By Paul Goldfinger, Editor (Photo and text)
A few days ago there was a knock on our door. It was a woman from Oregon named Laura who stopped by to pick up her Blogfinger prize. She visits Ocean Grove every few months, and she is a Blogfinger reader. She was looking forward to her OG car magnet because a co-worker sports an Asbury sticker on his car, and she wanted to see his reaction.
She also told me that she is an environmentalist who has become interested in our Wesley Lake posts, especially regarding the name change of Wesley Lake, now called the Wesley Retention/Detention Basin on the OG side of the Lake.
I asked her what such a designation might mean. It seems that such ponds/lakes could be a component of a system to deal with street runoff, but obviously, simply changing the name would not result in clean water. Instead the “Lake” might be a place to hold runoff water while other measures could be implemented for treating the water. But don’t forget that the DEP and Green Acres protect the Lake for recreation and conservation.
She was also concerned with the pattern we now have where the untreated water winds up in the Ocean. The idea that every Lake inlet pipe could be serviced by a separate purifier before the water gets into the Lake is a possibility, but as noted before, that would be very expensive.
In Oregon, the state is fanatical about environmental issues, and every new project must be accompanied by an effective plan for water treatment; and there are quite a few methods that can be used to deal with the problem of street runoff.
Laura spoke of the idea to consolidate the efforts to clean all the Lakes near the Jersey Shore, as was recently described at the Wesley Lake Commission where we were told that the DEP might be looking at that idea next year. She pointed out that such an arrangement would allow for savings, since, for example, one engineer instead of 7 separate ones.
We thanked her for her interest and asked her to send us comments if she any ideas in the future.
BRENDA LEE:
I.M.Radar,
There are three (3) Government bodies that have built storm water systems that drain street water into the Lake.
1) The Monmouth County Freeholders
2) Asbury Park and
3). Neptune Township
All 3 should be responsible for restoring the Lake, and the DEP has enforcement authority.
Link discusses detention and retention basins:
http://www.fg-inc.net/difference-between-detention-and-retention/
So far, our input at Blogfinger by Jack Bredin, Ted Bell, Laura of Oregon,and some of what we picked up at the Wesley Lake Commission has been consistent re: WL.
Laura’s comments–as well as your continuous reporting–is very significant.
I am at a loss as to what official governmental body or “subdivision” is responsible for seeking grants–or better yet –legally responsible for cleaning up the lake whatever it takes.