By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
June 27, 2017. The Wesley Lake Commission was meeting in Neptune. A new chair was taking over, Gayle Rosewater, and some new members were present. Other than the Commission members, only 4 others were in attendance—me, Jack Bredin, an engineer from Maser Consulting, and a newly appointed, but not yet sworn- in, Commission member, Ocean Grover Susan Tyler.
No one representing the Friends of Wesley Lake was there—how friendly is that? And no neighbors who live around Wesley Lake on either side were in the audience either. The Commission seems top heavy with Asburians, but they should be gaining two more Neptuners. As Jack pointed out to them, they had no agenda and no recording system.
But the meeting was lively and covered a great many topics in the course of about two hours. The emphasis was on the dilemma of what to do about the dirty water in the Lake. As you may know from a number of prior Blogfinger articles, the main cause of the deterioration in the Lake is the constant inflow of polluted ground water, mostly from Neptune Township, but also from Asbury Park. The meeting was a sort of potpourri of pollution topics, and as we have noted earlier, the Commission seemed to be interested in looking into remediation methodologies for cleaning the Lake.
Each of the topics could take up a meeting, so we will make a list and briefly define what was mentioned during this sweeping Commission session:
Consultant. An engineer was present to discuss the “water quality ” in the Lake. No one explained who hired him, and that is something that needs to be cleared up, because he seems to have been brought in to make the false case that the Lake is a man-made entity. That is no small distinction if someone in the shadows is thinking about filling in the “detention-retention basin” in the future. We think the Commission should choose their engineer and it should be one who is independent. This one is flawed, and the Neptune engineer should not be chosen either due to conflicts of interest.
Water quality. It was agreed that the water is “not the best.” The Lake is a “sink” for dirty ground water to collect, and nothing is currently being done about that. After a rain last week, one could smell oil in the water which also contains grass clippings, floatables, geese droppings, ammonia, and salt. There was no result for nitrogen. A Commissioner described it as “terrible.” Herbicides were used recently for pond weeds.
Jurisdiction. Jack Bredin questioned the legitimacy of the Commission because the current Agreement of Charter amendment has not been properly completed with signatures of parties from both towns, with dates, seals, and with a proper water-shed map. This is important because the jurisdiction of the Commission is to be defined by that map, and the Commission has top power over the Lake, even above the two towns.
Remediation of water conditions. The engineer said that there are too many “points of entry” of dirty water into the Lake to be handled at each location. He also expressed doubt that a treatment plant to clean the water prior to its entry into the Lake could be accomplished. The DPW representative from Neptune said that “it would cost $700 million. ” He sarcastically meant that it would be financially not possible, but he is probably wrong.
Turn the Lake back to its natural state as an estuary. No one there mentioned that, but we have reported it in Blogfinger. Our articles on Wesley Lake can be reviewed by typing “Wesley Lake” into our search box on the top right of this page.
Turn the lake into a treatment facility: The engineer brought this up. He said that as the lake fills with filth it becomes a retention/detention basin (which is what Neptune currently calls it) and “then you don’t have a lake anymore.” This sounds to us as a set-up for developers to eventually call for filling in the “basin” to provide more land for development and for avoiding the ground water problem as it currently exists.
Flow issues: The water quality is an issue, but so is the amount of water flowing into the lake. The current storm water management systems on both sides (infrastructure) are inadequate when there are heavy rain storms. The systems fill up and then flooding occurs.
Time for the Mayor of Neptune to resign. Mayor Brantley is on the Commission and he seems impatient with the situation. He said, “We’re wasting a lot of time now.” He also pressured the Commission to appoint the Neptune Engineer to guide them. This would be a mistake.
Definition of “watershed.” Wesley Lake is a “tidal waterway” and, as such, is subject to public trust rights. It is reserved for recreation by the Green Acres program of the DEP. The watershed refers to all the natural water sources that feed into the Lake. It does not pertain to streets and storm sewers. The Commission has to be a proper steward of that watershed. The watershed map should be revealing once it is revealed, and it should not contain streets. It should be signed by a licensed engineer.
Ethical behavior of Commission members. At the end of the meeting, there was a public portion. Jack Bredin got up and raised a number of issues with the Commission, some of which were critical. Jack told them that his agenda was the same as theirs—-to save Wesley Lake. But at one tense point a Commissioner, the DPW representative from Neptune Township, out of order, shouted out to Jack “What is your agenda?” One of other Commissioners was horrified and said so. That Commissioner who verbally abused a citizen should be formally censored by the Commission.
Blogfinger will try to find out what’s it all about Alfie.
Researcher: Jack Bredin of Ocean Grove; Blogfinger staff.
Street runoff: Asbury has regular weekly street sweeping. Ocean Grove? Bueller? Bueller? Anyone?
On June 30,the Wesley Lake Commission sent out a press release which said that they are “responsible for the maintenance and improvement of the lake.” They cautioned the public to dispose of all garbage, don’t feed the wildlife, and to pick up after your pets.
But they do not mention the biggest source of pollution into Wesley Lake—-ie the dirty groundwater which comes off the streets of both towns.
They should have urged the citizens of both towns to demand that something be done about the groundwater drainage into the lake.
I say to OGHOA and OGCMA: WHERE ARE YOU?? You should be activists to put pressure on all related parties to get the Lake cleaned up — or at a minimum, to stop folks for calling it a detention basin or man-made lake.
I am calling the NJDEP to make a complaint about what’s happening here to this Lake. If I get anywhere, I will let you know. This needs to be actively on the DEP’s radar screen so the corrupt politicians cannot pull a fast one.
For whatever reason, the Ocean Grove Home Owner’s Association has no interest in applying their political influence to encourage the Township Committee to reverse their illegal decision to use Wesley Lake as a dumpsite (detention basin) for Asbury Park and Neptune’s polluted street water that continues to poison our Lake.
For the taxes we pay, OG residents and the Lake deserve better treatment.
I urge everyone who could not attend the meeting to write to the Mayor.
While we were at the meeting, Blogfinger publicly advised the Commission that there is a large residential/commercial re-development project pending for the North End of Ocean Grove. We told them that their efforts with Wesley Lake will be negated unless that North End Redevelopment Plan is accompanied by a plan to deal with the dirty ground water runoff from that 9 acre project. The developers may plan to simply dump their ground water into the Lake, because discussions of the project in the past have never mentioned potential ecologic damage.