By MaryAnn Spoto, Star Ledger Staff Writer — For decades, the American Littoral Society has sought to restore natural habitat along coastal Monmouth County.

And also for decades, residents in Spring Lake and other nearby coastal communities have been struggling with flooding from the nearby lakes.

So when Hurricane Sandy wreaked its havoc on the Jersey Shore in 2012 , environmentalists and local officials used it as an opportunity to address both problems at Wreck Pond in Spring Lake.

Now in the second phase of repairs, workers are installing a 600-foot concrete culvert and officials are praising a project designed to help alleviate flooding in the area while improving water quality and restoring the fish population.

"This is clearly a cutting-edge and very, very exciting project," Tim Dillingham, executive director of the American Littoral Society, said Tuesday at the start of the second phase of the project. "We're not only restoring and protecting the environment, but we're (also) protecting the communities next to it. So this is for us, a...textbook example of how to live with the Jersey Shore and not simply on it."

The Littoral Society has been working for years to restore natural habitats along the Jersey Shore and had received a federal grant for a Wreck Pond project, but that money became more effective combined with grants to governmental entities for work on the same coastal lake, he said.

Wreck Pond's pollution problems have been long-standing, primarily because it doesn't have a good exchange with ocean water

 
 Central to the project is a 600-foot long concrete underground culvert that will allow for the free flow of water between the 8-acre pond and the Atlantic Ocean. The top of the culvert will have sporadic sealed shafts that will allow natural light to attract fish, such as eel and herring, a food source for striped bass.

Work on the culvert has to be done by March 15 when the area will be off-limits for nesting piping plovers.

Spring Lake Mayor Jennifer Naughton said that facing a project price tag of $6.73 million, the borough would never have been able to afford to pay for such a massive flood control endeavor on its own.

"Together, we can be very proud of a project with multiple benefits, including reduction in flood risk for those residents who live in and around Wreck Pond, the anticipation of increased fish passage between the ocean and the pond and the gradual return to a healthier pond environment and water quality in one of the most scenic coastal lakes along the Jersey Shore," Naughton said.

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-4th Dist.) said he started working on securing federal funding after he took his first tour of homes flooded by Wreck Pond in 2003. He said Sandy was the "trigger" to finally get the federal money.

He called the plan a "bold and effective one" that "was able to bring disparate elements together to begin this project – dredging coupled with the outflow and the huge changes that will be made to Wreck Pond."

State Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin said Wreck Pond has been a "key priority" on flood protection and water quality improvement.

"This project now is a key component to that," he said. "We've invested a lot of time and money...on this project."

The project is getting its funding from a $3.85 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and another $2.2 million from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Spring Lake is kicking in $130,000 and Monmouth County has provided extensive technical, engineering and construction assistance.

Eric Schrading, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service field supervisor in New Jersey, said the project is the "silver lining" from Sandy.

"Wreck Pond and the Department of Interior-funded projects are important in that they restore our natural resources and public lands to preserve natural benefits and quality for coastal residents and they strengthen natural defenses such as beaches and marshes that protect coastal communities and sustain wildlife and people," Schrading said.

This article appeared in print on page B1 of the Star Ledger, and can be read online here:
http://www.nj.com/monmouth/index.ssf/2016/01/polluted_shore_pond_headed_toward_cleanup_official.html