EPA Begins Summer Monitoring to Protect Area Beaches, Coastal Waters and New York/New Jersey Harbor (NJ, NY)
(New York, N.Y.) With the beginning of the
beach season, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is again
undertaking a beach and harbor protection program to safeguard
beaches and bays in New Jersey and New York and protect the health
of the people who enjoy them. EPA’s program includes
helicopter surveillance for floating debris, water quality sampling
and grants to support state beach protection programs. The summer
monitoring program kicked off on Saturday, May 28 with helicopter
flights searching for floating debris in the New York/New Jersey
Harbor.
“EPA is on the job every summer sampling
water quality to make sure that beachgoers can enjoy the water
without worry,” said EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck.
“Our efforts also ensure that floating debris is found and
removed from the water before it can make its way onto a beach
where it could affect people’s health and damage
wildlife.”
Working together with other federal, state and
local agencies, EPA’s program operates seven days a week.
This comprehensive, science-based beach and coastal water program
has many components, including shellfish bed water quality
monitoring, and grants to states to help with their beach
monitoring and public notification programs. As they do every
summer, EPA scientists will fly over the New York/New Jersey Harbor
in a helicopter, the Coastal
Crusader, searching for floating
debris. The helicopter will also be used to collect water samples
near shellfish beds and along the New Jersey coast for
phytoplankton analysis, and take samples for bacteriological
analysis around Long Island to support New Jersey’s and New
York’s shellfish protection program.
Highlights of EPA’s Coastal Water and
Beach Program
Floatables Surveillance
Overflights:
From late May to early September, the
Coastal Crusader helicopter will fly over the New Jersey/New York
Harbor Complex six days a week. EPA conducts these flights to
identify floating debris slicks and to coordinate cleanups with the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the New York City Department of
Environmental Protection and the Passaic Valley Sewage Commission
to prevent wash-ups on the beaches of New Jersey and New York. EPA
also reports any oil slicks to the U.S. Coast Guard for cleanup. A
skimmer vessel will help respond to slicks in the Newark
Bay.
Shellfish Bed Monitoring
Program:
The EPA helicopter will be used to collect water
quality samples to assist the New Jersey Department of
Environmental Protection and the New York State Department of
Environmental Conservation with monitoring the health of their
shellfish beds. To support this program, phytoplankton samples will
be collected six times this summer along the New Jersey coast in
Raritan Bay, Sandy Hook Bay, Barnegat Bay, Great Bay and Delaware
Bay. Samples will also be collected for fecal contamination at 26
stations six times this summer along the Long Island coast, from
Rockaway to Shinnecock Inlet.
Dissolved Oxygen
Monitoring:
New Jersey coastal waters are listed as impaired
due to low dissolved oxygen concentrations, which can have a very
damaging effect on fish and shellfish. Sampling for dissolved
oxygen is complicated as levels vary over time and across a large
area, and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and
EPA have been exploring better methods for monitoring dissolved
oxygen. The sampling to determine dissolved oxygen levels in
coastal waters that was formerly conducted using EPA’s
helicopter during past summers will be done this summer using an
automated underwater vehicle, which is scheduled to be launched in
mid-July. The vehicle, commonly known as a glider, has the
advantage of collecting many more measurements over a larger area.
Data collected by the glider will be used to create a
three-dimensional picture of dissolved oxygen in New Jersey’s
coastal ocean.
Beach Monitoring and Notification
Program:
The state of New Jersey and
local health departments have received over $3.4 million dollars to
date in EPA grants through the federal BEACH Act; New York State
has received $4.1 million. New Jersey will receive an additional
$310,000 this year and New York will get an additional
$382,000.
For more information on EPA’s diverse
coastal water activities, visit: http://www.epa.gov/region02/water/oceans.
Follow EPA Region 2 on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/eparegion2 and visit our Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/eparegion2.
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