Tenth Street Added to Beaches Closed to Swimming

The City of Ocean City temporarily banned bathing at the Eighth Street and Ninth Street beaches on Monday morning due to a localized sewer leak. And with the wind shifting to create a southerly current, the city added a swimming restriction at 10th Street on Tuesday morning.

The cause of the leak was a grease blockage in a sewer line that left a small amount of backed-up sewage on the street in the area. As a result, material discharged into the storm drain system that flows through outfall pipes into the ocean.

A pair of outfall pipes are located on either side of the off the Boardwalk between Eighth and Ninth streets. 

Water quality samples have been collected for testing by the Cape May County Health Department. Pending the results of the testing, the city expects bathing at the city's three busiest beaches to resume Tuesday afternoon.

Ocean City saw a heavy rain in thunderstorms on Tuesday morning at dawn.

Ocean City Community Services Director Jim Mallon said Monday that the swimming restriction is standard practice as a precautionary measure. He said the city does not know if any sewage actually reached the ocean. And he said that the discharge was small enough that, under any circumstance, swimming restrictions beyond Eighth and Ninth streets would not be necessary. 

Mallon said that because of the density of food establishments in the immediate area of the discharge, it would be difficult to track the source of the grease blockage.

The remaining 40 protected beaches along the seven miles of coastline in Ocean City remain open to swimming.

Swimming was restricted at Stenton Place Beach last week after a similar sewage leak, and water sample tests came back negative for any sewage reaching the ocean.

On a hot and humid Monday afternoon, the beach and shallow surf at 10th Street were noticeably more crowded than at Ninth Street. At mid-afternoon, nobody seemed to be complaining too loudly about the restriction — though Ninth Street lifeguard Matt Betson said the morning crowd was none too excited about having to cart children and beach equipment an extra few blocks just to swim.