Mayor: Bay Sand Was Environmentally Tested Before Being Deposited on Beach

The darker sand that crews transported from Barnegat Bay back to the township's oceanfront was environmentally tested before it got there, Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis said.

Some Brick residents have voiced concerns over the dark coloration of the sand that has been scooped from Barnegat Bay, sifted, then trucked across Route 35 to the township's ocean beach.

"Everything has been tested," said Acropolis. "They went out and did sampling before they pulled it out. They'll go to an area, do sampling, and it has to be material that got there from the beach."

"We're not dredging," he said.

The sand being transferred back to the ocean beach had to have been sand that washed into the bay during Superstorm Sandy, the state Department of Environmental Protection told Patch.

The work is being performed under a state contract with CrowderGulf, the firm that was hired to manage the cleanup of a portion of the state's waterways following Sandy.

Acropolis said there is a difference between the sand being deposited onto the oceanfront and dredge spoil.

"Dredge material is often sludge," he said. "This, after it goes through some drying, it's regular sand. Is it going to lighten up? It will. Is it going to take some time to do so? It will."

Acropolis said the sand is creating an important berm so homes, beaches and the island itself can be protected from future storms – and potential breaches. The alternative to re-using the sand that washed into the bay during Sandy would have been spending "hundreds of thousands of dollars" to truck in sand.

According to DEP records, the most recent water testing was performed on Brick Beach July 15. The latest tests for which data was available is the July 8 round of testing. Those results, from samples taken at Brick's public beach as well as the ocean beach at 7th Avenue, showed Brick as being tied for having the lowest contaminant reading available. The accepted amount of enterococci is 104 per 100 milliliters of water. Brick's readings showed less than 10.