Stormwater Basins in Toms River, Lacey to be Replaced

Ocean County will spend $8 million to retrofit eight stormwater basins, seven of them in Toms River and one in Lacey, to capture about four tons of nitrogen a year that otherwise would wind up in Barnegat Bay, adding to its degradation.

In addition, $2 million will be spent on four pieces of equipment that will be needed to maintain the basins because the nitrogen gobbling plants will have to be harvested every two to three years, according to county Engineer Frank Scarantino.

Half the cost of the basin upgrades and equipment purchases will come from the state’s Environmental Infrastructure Trust and the state Department of Environmental Protection in the form out outright grants. The rest will be in low interest state loans.

Scarantino said the existing basins will be upgraded to enable them to capture pollutants, primarly nitrogen, a major cause of the nutrient overload flowing into the bay that contributes to algae blooms and the surge in the number of stinging jellyfish called .

Seven of the basins are in the Toms River watershed, which contributes the most nitrogen to the bay from lawn fertilizers and other sources.

The basins being retrofitted in Toms River are at High School East, on Sunset Avenue, on Todd Road and Vermont Avenue, and three at Ocean County College.

In Lacey the work will be done at the basin on Hoyt Street.

The county’s freeholders will introduce $10 million in spending measures when they meet at 4 p.m. Wednesday, anticipating reimbursement of $9.1 million from the state. The plan is to award contracts for the work in February, with all of the basins retrofitted next year.

In other business, the freeholders are slated to award a contract next week for the new road connecting Intermediate Way and Route 571 with approaches to the Garden State Parkway at Interchange 83 to C. J. Hesse Inc. of Belford for $3,691,527. Scarantino said that is $1 million less than the estimated cost of that project.