Upgrades aimed at mitigating track pollution

OCEANPORT — Attorneys for the Long Branch Sewerage Authority and the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA) are working toward an agreement between the two agencies that would cut down on the pollution in Branchport Creek caused by storm-water runoff from Monmouth Park racetrack, which is operated by the NJSEA.

A spokesperson for the NJSEA, John Samerjan, said Monday it was just a matter of getting a final agreement in place, to get the project going.

A bid for the installation of a pump station and other equipment for $498,000 from Monmouth Excavators has been accepted by the NJSEA for a storm-water pipe connection from the track to the sewerage authority.

But before work on the project can begin, it must be approved by the sewerage authority and permits must be obtained from the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The details of the agreement are in the hands of the attorneys now, John Martone, executive director of the sewerage authority, said last week.

He said the next meeting of the board of commissioners of the authority will be Dec. 17, and the matter could be voted on at that meeting if the attorneys have approved an agreement.

Martone said there are only a few times a year when there would be a need for the overflow pipe to the sewerage authority.

Presently, the Two Rivers Water Reclamation Authority, Monmouth Beach, treats the first 310,000 gallons of the track runoff, he said.

Samerjan acknowledged that the pollution from the runoff from the track had been a long-term problem.

He said that the NJSEA had made a major investment in the 1990s to alleviate the problem.

But now the measures taken had to be brought up to the standards of the times, Samerjan said.

The Monmouth County Health Department has 11 sites it monitors in and around the track.

In June, the county Board of Health sent a letter to the DEP stating that tests indicated there were elevated bacterial levels coming from the outfall at the track into Branchport Creek and into the swale draining the manure storage area and the Elkwood area at the track.

The results of the tests did not meet surface water standards, the letter said.

The county health department currently states, "The most recent sampling results indicate elevated bacterial consistent with storm-water runoff from Monmouth Park, with levels decreasing with distance from the park. Advisory signs are posted from the Branchport Avenue bridge to Pocano Avenue, Oceanport."

Darlene Yuhas, a public information officer for the DEP, said last week that the agency was continuing to work with local authorities and the sewerage authority in an attempt to solve the storm-water runoff problem.

Local residents are pressing for a solution to the runoff problem, citing diminished property values and the inability to use the waterfront, for which they pay taxes, for recreational purposes because of the pollution.

Adding to the long-standing problem was what the sewerage authority called a malfunction of a valve that directs the track's wastewater into the water treatment facility on the weekend of Aug. 15, resulting in untreated wastewater flowing into Branchport Creek.