Bacteria advisories briefly pop up for nearly 2 dozen Jersey Shore beaches
Third Avenue Beach in Asbury Park was among the beaches closed to swimmers Wednesday morning due to these elevated bacteria levels, which can indicate the presence of human or animal waste.
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Many Jersey Shore beaches, mostly in Monmouth County, were cleared for swimming Wednesday afternoon after high levels of fecal indicator bacteria triggered swimming advisories at nearly two dozen beaches on Tuesday.
Third Avenue Beach in Asbury Park was among the beaches closed to swimmers Wednesday morning due to these elevated bacteria levels, which can indicate the presence of human or animal waste.
“It’s just not a pleasant thing, but we just have to deal with it,” said Asbury Park Beach safety supervisor Joe Bongiovanni.
Bongiovanni said the advisories are not uncommon following major storms like those that hit the region this week, as runoff carries stormwater, and sometimes sewer water, toward the ocean.
“The water doesn’t flow in and out of there very often until you have a big storm like that. So when it comes out, that stuff goes out into the ocean. And we did have a strong northeast wind yesterday, so it was pinned up against the shore and really had no place to go. The water was tested this morning,” Bongiovanni said.
The advisories were not universal. In Asbury Park, Third Avenue Beach and Seventh Avenue beach were under an advisories, but swimming was permitted just a block away.
