January 2016

If you remember, in 2014, two Whale Pond Brook watershed regional meetings were sponsored by Ocean Township. Chris Obropta, PhD P.E. Rutgers Cooperative Extension (RCE) Water Resources Program and Dave Peifer, ANJEC addressed storm water issues. The goal of these meetings was to begin to find solutions to mitigate our watershed flooding and stream bank erosion.

As of January 2016, Chris Obropta and the Whale Pond Brook Watershed Association have entered a formal agreement to help further those goals of the Whale Pond Brook regional meetings: to help reduce flooding and improve water quality on our watershed.

Dr Obropta’s team has been busy performing the following tasks and will make presentations to each of the watershed towns.

• Task 1 – Conduct an Impervious Cover Assessment (ICA) for the five municipalities within the Whale Pond Brook Watershed (Ocean Township, West Long Branch Borough, Eatontown Borough, Long Branch City, and Tinton Falls Borough).
• Task 2 – Develop Impervious Cover Reduction Action Plans that will identify potential sites for impervious cover reductions using digital imagery. Each plan will contain 10 to 20 potential sites and is intended to be a living document so that sites can be added.
• Task 3 – Prepare Design Plans for Demonstration Green Infrastructure Projects

The RCE Water Resources Program will use the impervious cover reduction plans for the five municipalities to identity priority green infrastructure sites and prepare engineering design plans for two green infrastructure projects within the Whale Pond Brook Watershed. Recommended green infrastructure methodologies will include rain gardens, bioswales, pervious pavement, tree filter boxes, stormwater planters, and/or rainwater harvesting systems.

One of the sites currently being assessed by the team is on the Ocean Township Swim Club property. We are hoping this team will help us find a suitable place for our volunteers to plant a native plant and butterfly rain garden. This rain garden is part of the education and outreach grant from the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association – Watershed Institute to conduct a series of workshops entitled ‘Restoring a Watershed: A Community Takes Action.

Our first seminar “Watershed Ecology” will be held at the Ocean Township library on April 23 during the Ocean Township Green Fair. We have a website where we would like you to put your comments about our watershed. Do you have flooding on your property? Do you see algae in the water where you live? Send us pictures and we’ll post them on the website. Please let us know how the brook effects your yard and neighborhood. What is your vision? Let’s work together to make it better for the brook and the neighborhoods.

We hope to see you at the Ocean Township Green Fair on April 23 and bring the children.