Gov. Chris Christie wrong on NJ beaches: They aren't so clean - The Star-Ledger - NJ.com (blog)
By Megan Fitzpatrick
Multiple times this summer, Gov. Chris Christie bragged about the "perfect" condition of New Jersey's beaches, saying the Shore "is the cleanest it's been in decades."
He also said, "You saw no type of debris, no type of waste coming up on the beach this year."
A review of the facts does not support the governor's statements. The Shore faces serious threats. By sweeping them under the rug, we only get further behind in solving them.
When evaluating water quality, the governor and the state in general almost exclusively focus on bacteria levels. That's for good reason — it can make us sick.
The problem is episodic. It rains and bacteria levels spike, then wash out to sea. It's the frequency of the episodes that Christie fails to acknowledge — days when the beaches are closed due to high bacteria counts.
The number of closings varies with the amount of rainfall, but the overall trend is not on the decline, offering no evidence that the Shore is the cleanest it's been in decades. Over the past decade, the average number of beach closings per summer was 136. There was a period in the late 1990s (1997-2000) when annual beach closings were less than 50.
We must look further than beach closings. Scientists and policy advocates have repeatedly cautioned against using beach closing data as the sole indicator of water quality. Beach testing only looks at one pollutant, bacteria, and fails to consider other pollutants degrading the water.
Conclusions about water quality need to consider nutrient levels from runoff pollution flowing over developed lands upstream of the Shore. It may not be as visible as the medical waste of the 1980s, but it's a serious problem. We can see the destruction of nutrient pollution most acutely in Barnegat Bay.
Al Wutkowski is Barnegat Bay Guardian Point Pleasant native "Big" Al Wutkoski was appointed Barnegat Bay Guardian earlier this year by the American Littoral Association. Wutkowski spends most of his day on the bay educating the boating public, looking out for injured birds and cleaning up trash. He thinks the state should spend more money on State Police Troopers to patrol the vast reaches of Barnegat Bay. (video by Andrew Mills) Watch video These nutrients, which run off the land and into the ocean, spike plant growth and lead to algae blooms. As we have seen in the bay, these blooms, if prolonged, can crowd out grasses, like eelgrass, that are needed to maintain healthy habitats for fish and marine life.
Without fish to eat jellyfish in their early stages, it is predicted that we will see more jellyfish. This summer, tens of millions of jellyfish invaded Barnegat Bay. By overloading the bay with nutrient pollution, we have facilitated jellyfish dominance, putting our $3.3 billion bay tourism economy at risk.
But it's not just the bay that is suffering. Our near ocean waters are also threatened by nutrient pollution. This summer, we saw a 100-mile algae bloom off our coast. This is a glaring indication — visible by satellite — that runoff pollution is entering Shore waters at an unsustainable rate.
The governor must do more to protect water quality at the Shore. He has made some efforts, including the signing of a bill to reduce nitrogen content in fertilizers.
But such steps are not enough to clean up Barnegat Bay. Most urgently, we need to adopt a strict limit on nitrogen and other pollutants plaguing the bay as part of a comprehensive cleanup plan.
Moreover, the governor's decision to pull New Jersey out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and to slow the growth of renewable energy should be reversed. Greenhouse gas emissions, specifically carbon dioxide, affect sea-level and change ocean chemistry. By expanding air emissions, these decisions will further stress oceans and marine life, and amplify the vulnerability of our Shore.
From jellyfish invasions to the decline of marine species to the loss of critical habitats to algae blooms — these are indicators, besides bacteria counts, that the Shore isn't perfect. Christie should not deny that the Shore is in trouble and take concrete steps that work to turn things around.
Megan Fitzpatrick is the clean water associate for Environment New Jersey, based in Trenton.
16 Oct, 2011--
Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNHCybPeThIGLOW_P162s5RJSCPqLw&url=http://blog.nj.com/njv_guest_blog/2011/10/gov_chris_christie_wrong_on_nj.html
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