LBI's Replenished Sand Passes Local Group's Cleanliness Test

Worries that the sand deposited on to Long Beach Island's beachfront during an ongoing emergency replenishment project could have contained potentially dirty silt have been dispelled.

Alliance for a Living Ocean, a local environmental group, took it upon itself to pay for environmental testing of the sand coming from dredges off Harvey Cedars, Surf City and Brant Beach after silt was seen in the vicinity of the Brant Beach portion.

"While sand does not have the capacity to hold onto contaminants, silt can, possibly, contain such material," the group said in an announcement posted this week.

"Despite the very remote risk of dangerous contaminants entering the beach-bound dredge materials, ALO chose to research the matter, issuing an advisory to viewers of its Facebook page. No statements to the general public or media outlets were made," the group said.

The group used an outside firm to test the sand and found that instances of silt intrusion were "only episodic."

"ALO feels confident that the ocean water and replenishment material in the Brant Beach area are safe for all public usages," the group said.

The latest project also avoids an issue that came up during the initial 2006 replenishment project in Surf City – long-discarded World War I munitions being pumped onto the oceanfront along with the sand.

"For all of our projects now, we employ a dual-screening method," said Steve Rochette, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is overseeing the project. "The dredge drag arm has a screen and then, on the beach, material is pumped through a basket with screens."

Work in Surf City is expected to be completed over the next few days. After it is complete, crews will spend about a month building beach entrances and laying fences, said Rochette.

"Dune grasses are usually planted in the December timeframe," he said.