monday. Sutton's superior, county Health Officer Louis J Lamanna. said then that posting sewer

• outfalls should be standard annual procedure. "All outfall lines should be posted ; that's always been our policy." he explained "They should be posted a quarter mile on either side of the outfall." COUNTY HEALTH OFFICIALS ask municipalities to take on that chore Sutton noted, because "we don't have signs and we don't have the manpower." , This time last year, however, those of ficials banned bathing in Avalon's back, bay after they recorded excessive bacteria levels from human waste near the borough's sewage treatment plant outfall Outgoing Lower Mayor Peggie Beibcrbach said Monday that she did not recall past Health Department requests to post the Cox Hall Creek outfall. "I know that last year they never told" us ft should be posted." she said. High bacteria concentrations in Cox Hall Creek (which courses west between North Cape May, Town Bank and Fishing Creek on its south bank and Cape May Beach and Villas on the north) flourished when recent hot weather spawned their growth in the shallow waters fed by the MUA plant, and perhaps, less treated sources. That also has spawned an odor which some of the MUA's neighbors blame on its plant off Bayshore Road, Villas. The MUA. county Health Department and .state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) fielded complaints about the odor wppk •THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG there." said Wade Dickinson, who lives and operates a business near the plant. He said the odor has been a problem "off and on since March. » "We can't even sleep at night." he griped "We have to close all the windows. It's really bad. "It makes you half sick [p your : stomach." Dickinson added, nothing that MUA officials "said when they built this thing (plant), it was supposed to, be odorless. j "It's either overtaxedC they're putting too much into it or it's not treated proper ly." he continued. "We've questioned them a couple of times and they < MUA officials) say it's the (low atmospheric) ceiling ... but I don't buy that."

If 1 had any visitors come over and I fed them a meal, they d probably throw up," Dickinson complained. * Calling local stench the result of a "ther rnal overturn that causes decaying material to surface from lagoons bottom along Cox Hall Creek. Chabot ol the local' MUA. said Friday. "You can't really say it's "the odor problem) from here 'the sewage treatment pjant i " LEAKING SEPTIC tanks trom nearby , homes, blockages and wildlife could be contributing to 'the* creek's pollution pro iilem. he added ^Treated discharge from the plant to the creek is probably cleaner jjian the creek water. Chabot said I He. Lamanna and Nicholas DeMeoof the DEP agreed that the plant s discharge I jneets state water quality standards But. DeMeo said Monday, "we can't have these ^dor complaints." £ DeMeo serves as supervisor of the compliance monitoring unit for DEP's Water "Quality Enforcement Bureau. He suspects • -that "polishing lagoons" along Cox Hall f Creek, where MUA discharges collect, jspiay be inadequately ventilated by under ] water air pipes, at least along the edges With hot weather, some pretty nasty ' stuff "kicks up." causing the objectionable ipdor. DeMeo said. One of the MUA's i fblowers, which pumps air into the underwater pipes, had been out of action. DeMeo added, compounding the problem "They did have a legitimate complaint. "

he said of Dickinson and others suffering with the odor. CH ABOT DID NOT mention the disabled blower when asked if there were some way the MUA could combqt the odor Friday "I wish there were something we could do ^ about it," he said then. "The only thing that is going to help us is time " DeMeo said Monday his department will, probably investigate the MUA site soon and determine if a more extensive underwater air treatment system should be installed. "This is going to be costly." he < predicted Since he isn't an engineer, he said he "wants to make damn sure what I recommend" .corrects the odor problem "We've been talking about that for a while now." Chabot said of a better under water air treatment system. The cost, however, may be prohibitive, he added. Anyway, in 1986. the township MUA is supposed to connect the sewage treatment plant to the county MUA system, with out falls from the Atlantic coast. "What we'll probably have to do is ... run a pipe to them." Chabot continued. DeMeo said his office will be looking for a solution to the odor problem in the meantime. But. he added. "I don't know how soon." the DEP come up with one. "We will keep an eye on it to make sure the public health and welfare are jiot being jeopardized." he said. ; — '

Optimists Sponsor New Club

ERMA — The Octagon Club of the Lower Cape May Regional High School held its first official meeting just before school closed for the summer. The club is the first of its kind in South Jersey and is sponsored by the Lower Cape Optimist Club. Present to speak to- the young people at their first meeting were Carl Baker. It. governor. Zone 7. and Jim Kelly, president of Lower Cape Optimist. Both men thanked the youth for their enthusiasm and dedication which brought them to a covered dish supper in the midst of final exams and graduation activities. DI KING THE meeting

the club's President. Brady Bonner, noted club plans to meet regularly during the school year and its goal to conduct ftftd and tag drives , for the needy at Thanksgiving and Christmas time as well as holding social meetings or outings for themselves. The officers of the Octagon Club are: Bonner, president; Mark Halbrunner. vice president; Ken Brown, secretary ; Betsy Craig, treasurer. Advisors for the Club are Wayne Mazurek and Virginia Svard. Kelly stated that the formation of an Octagon Club in the area was one of his goals as president of Lower Cape Optimist and that

with the help of Warren { i Garretson and high school principal Alan Beattie it | i has become a reality. "WE PLAN to have the young people attend our annual picnic during the summer and get to know our members." he noted - 1 "We want to help and en- g, courage them all we can / since they have done i something that hasn't been achieved in areas of the state with larger clubs and larger schools. There are only four other Octagon Clubs in the state." The Lower Cape Octagon i Club will receive its charter at the first meeting in the fall when school reopens.

NEW OCTAGON CLUB — Jim Kelly, left, president of Lower Cape Optimist Club welcomes newly formed Lower Cape Octagon Club into Optimist family. Holding banner are advisors Virginia Svard and J. Wayne Mazurek, and Octagon president Brad} Bonner.

|News DigeSt ' Krom Pane I

~~y i. Simple Solution

Board Breaks Tie WILDWOOD — Members of the resort r school board voted 6-1 with two absentions last week to dump Gregory Tracey as high school basketball coach. Although the team finished the season with a 19-7 win-loss record, Tracey has been criticized for twice insisting players vote on whether he should continue as : coach following a 72-66 loss to Hammonton High School in January. Both votes tied at 6-6. Problems, Problems WOODBINE — A couple dozen 1 residents last week told Borough Council | taxes are too high and summer garbage | collection too infrequent The borough £ has a small municipal budget, but few • ratables Council members said the cost of solid waste disposal is one reason for high taxes, but doubling trash collection I from once a week to twice could be done Water Requested COURT HOUSE - There were 149 signatures on a petition presented Township Committee last week requesting water mains be installed to an area where water contamination from a toxic dump in Swainton is feared Residents said their homes were worth nothing because of fears of contamination from the chemical dump site ZVeic HDC Head CAPE MAY — Contractor Frank Kohler Jr. replaced Herbert Kramer on the Historic District Commission last week. A staunch preservationist, Kramer has served as chairman since 1980. He was notified by Mayor Arthur Blomkvest that he would not be reappointed to the commission, however HDC vice - ' chairman Herman Hirsh may succeed Kramer as chairman.

WILDWOOD - When State Police told city drivers to cover loads of trash they've been hauling up the Garden State Parkway to the new county landfill in Woodbine, workers decided to cover the loads with sand until a $108 tarp that's been ordered arrives. The city, however, has been paying $22.75-$26.25 a ton in landfill tipping fees and the sand cover added to the weight and cost — as much as $2,000 a week, according to city Public Works Director Richard Harmon. Zapped OCEAN C Y — Resort police and Atlantic Electric offices were flooded with calls Thursday from AE customers who lost power after lightning arresters on a substation transformer failed around 4 a m Police manned major intersections to ease the traffic tie-ups caused by signal failures. More than 7,000 AE customers were affected by the power loss Repair crews restored power to 982 homes before 8 a.m. Full power resumed by 9:30 a m License Denied WILDWOOD — Based on the arrest last year of its manager, city council voted Friday against renewing the mercantile license for California East, a teenage nightclub License holder pale Lalwani told fcity officials h<&new nothing about the arrest of club manager Ronald J Walker in October. He was charged with a variety of offenses, including allowing unauthorized consumption of alchohol. when police allegedly seized two kegs of beer Fatal Accident OCEAN CITY — John McNieholl, 74, of W. 18th Street died of internal injuries Friday in Shore Memorial Hospital after he was hit by a van while crossing West Avenue around 9: 15 p.m. Thursday. McNieholl was walking east when struck by the northbound van driven by Robert Bare, 55, of Lancaster, Pa., according to resort police. - j ' /