By Charles Layton
The controls that normally maintain the water level in Wesley Lake are no longer working.
That is why you may have noticed that the water level is sometimes extremely low, exposing filthy mud, sand bars and old scraps of rusted junk on the bottom.
Leanne Hoffmann, Neptune Township’s director of engineering and planning, said Wednesday that the Township did two visual inspections of the lake following the hurricane and discovered that the water “seems to be bypassing, going under, that two-foot cutoff wall that’s in the lake — going under the existing concrete retaining wall on the south side of the lake, and then out to the ocean.”
What this appears to mean is that the lake water now flushes in and out with the tides. “The controls there currently are not working,” Hoffmann said. Furthermore, as the lake water drains underneath the retaining wall it is undermining that wall, creating an emergency situation.
The Township has already sought proposals from contractors for a temporary, emergency repair, which should take no more than three or four days to complete once the contract is let, she said. Part of the repair involves draining down the water in the troublesome portion of the lake and filling in with grout the area that’s been undermined, to plug the leak. Once they’ve “dewatered” that portion of the lake, she said, they’ll be able to see the problem in better detail.
Meanwhile, a part of the Ocean Grove retaining wall at the north end, which was already in danger of collapse, has now in fact collapsed as a result of the hurricane. “Thursday the insurance adjusters are coming out again, and they’ll see that,” Hoffmann said. The Township is still working with the insurers and with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to catalogue the full range of storm damage. This is in order to determine the amount of reimbursement for Neptune.
Hoffman said the north end portion of the lake wall will be repaired in early 2013, using $250,000 already received from the Monmouth County Open Space Fund. (To read more on that, go here.)
Until that north end wall is repaired, people would be wise not to go near it. “It’s very dangerous next to that wall,” our photographer, Mary Walton, reported on Wednesday. “I nearly fell into a sink hole.”
She wasn’t kidding.
Wow, that’s a strong retaining wall too. The fact it just collapsed like that is unsettling. Crazy stuff.
Asbury Park is really impressive. If Neptune, Asbury and Madison Marquette could all plan together, the Power Plant area and the lake could be a National showpiece again, just like it is on the old postcards. It just blows my mind how Asbury is starting to look more like Manhattan, and Ocean Grove like Ms. Havisham’s dress.
Addendum: Wesley Lake appears on the earliest maps of the area, predating coastal development. At one time it was fed by a stream or creek from an inland spring and emptied into the ocean. It probably was even tidal at the eastern end at one time in the distant past. Some of the later maps show that it still emptied directly into the ocean at the time of Ocean Grove’s founding and even had an island at one point. There are pictures from as late as the 60’s that show people boating, fishing and yes, even swimming on the lake.
It does have Green Acres designation, whatever that means these days. As stated previously, without some sort of minimal filtration and water circulation, regular dredging and some aquatic plantings the ‘lake’ will continue to be a polluted catch basin, garbage dump and occasional tidal surge reservoir.
Wisher, keep wishing. Neptune has done nothing for Wesley Lake. We really need to follow A.P. They know how to write grants and get the job done.
Ogrover — spot on. There needs to be some kind of movement of water and possibly filtration, which I know would be expensive. This is not a lake and, really, these are not lakes, these meaning most of the coastal lakes between Asbury and Spring Lake. They are bodies of water that our runoff flows into. Things just survive in them, but they are far from clean. It’s not just your car that drips oil… it’s pretty much everybody’s and that all ends up in these bodies of water, along with everything else. Organizing a cleanup is a piecemeal effort. It’s like picking up bits of plastic off of the beach – very honorable and something I do myself – but it’s not attacking the source. We can either accept that we have to dredge the lake every few years and have it full of garbage, or pressure the township to install a sophisticated system with some kind of screening and filtration. Maybe creating some kind of shoreline that would support aquatic plant life would be nice too.
As long as untreated street runoff is the primary water source, the lake will never be pristine. Having the aeration fountains running again would help a little with water quality. A few of the area lakes have solar powered pumps that move the water about as well. The old power station would be a great location for some sort of filtration. I guess that is an expensive pipe dream, though.
Seems to me that most the lakes on the shore are fairly pristine. Why do we accept less here? I agree that Neptune needs to step up and bring both of our lakes up to a quality level similar to what other towns have.
I thought restoring Wesley Lake was a pet project of Dr. Brantley, of the Neptune Township Committee. Dr. B, if you’re reading this blog, please bring us up-to-date on what actions you have taken or are recommending to fix this problem.
Thank you,
If the lake is so shallow, it will become very warm in the summer, algae will grow, and it will be gross (or should I say, even grosser). The whole lake needs to be dredged. Also, someone needs to be concerned about the polluted run-off that enters the lake. I’m sure that violates clean water standards. We need to create a Wesley lake conservancy organization that watches over and protects the lake. It sounds like it’s time for a total redo and hopefully a lot of the money can come from FEMA. Even if it doesn’t we still need to fix this problem.
The lake area and the North End is a great tourist and investment area, but always seems to go to the bottom of the priority list. It is a real disaster from the broken dams, walls, the broken buildings, including the Warrington and the Park View, the broken sidewalks, murky chocolate water, overgrown trees and bushes, floating garbage and bad smells. It harms, rather than attracts, investment and tourism. It would be a great tie-in with all of the Asbury Park investment and improvements along the lake, but Neptune is just alseep on this grand opportunity. All of the new customers, potential homeowners and renters who go to Cookman in Asbury and park overlooking the lake, or who stroll through the Casino on the boardwalk, see a slum and a wastewater drainage ditch. If they handed out fines for missed investment opportunities, Neptune gets the prize. With all the cleaning, planting, building razing and investment in Asbury, you would think Neptune would be worried about Ocean Grove’s presentation. I also believe that if it looks like a slum, it attracts crime. We have our own proof of this.
Could also be the power of coincidence, Frank.
Wow ! The power & influence of Blogfinger is amazing. As I write this, less then a day after I wrote to Blogfinger, workers are on Stockton repairing sinkhole. Blogfinger must have superpowers – just like Batman. Thank you.
Weeks ago I went in the lake to fetch out the saw horse, and dragged all sorts of wood and yellow tape to keep people from walking in the lake.
I also called Neptune to ask for better baracades for the area. As you can see, nothing has been done from them. I feel Neptune does very very little for O.G. except to collect our high taxes. Just look at Ocean Ave. It’s still a mess.
One thing you fail to mention is the smell. The recent rainy conditions have raised the water level a little, but as more of the lakebed is exposed the odor gets worse. When the wind is right, it’s downright stomach churning a block or two away.
Talking about sinkholes, when is Neptune going to properly repair the sinkhole on Stockton Ave. between Penn. & NY Aves. a block from F.A.M.? It first appeared after Sandy and 2 unsuccessful repairs later is still there right in the middle of the street with an orange cone atop it.
Should we assume that what Ms. Hoffman refers to as “the existing concrete retaining wall on the south side of the lake,” and what you refer to as “the Ocean Grove retaining wall at the north end,” are actually the same location (ergo the sinkhole)?