State: Beachwood Beach Closed Due To High Bacteria Levels

OCEAN COUNTY Beachwood Beach West on the Toms River is once again closed to swimmers because of high bacteria levels, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.

It's the only bathing beach in Ocean County closed to the public after the latest round of testing. Testing is done every week at roughly 180 ocean and 35 bay monitoring stations. Samples are analyzed for the presence of enterococci, a bacteria present in both animal and human waste that indicates possible water contamination.

The DEP considers water on a bathing beach over the acceptable standard if the number of colony forming units (CFU) is over 104 per 100 milliliters.

Any beach closed due to high bacteria levels will be tested again until acceptable levels are reached, according to the DEP. Beaches are closed when two consecutive samples collected at a bathing beach exceed the state standard.

"The Beachwood Beach was tested initially on Monday and exceeded the recreational bathing standard for indicator bacteria," said DEP spokesman Larry Hajna "It was tested again on Tuesday. This time one primary and two bracket samples were taken. The primary and one of the bracket samples were within standard, but one bracket sample exceeded the standard."

Beachwood beach was tested again on Thursday. Patch will update when the results are available.

Photo: Harvey Cedars Beach Patrol