Project unveiled to prevent storm water pollution at Beachwood Beach

A nearly $One million storm water outfall system is up and running at Beachwood Beach in Beachwood, once considered among the nation's dirtiest. Municipal, County and State officials unveiled the collaborative project this week.

"We believe we've taken a giant step forward in trying to help improve the water quality not only along the Beachwood Beach, but along the entire Toms River and into the Barnegat Bay," said Mayor Ronald F. Roma during a ribbon cutting ceremony Wednesday.

Roma noted Beachwood would not have been able to undertake a project of such magnitude so quickly without the help from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), the Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders, the County Engineering and Planning, Roads, and Health Departments and the Barnegat Bay Partnership.

"There was a forgiveness grant in the amount of I believe about $500,000 and Ocean County partnered up with Beachwood for the other funding and we're going to split it 50/50," said Roma.

James Oris, and Engineer with T&M Associates in Toms River, helped design the project and explained the DEP identified that storm water being trapped in the cove was staying there.

"So, the basic design concept was to remove those outfalls and place them on the far east side of the beach.

To be able to do that, Oris said all of the drainage pipes and structures needed to be realigned.

"We needed to actually elevate the parking lot to accommodate the drainage so that gravity could allow the water to be transmitted to the new location. So, the project overall included the removal of the old outfall locations and creating one condensed outfall location on the east end of the parking lot, and the parking lot needed to be completely rebuilt to accommodate that," he said.

Officials noted the project is considered the best solution to solving the storm water pollution issue, but this summer will be a test as to how well it works.

"We're hoping that moving forward throughout the season, it should help tremendously," added Roma.