Politics & Government

Forget the Stereotypes, Jersey's Beaches are Pristine

National report from environmental group finds Garden State's beaches are among the nation's cleanest

Not even Snooki and the gang could get in the way of the facts. New Jersey's beaches are among the nation's cleanest, according to a report out this week. But one local beach along Barnegat Bay was still singled out for its nagging pollution issues.

The Natural Resources Defense Council issued its Annual Beach Report yesterday, just in time for the Independence Day holiday. The report shows that the nation's beaches saw the second-highest number of closing and advisory days in more than two decades last year, but New Jersey had among the lowest number of closings, along with the Delmarva region and the southeast.

More good news came in the form of water contamination - or, specifically, a lack of it. New Jersey beaches were the second-least contaminated in the country, with a 2 percent contamination rate. Only New Hampshire, with a 1 percent contamination rate, beat the Garden State. Oregon, Hawaii and Delaware rounded out the top 5 least contaminated at 3 percent each.

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But the news wasn't all good. Beachwood Beach West, a beach on Barnegat Bay in Beachwood, Ocean County, was singled out as being among the group's top 10 "repeat offenders" for having persistent contamination problems, with water samples exceeding public health standards more than 25 percent of the time for each year from 2006 through 2010. It was the only beach in the northeast to make that list.

The NRDC, in its report, called on the federal government to invest in "green" stormwater management techniques, which have been shown to limit the amount of runoff which makes its way into waterways. Last week, state Department of Environmental Protection officials  to provide an update on a 10-point plan proposed by Gov. Chris Christie to help rejuvenate Barnegat Bay.

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