“Thursday’s meeting was the first in a series of planning and brainstorming meetings which will be held in order to spotlight our coastal lakes and work to incorporate them into federal proposals for assistance and long-term risk abatement and storm protection strategies,” Smith said.

Smith, who has worked for years on a variety of efforts to secure federal support for mitigating the flooding associated with New Jersey’s coastal lakes, intensified efforts in the past six months to convince the Army Corps to include the lakes in this upcoming study, which originally was only planned to include four tidally-connected lakes. 

“Though lakes like Sylvan Lake and Wreck Pond may not normally be tidally-connected, after Sandy all of the lakes and the ocean were one big body of water, so I know it is imperative to the coastal municipalities that the non-tidal lakes would be included in the study of how to help combat flooding, and that is why I pushed to have them included,” he added.

The New Jersey Back Bays study is the result of a larger, comprehensive, post-Sandy study called the North American Comprehensive Coastal (NAACS) Study, which Smith supported in testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water on March 13, 2013.

Representatives from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the municipalities with coastal lakes, as well as the offices of Assemblymen Sean Kean and David Rible, attended the Nov. 12 briefing, which took place at the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Southern Communication Center in Neptune.

“Superstorm Sandy highlighted the significant health and safety hazards associated with storm damage to homes and public property,” said Smith.  “We will continue to work to bring federal support to the table to make these coastal lakes and our communities safer.”

In a letter to the heads of the Army Corps Philadelphia and New York districts, Smith wrote, “From flooding to environmental concerns, these small bodies of water are associated with a number of big problems for homeowners and municipalities alike…I am specifically requesting that you apply all appropriate discretion to the study guidelines and add the Deal Lake Watershed, Wesley Lake, Fletcher Lake, Sylvan Lake, Silver Lake, Lake Como, Spring Lake, Wreck Pond, Little Silver Lake, and the Lake of the Lillies into the Back Bays study once and for all…These bodies of water and their surrounding land areas must be given all and every due consideration by way of formal analysis and research so as to identify means to alleviate their ongoing flooding and environmental issues.”

In addition to the non-tidal lakes mentioned, the study will also examine the tidally-influenced Stockton Lake, Glimmer Glass Harbor, Lake Louise and Twilight Lake.

Smith, who represents some of the hardest-hit New Jersey coastal areas of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, worked to include initial federal funding for Wreck Pond in the 2010 Energy and Water Appropriations bill. As far back as 2007, at Smith’s request, U.S. Rep. James Oberstar (D-MN) who was the chairman of the congressional committee that oversaw federal infrastructure projects, attended a meeting in New Jersey about Wreck Pond with officials and residents from Sea Girt, Spring Lake, Spring Lake Heights and Wall Township, as well as Army Corps representatives. Since then, Smith has worked continuously to help address the many issues surrounding the coastal lakes.

In July 2015, Smith announced that $3.58 million in federal Sandy funding would be added to $2 million previously awarded by the Fish and National Wildlife Services for Wreck Pond.  That funding is currently being used to construct a secondary outfall pipe and living shoreline along the Pond, which will help protect residents and businesses in the area from flooding. 

The towns affected by coastal lakes in Smith’s district include: Deal Lake Watershed Area, Ocean Township; Wesley Lake, Neptune; Fletcher Lake, Neptune/Bradley Beach; Sylvan Lake, Bradley Beach/AvonSilver Lake, Avon/Belmar; Lake Como, Belmar and Lake Como/Spring Lake; Spring Lake, Spring Lake; Wreck Pond, Spring Lake & Spring Lake Hts./Sea Girt; Stockton Lake, Sea Girt/Manasquan; Glimmer Glass, Manasquan; Lake Louise, Point Pleasant Beach; Little Silver Lake, Point Pleasant Beach; Lake of the Lillies, Point Pleasant Beach, and; Twilight Lake, Bay Head.

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