jg )r Herald & Lantern 25 July '84

Off Cox Hall Creek 1 100 Protest Bacteria -

By E.J. DUFFY ' x

TOWN BANK j- More than 100 Lower Township residents protested "excessive bacteria levels" in Cox Hall Creek with a petition to Gov. Thomas Kean lasLWeek. Citing an attached copy of The Lantern's June 27 edition, Robert C. ,,Ackroyd of Glenwood Place, author of the petition's cover letter to Kean, noted that bacteria levels exceeding the state water quality standard of 50 MPN (most probable number) have recently been recorded off the creek that flows from its Fishing Creek headquarters to the Delaware Bay outfall here.

If 50 MPN.is considered the maximum safe level, then samples tested, that range from 110 to 2,400 MPN, surely represent a significant problem," Ackroyd wrote the governor. Since early June, the county Health Department has tested ocean and bay waters for the presence of human fecal coliform bacteria. The Lantern has published the results of those tests weekly in a chart listing the readings from the bay waters off Cox Hall Creek and from about 130 other county sites. LATEST TEST RESULTS from July 16-17 show the human waste bacteria level at 17 MPN off the creek. But those figures are published in this week's issue and were not available to Ackroyd and his fellow petitioners (from Villas, Towns Bank, North Cape May and Cape May Beach)

before their protest was mailed to the governor. The Health Department has stressed that one reading is not meaningful. but trends are. Testers recorded 350 MPN of the creek July 9-10, according to county Health Department reports ; they reported only 5 MPN there July 2-3. In late June, waters off the cfeek tested above the scale peak of 2,400 MPN, and in mid-June at 110. (Bay water, sampled July 2-3 off the Wildwood Avenue jetty in Highland Beach, tested at 79 and 926 on July 9-10. The sampling site is a mile and a 'half north of the Cox Hall Creek outfall.) "I've been a resident for 38 years and its the first time I knew it was a problem," Ackroyd said of Lantern reports about Cox { Hall Creek contamination. He wants those responsible for taking care of the problem v

• r "to clean it upf" Ackroyd regards an odor problem at the« Township Municipal Utilities Authority's Villas plant along Cox Hall Creek as "a symptom of -a 'potentially serious health hazard " Referrig to the June 27 lantern. Ackroyd informed Kean that the paper suggested certain state, county and local officials "are not aware of the extensive use of this (Town Bank) beach area for bathing and recreational purposes The Lantern had reported that county health officials adtfisedv several municipalities last month to post sewage outfalls so bathers would be warning against swimming near them. Cox Hall Creek's outfall was added to the countyposting list after this paper questioned its commission in light of the high bacteria tradings recorded there. Clay C. Sutton; county environmental program administrator, said he never saw any bathers near the creek outfall. He asked Mayor Robert Fothergill to post it. The major ordered warning signs. He said they would be erected as early as June 27. Louis Lamanna, county health officer, iaid last month that posting outfalls is /standard procedure but former Mayor ( Peggie Bieberbach said she didn't recall tany notice to post the creek outfall last \year. Sutton said the county asks municipalities to take on the posting task because the Health Department has neither the signs nor manpower. Besides bathing along the bayfront beach by the creek's outfall, children play and fish along its banks; a playground is located nearby. Last month. Wade Dickinson, who lives and operates a business near the MUA plant, griped that odors from it have been a problem "off and on since March." "WE CAN'T EVEN SLEEP at night We have to close all the^ windows It's really bad." he added then "It makes you half sick to your stomach "It's either over taxed, "they're putting---*" too much into it or it's not treated properly." he said of the sewage treatment plant "They did have a legitimate complaint." conceded Nicholas DeMeo. supervisor of the state Department of Environmental Protection's compliance monitoring unit According to DeMeo. Lemanna and MUA officials, the plant s discharge into Cox Hall Creek meets state water quality standards DeMeo said he suspects that shallow "polishing lagoons, where plant discharges collect along the creek, may be inadequately ventilated by underwater air pipes With hot weather, some pretty nastv stiff "kicks up causing the stench. DeMeo said. One of the MUA's blowers, which pumps air into the subsurface pipes, was out of action, compounding the problem at the time of the odor complaints, he noted Leaking septic tanks from nearby homes, blockages and wildlife could be contribution to the pollution problem, according to Charles Chabot. operator of the MUA plant. / JOSEPH ROOF. Mlk CONSULTANT.

agreed: "The true story is that all of the pollutants in Cox Hall Creek are not from the plant." " We've got to have an answer in the very near future," he said of MUA proposals to end the odor^ He said he expected the MUA engineers to provide that answer during the ahthorijgfs Aug. 8 meeting. The latest search for an answer stems from a recent meeting with DEP officials about the odore. "We met with members of the (former) township tommittee, offering to cooperated with the township engineer . . ." Roop continued, referring to drainage into the lagoons around Cox Hall Creek. "We've gotten no where with that so far. " Among the possible answers the MUA has been considering. Roop explained, are sewage discharge on land instead of into the creek, or a direct pipeline to the bay. "IT'S ALW AYS BEEN A PROBLEM - Cox Hall," he said, predicting the creek would still show evidence of bacteria pollution if the MUA switched to land discharge of its treated waste. "It's (juite a big problem and it's not all ours."' In his cover letter to the governor. Ackroyd wrote: "We find the situation totally unacceptable and wish to urge t*vnship officials to take immediate ac tion to correct this deplorable condition "Lack of attention now will create a more serious problem in the future," the petitioner added. Copies of the petition, letter and The Lantern news report on Cox Hall Creek were sent to Congressman William J Hughes, state Sen. James R. Hurley, MUA chairman Robert Lepor, Fothergill. Lemanna. Freeholder Gerald Thornton and othefs. Lemanna has not returned Lantern phone calls for more than a week However, his superior, Thornton said Fri day that creek pollutipn "has been a problem over the years. ""FM SURE THEY'LL TRY to correct it." he added, referring to MUA*pX£icials "We report it (pollution) to theHocal Board of Health and the MUA," Thornton added, noting that those agencies'— not the county — are obligated to correct it Paul Wolcott. assistant press secretary to the governor, said Kean's office apparently had not received the petition packet by Monday. Fothergill said he hadn't received his copy Friday. f "We can certainly express our displeasure too." the Mayor added. "But there isn't a lot we (township council) can do except* write a (complaint) letter as well." Ackroyd and the other petitioners don't particularly care who bears or assumes responsibility for cleaning up Cox Hall Creek They're upset that they've only recently found out about contamination near their bathing beach, fish spots and a playground. "I'm not an engineer," Ackroyd concluded. depending on professionals to solve the pollution problem. "I'm just waiting for their response. " / W

Overpasses Possible

( From Page 1 ) guess we've been making enough noise," he told the board. THE TRUST FUND contains $62.5 million to reconstruct two-lane North Wildwood Boulevard into a four-lane highway, a 4.2-mile project that includes two new bridges. A public hearing is slated at a place to be announced from 3 to 8 p.m. on Aug. 22. according to John McCarthy, DOT traffic engineer for the county. The project is supposed to go to bid by the fall of 1986 and he completed late in 1988. Jarmer told the board that the Transportation Plan also will include improvements on Route 9, 47, 50 and 52. McCarthy said the Route 47 work includes making it four lanes from Railroad Avenue to 5th Street, the traffic light at Starns Shop Rite in Rio Grande, a project Middle Township has been urging THE OVERPASS construction would be the last of a three-phase program with much of the earlier work the responsibility of the county and Middle Township. The proposal Phase One would require closing with oil-de-sacs, Brighton Road to Stone HarbonBoUlevard, and following streets now&onnecting to (SK parkway: Third Avenue (both sides), Locust Lane (west side)/ Colonial Avenue (both sides). Pacific Avenue (west side), Atlantic / Avenue (both sides), and Bennett Road (both sides). ' Phase One also would include the following traffic signal improvements: • Add a signal on the parkway at Shell Bay with a left lane, separation islands and left-turn signals. • Add a signal on Route 9 at Shell Bay, and improve Shell Bay between Route 9 and the parkway. • CLOSE THE EXIT 8 access to Route 9 and remove the northbound left-turn lane. • Upgrade the left-turn lanes on the parkway at Crest Haven Road and Stone Harbor Boulevard, and widen each approach of Crest Haven Road to provide additional lanes.

• Add left-turn lanes on both approaches of Stone Harbor Boulevard to the parkway, and widen the boulevard between the parkway and Route 9. • Close the median crossover at mile post 10.3S^n the parkway. THE PROPOSED Phase Two would provide access to properties east of the parkway by routes other than directly onto the parkway. Third Avenue would be connected to Colonial Avenue along an" Eighth Street to Fourth Avenue alignment. ^toneVlarbor Boulevard would be con-nM(fld-to Parkside Drive along an alignment intersecting the boulevard and fTayberry Road. Parkside Drive Wbuld be connected to Crest Haven Road. Cul-de-sacs would close the following entrances to the parkway : Locust Lane feast side), Pacific Avdnue (east side), and HerefogByMmie (west side). A private drive an^^^Bttt dirt road access to the parkway be closed PHASE tI^^B would complete the conversion of ^J^arkway to a freeway with construction pf complete interchanges at Crest H^ven Road and Stone Harbor Boulevard and an overpass at Shell Bay. Interchange No. 6 (North Wildwood /Boulevard) would have a northbound exit ramp and southbound entrance ramp added. Once the parkway becomes a freeway, McCarthy said, the county could ask the New Jersey Highway Authority to take it over from the New Jersey Department of Transportation. This would mean better maintenance, McCarthy said. McCarthy said the Stone Harbor Boulevard overpass and interchange will mean Brighton Road in Court House would have to be clawed off from the boulevard. DOT alreac^ has constructed a northbound left-turn lane on the parkway at Crest Haven Road, but the left-turn signal work has not* been done and may be completed until the end of summer. h§ said.

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l V-: - *'?, r^a^laJl^e^^orThV'arson^anHratlt't*'Ct?li.^era'<' Crel?'°s of 538 Sheridan Avenue, f>miniature golf complex in Erma nn arson of his Spirit of '76 luncheonette and 1 county prosecutor's office Lower and Midd^T""8 ' "" Township Po,ice and the blaze. Arson was also suspected in a fire .mI. ?P "a""d """ 3 am was not charged i„ connection with it. however previous winter; Cremins