Problem

Shellfish bed closure and bathing beach closure.

Approach

This study was conducted from 1994 to 2000 in the Toms River basin. The study was a cooperative effort between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Geological Survey.

The above photo shows housing for monitoring equipment along a tributary of the Toms River in Ocean County, New Jersey. Data collected provides the department with information on the amount of certain pollutants being carried in storm water and how those pollutant loads (quantities) are related to land use.

Pollution Sources

Two reports are being produced on this work by the U.S. Geological Survey.

"Relation of Water Quality to Land Use in the Drainage Basins of Four Tributaries to the Toms River, New Jersey, 1994-95."  USGS Water Resources Investigations Report 99-4001.  This report covers data collected from 1994 and 1995 and is available through the New Jersey Office of the U.S. Geological Survey.

A second report on data collected from 1996 to 2000 is expected to be available in 2006 from the New Jersey Office of the U.S. Geological Survey.

More work on the Toms River - Long Swamp Creek source tracking project is scheduled to start in 2007.

Click here to view 'Pollution Source Tracking in Long Swamp Creek, Ocean County', which is a demonstration project of field techniques for identifying actual and potential nonpoint pollution sources along Long Swamp Creek, a tributary of the Toms River in Ocean County, New Jersey.