I call this meeting to order. Of the DOA commission agenda is a workshop meeting and all workshop meetings will be audio and videotaped and will be shown on APV optimum 77 and throughout most of Math County on FiOS 28 and worldwide if I
guess you get on internet. So uh that's it. Uh >> Alenhurst Alenhurst >> here. >> Asbury Park >> here >> here. >> Intera here. >> Buck Arbor was not yet. Oh, maybe she's coming in. Neptune
>> here. >> And Ocean. >> Yes. Here. >> Okay. Very good. >> Perfect. >> Okay. Uh Steve, it's all yours. >> I guess we can turn now. Nice to see the people.
>> I'm do I'm gonna put the camera >> you have the >> Yeah, I got >> All right. Commission. Yeah, thank you all for coming and big thanks to commissions for hosting this first wed and certainly
planned public information session. >> I'm sorry. I don't mean to interrupt but we there's a lot of echo. >> Hold on one second. >> You just give him the microphone or >> There we go. How's that?
>> Better, I think. >> Okay, great. Thank you all for coming. Thank you to the deal commission for hosting this meeting and this is part of the new municipal storm water requirements which I'll talk about in just a minute. My name is Steven Meyer.
I'm an environmental scientist at Neon Slovakian. We are the appointed board engineer at the commission and a number of municipalities around here. Let's get into it. So what is this wershed improvement
plan? Well, it's a part of the municipal separate storm sewer system permit which the state gives to all the municipalities that wish to discharge storm water to local water bodies. And every 5 years or so they have a new
cycle of the permit which just means that the regulations will be modified, added to, removed, changed in some way. And currently we are in a cycle that started in 2023 and that cycle introduced the creation
of the watershed improvement plan and it's broken up into three phases. We have the watershed inventory report which is now complete. um that was due by the 1 of January this year. And coming up, we have the watershed assessment report due by the start of
next year. And finally, the watershed improvement plan due at the end of 2027. So, I'm going to be talking about the watershed inventory report primarily because that's the one we have done at the moment. We'll also kind of look
forward and see what's happening after that is completed and what we're working towards. And we're we're going to hold both questions to the end. >> Yes, that's correct. >> Um, so the watershed inventory report kind of conveniently lines up with
another new requirement from the state in this permit, which is that all the municipal storm water infrastructure in each municipality needs to be mapped and submitted to the state. This includes outfalls, pipes, inlets, anything that's conveying storm water from where it
lands to where it goes. And that mapping is used and kind of analyzed in this watershed inventory report. And a lot of different information you can get from it is based off of this, such as drainage areas for each of the outfalls,
similar to how any wershed has a drainage area. You can roughly estimate where any storm water that falls will make its way into an outfall through the stormwater network. And it also introduces the impairments and TMDLs
that are located within a town which refers to the amount of nutrients or pollutants that are exceeding what they should be based on the water's classification. And these total daily maximum loads,
which is what TMDL stands for, they are meant to provide a cap for which the pollutant intake into the water body should be limited to that the municipality or the area that's discharging into it is currently exceeding. So, it's kind of like a
goalpost for where we want to get to. In addition, there's overburdened communities, impervious area, private stormwater infrastructure that are also covered in their support. Now, I have a few figures here that we can look at that are just taken from a few different
local reports. Um, this is from the southern half of Ocean Township here. This one's just showing municipal outfalls. So, each of those purple pentagons there is an outfall. It's also showing the surface water classification
which is what kind of uses the water are designated for and you can see the different names of the water bodies. Obviously a lot of outfalloles are centered right along the water bodies as you'd expect. Another one we have here is drainage
areas for lake and outfalls. So still those purple pentagons are the outfalls. The green squares are inlets and those colored blobs are the rough drainage areas for each of those outfalls. So that gives us an idea, you know, if the
southern fork of Deal Lake is having issues with a certain pollutant, we might look towards those outfalls and what areas they are conveying that storm water into that area of the lake. And finally here I have one from Lock
Arbor showing imperous area. This uh the gray here shows streets, the yellow is houses and the orange is anything in between. Might be driveways. It might be tennis courts. Anything else that's not
penetrable by water. And this also helps us see what areas are going to have the most storm water runoff. what areas might have some more groundwater recharge in the municipality. And so using all this information in one
report, you can get a decent idea of how impaired the municipality is, what sort of issues it's facing in terms of water quality and quantity. And based on that, we can kind of incorporate stakeholder
information. And one of the requirements of this whole wershed improvement plan is having these public meetings. That way local communities, individuals, members who have observed the nature of these areas and might have information
as to what needs repair, what can be, you know, kind of remediated is better, you know, contributed and, you know, brought along in this whole process. Um there's also a lot of opportunities for regional collaboration. As of yet, none
of the members of the VA commission have formally collaborated on these. Um although the possibility for that is present in the future. Um we have the actual reports done at this point, but a lot of them have not been
reviewed by the state yet. As a matter of fact, Interlakens was just approved yesterday after review. Um, so once they are approved, which is it's starting to happen now, we'll have them posted on the municipal web pages so people can take a look, download them, see what
they want from them if they want. Um, and in the future we're going to have more of these meetings hopefully kind of discussing the progress on the plan and some of the future two phases of this whole improvement plan which are the
watershed assessment report and the wershed improvement plan. The assessment report that is due at the end of this year is essentially detailing kind of what what impairments are there, what areas need attention and where are
feasible, you know, improvements that could be made and some basic project ideas will be outlined for these areas. And following up on that in the watershed improvement plan,
one or two of these projects will be kind of focused on more and using identified grant or loan funding from the watershed assessment report plans will start to be put in place so that these projects can be implemented in local waterways.
This is a big part why regional collaboration is great because as you all know, I'm sure pollution isn't direct most of the time. it can come from indirect sources. It doesn't stay within a mutful boundary. It travels across water. So having these kind of
regional collaborative efforts for this project would help a lot. Um and I think that's what the state is trying to promote. So that's what we're looking forward to. And that's all I got. Um no comments or
questions quite yet until the public is open to uh to speaking. But that's all I got. Um, if you're here, you can take a look at our stakeholder signup form. If not, you can email me with the email address on this last slide and pose any
questions or just say, I want to be a stakeholder. Whatever you got, send it my way. Thank you. has the state, you said they returned, you know, like they reviewed it where they gave it A+ or what?
>> Um, what we've gotten so far is the timing of this, the municipal infrastructure data seemed nice on paper, but what happened is we prepared these reports and then our infrastructure data was updated and the reports no longer match what the updated
infrastructure was. So the only comments I've gotten so far is just update the report for the newest approved infrastructure. So everything else in them have been you know good to them as far as I can tell.
>> Did did you was AI used to grab any of this data? >> I can confirm that no AI was used. >> Yeah. >> Well, I mean that's not a bad thing. >> Yeah. You mean you want to ask AI if the dre inland at the intersection of uh Edgemont and Paige Avenue in Lock Harbor
is really there? >> Yeah. >> Or you want to go out and look at >> We mapped this. >> They may come up with a picture of you when you were younger. >> Maybe they first mapped this. You probably did find pictures of me. Uh I don't know if
Stevenson know this but it was February of 2004. That's when the state uh introduced the storm water management. It was uh required by the federal government. New Jersey waited and waited and waited until the 5-year period
typical you know until the 5-year period was almost up. Um then D pushed out these regulations. when they were pushed out, it was specifically stated that the municipalities that are participating would not incur any additional costs.
That was part of the plan. Now, um 22 years later, >> no way, Jose. >> No way, Jose. It's unbelievable the costs that we've incurred doing the mapping, going out in the field, doing GIS locations of all the infrastructure, and that's how we do
it. It's not AI. We go out and we map uh we GIS map every outall pipe, every inlet and rad >> within it. So, it's a lot of work, but I'm going to add something to Steven's plate. >> I think it's really appropriate for you
to come back to the deal commission after each town is approved by the state and we can discuss implementation of the the third. >> Yeah, I think great because we know a lot. I mean, we can tell you a lot about ocean fact of course, but probably interlink at Lock Harbor. We know where
some of the hot spots are. We know where Clean Ocean Action has come and tested and it might make your job a little easier. >> This is the perfect project just to take all that data, put it in one, put our heads together and come up with something that can make a difference. >> And then maybe we'll get some of our
projects on the call. So they Great. I'm sure they're writing this down right now. Perfect. >> Will this information be available that we could put post on the website? Yeah, I can I can send uh Jesse or Don all that stuff so people can take another look.
>> Yes. >> Oh, yeah. >> Oh, yeah. >> Really good. >> Deal. Did Deal was finding people were draining their sump pumps into the sewer and >> we found that numerous times over the years. Yes. >> And they just did a smoke test.
>> Yes. So, but since it was the smoke test was like November, if they get the homes to stop draining into the sewer, will it change their numbers?
>> Probably not. Yeah, I wouldn't say to an extent where it'd be very noticeable, but it's those small non-point source pollutions that are kind of the big issue nowadays because the big things like, you know, Dupont spilling whatever into a a water body, you know, people got wise to that. But it's a lot of
these things where you can't put it on one specific point where, you know, it's troublesome. What they basic what if I'm going to mouse speak because this isn't my world but apparently about x amount of minutes after it starts raining and
deal they suddenly see a lot more water >> spiked in >> they get within like 10 15 minutes >> helpful yeah >> and then there's kind of a hangover it like the rain can stop but it's still overflowing >> exactly right yeah >> there's a better
>> so what Neil did years ago to try to stop it um they implemented a charge to residents if they detected a sanitary sewer connection or something. That didn't did nothing to solve the problem. It just charged the resident that maybe
would be in New York for the wintertime uh a fee to to discharge their water that was in their basement into our san. So we've stopped that. That's been stopped. >> And so this fall they did the smoke test, but I don't know that they went back to any residents. I don't I don't know either.
>> What does smoke test do? >> They put smoke into the sanitary sewer system and determine if it backflows into a home >> and come out the chimney, >> which would be or into the house if somebody's living here. >> Yeah. Which would mean that there's a
connection from the house into the >> How do you How does the inspector know that there's smoke coming? >> You knock on the door and see if somebody's home and tell them it's coming or Well, they're all noticed. All the residents are noticed. You try to do it when people are around, not >> I think D did it when Dawn was around on
purpose so that they could actually have >> they called 911 fire could and that's supposedly non-hazardous smoke >> like three blocks of >> oh sections at a time >> sections at a time and apparently
someone was >> as I don't get it I don't understand smoke is injected into the sanitary source sewer line. >> Okay. >> So, it goes manhole to manhole, fills the sanitary sewer, then it runs back into the laterals that come from the
hole into the sanitary sewer. If a lateral is has a prevention from flow going into the sewer back, it won't go into the house. If it doesn't, it'll go into the house. If it's a sump pump connection, it will go it'll go into the
house. >> I know you've been involved in that. And you do the best you can to try to alleviate the subp pump discharge connection into the sanitary soup because that's clean water going into the sanitary sewer. Two problems. You're
increasing substantially the amount of clean water that's that's being treated as sewage which is costing a tremendous amount of money. And then you're increasing the flow. In this case, a deal goes to Roosevelt Avenue to the pump station at the end of Roosevelt
which used to be treatment facility. and it gets pumped all the way back Roosevelt to the Township Ocean Sewage Authority which is west of Norwood Avenue and it gets treated and after it's treated it gets discharged from TOSA
all the way back out to the it's a it's a wonderful ride if you were taken unfortunately is uh you know west to east west to east >> but that's why I didn't know if it was going to affect the water flow >> yeah I don't think it really you know Steve is right it's probably minimal
Not too fast. >> Do you guys evaluate what's in this in the in the storm or the drainage >> drainage inlet? >> Inlet. Yeah. So you you they're check how often now we can we're supposed to do it every year, but maybe every three years to be compliant with PP
>> and then they can send somebody out to look at >> you have to evacuate. I think the T responsibility. >> Yeah. So we know that there's all different types of storm grains and they look different and they you know
different amounts of material is that any any of that noted in the mapping of the storm drains >> within not physically on the maps but in our data that we submitted to the state everything it has it all in there like it if it has the bicycle safe rate which
are these thinner rates if it has the retrofitted head so plastic bottles can't get in all that data is submitted to them and they have timelines for which they want all the towns to have everything retrofitted. >> Okay. >> What if a town has broken grades, broken manhood coverage?
>> That they have they have months to correct them, a year to correct them. >> Yeah. I mean, realistically, the chances of the state finding that and knocking on the town score is low, but they're supposed to be fixing that. >> Our responsibility is to the
municipality. >> I know, Don. I have a disagreement with Don. This is our only disagreement. When Don sees something bad happening, he calls D immediately from his car like 5 seconds after he sees it. I call the municipality and tell the municipality something bad's happening in your town.
Send somebody out there to fix it and then I call it usually usually people who >> I'm thinking of the JCPNL discharge in La Arbor. They they uh uncovered a manhole which had
It was adjacent to a JCPNL line. And in the old days, they used to fill their lines with oil. >> That was their insulation. So they had an enclosure with with electrical lines in it, filled with oil, would come into a manhole and then continue. Over the
years, they've deteriorated. The manholes have filled with that oil. And we had somebody from JCPNL go in front of Grateful Delhi, right in that area. There we go. Yep. >> Discharge the water from the manhole
into the Sure. And it was the oil lady. >> That was discussed yesterday. >> Oh, really? Okay. And Don got on his phone 5 seconds and he saw it. Nobody else did. And he called the D behind >> which I said, "Why didn't you call me?" >> Okay.
>> And then he >> So it all gets done. It all gets done. But we we talk about this all the time. All that type of thing will be helpful probably to input >> small details. >> Some of these lockers is easy. Yeah. >> Because it's you know this big, right? We'll go to your house and we can find
half of the things wrong from your front door to keep looking out. >> We just can't wait for JCPNL building to be torn down. >> Oh, the White House. >> Yeah. >> And the new apartment for them. >> Yeah. Uh we want to talk people. >> Anyone has questions online? Anyone
in the public would like to uh ask a question? >> I have a question, Don. >> Sure. >> Yes. Um Steve, good to see you. And the you had a uh a slide right that talked
about looking forward to the watershed assessment report where it says you would be including summary of inputs from the public. So do you anticipate that you know the public participation and comments are going to come from uh
the workshops or the meetings that you propose to conduct like these or are they going to be special efforts uh directed towards those? The state minimum requirements are that we do one of these meetings at least twice a year. Um I'm all for putting as
much information as we can out there for it, but you know that obviously comes at an expense for either the town or us which then goes to the town. Um so it does depend on you know how much time we can put into that. But I think by
definitely advertising it through the deal commission, I mean obviously if you want to advertise it through Clean Ocean Action, that would be welcome to um but just trying to get it out there grassroots is probably the way we'll be doing it. >> Stephen, maybe this presentation you
made tonight that's very clear and concise is sent to the say the DPW superintendent in each town requesting you know we invited you in meeting sorry you couldn't take it. request you review this information and respond with any and then give them specific
>> the burrows or whatever. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> It's a brief presentation you're giving this to every town too. >> Yeah. I invited planning boards, DPWs giving it to them providing it.
>> Yeah. Does it get voted on by each county votes on it? >> No, >> it just submits. >> It's like a check mark. >> Yeah, if you submit it through their portal, you know, it's in our proposal.
>> No, it's called NJP online that goes through. >> It's not as difficult to see. >> Yeah, thankfully. >> Thank you very much. Thanks, Steve. Thank you. I should recognize the public for having Steen here.
Thank you for having We have one minute break.