More needles and medical waste washing up on the Jersey Shore
News 12 found another needle on Spring Lake Beach Friday.
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Just weeks after needles and syringes washed up on Manasquan Beach, more beaches along the Jersey Shore are seeing a new round of potentially dangerous trash.
News 12 found another needle on Spring Lake Beach Friday.
“It’s extremely concerning. I think someone needs to come down here and figure out why this is happening,” said Donna Schneider, of Spring Lake.
A viewer sent photos of numerous needles recovered on Spring Lake beaches this week. Reports of needles from Sea Bright to Bay Head popped up all over social media.
Belmar received the most reports this week of needles and syringes. Mayor Caitlin Donovan inspected those beaches Friday and found nothing further.
“As soon as we heard one report of one needle, we were out there with multiple crews, multiple times a day, looking for needles with our emergency response team,” said Mayor Donovan.
The DEP says the waste came from New York City and North Jersey. Recent heavy rains overwhelmed older combined sewer systems which are common in urban areas. Once at capacity, they can spill over into the waterways.
“A lot of the stuff that gets in there, kind of coagulates so when you get big storms and big flushes of water it cleans out those pipes and a lot of stuff we don’t want to see gets flushed out in the waterways,” said Clean Ocean Action’s executive director Cindy Zipf.
Onshore winds then carry the debris, including floating plastic and needles, onto Jersey Shore beaches.
“If you see anything, do not touch it. Instead, please call our police and we will send the right crew down to dispose of it properly,” said Mayor Donovan.
Clean Ocean Action wants people to sign up for the fall beach sweeps on Oct. 24, where they will log every piece of debris found. Zipf says that data will help make long-term changes to those systems and ultimately keep New Jersey’s beaches free of unwanted trash.
