By Alex Napoliello of the Star Ledger/NJ.com Nov. 27, 2016 -

When the 73-acre Wreck Pond overflows, a decades-long problem, its surge prompts frequent beach closures and carries devastating impacts to the coastal environment and nearby homes.

With the completion of a concrete culvert that is part of Gov. Chris Christie administration's $7.4 million lake restoration project, officials are a step closer to improving the health of the pond and the surrounding community.

Nearly 16 months after the launch of the project, federal, local and state officials gathered in Spring Lake on Monday, with Wreck Pond as the backdrop, to announce the culvert's completion. 

"It's hard to overstate how important this is to the residents of Spring Lake and to the overall health of the pond," Spring Lake Mayor Jennifer Naughton told the small crowd gathered in the blustery cold.

The Wreck Pond project also includes dredging 37,000 cubic feet of material from the pond, a process that is almost finished, Naughton said. 

The 600-foot-long culvert will essentially act as an inlet that can be managed by the opening and closing of a gate during severe weather events.

It will help restore tidal flows between the ocean and the pond, making it easier for fish to flow back and forth and improving water quality. It will also allow water to release from the pond quickly and to control ocean water from coming in.

Beach closures, a frequent occurrence after heavy rains brought bacteria into the ocean, will now be a thing of the past, officials said.

Congressman Chris Smith (R-4th Dist.) said he remembers meeting the residents whose homes were left with a hazardous ooze following flooding events in Wreck Pond.

"This will not only mean there is no more beach closings here, which was almost an epidemic for a long time, but also the hazards posed to the residents," Smith said.

The funding for the $7.4 million Wreck Pond project came from the federal, state and local level. The project includes $4 million dedicated to the concrete culvert.

The brunt of the cost was footed by the Department of Environmental Protection's Flood Hazard Risk Reduction and Resiliency grant program. The United States Department of the Interior kicked in $2 million, while Spring Lake covered $915,000 of the cost.

The American Littoral Society provided the studies and surveys to support the financial need for the work and is managing the restoration project. As the project progresses, students from Monmouth University are monitoring water quality and aquatic life in the pond. 

"This (project) represents a demonstration that we can both restore and protect the coastal environment in New Jersey as well as reduce the exposure and vulnerability of the towns along the coast to future storms," Tim Dillingham, executive director of the Littoral Society, said. "We did it on time; we did it on a budget."

DEP Deputy Commissioner David Glass said the Wreck Pond project is just one example of how the $50 million Flood Hazard Risk Reduction and Resiliency grant program is achieving "positive environmental results" along the coast.

"We're safeguarding local communities, working to improve infrastructure and preserving a $42 billion tourism industry," Glass said.

The grant program has also dished out $6.2 million for the construction of a discharge pumping station in nearby Lake Como, along with other projects in flood-prone areas of Atlantic, Cape May and Bergen counties.

This article ran in the Nov. 27 2016 print edition of the Star Ledger, and the original story can be found online at:
http://www.nj.com/monmouth/index.ssf/2016/11/wreck_pond_press_conference.html