VIDEO > Beware. Poor ocean water quality due to dredging. According to ‘Margate Citizens Questioning the Beach Project’ (MCQBP), the water quality index at Clermont Ave beach in Margate, NJ. was 125 on July 10. An index of 104 and above, is considered ‘poor’.
Elevated Bacteria Levels in Margate Surf Due to Dredging?
Between Monday, July 10 and Friday, July 14, there were multiple reports of NO SWIMMING ALLOWED between Fredericksburg & Granville in Margate. The swimming ban (intermittent in this area) was presumably due to fluctuating, sometimes high, bacteria levels in the surf.
MCQBP was made aware of a young boy taken to a physician with lesions on his body. He was swimming near the dredging and dune project. The doctor attributed his skin condition to polluted water.
Margate traditionally has a reading of ‘Excellent’ (0-26). A municipality must give an advisory on any reading over 104. A beach must be closed if the index is over 130.
Margate & Downbeach Dune Report.
The dune construction and beach enlargement efforts have made their way to Delavan Ave in Margate. Yellow tape and plastic orange fencing is now blocking or reducing normal access to the Margate surf between Fredericksburg & Delavan.
This area is either blocked off, un-attractive or un-usable to a beach-goer. Some street ends have no beach access at all. If you’re lucky, you’ll find a few areas where beach access is possible, but you’ll need to scale a 14 ft dune…..and a network of rusty, iron pipes.
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You can use the bulkhead steps / crossover to get onto the beach… but you’ll need to climb over the 14 foot dune…..and then find a way over the pipes, in order to get to the ocean.
When will the crossovers / steps over the new dunes be constructed? At this point, we don’t see any indication that completed dune work will be quickly followed-up by the building of dune crossovers/steps.
As of JULY 13, if you’re a senior citizen, or a mom with toddlers & beach wagons, or someone who can’t climb a 14 foot dune….. you’re going to want to avoid the beaches between Swarthmore Ave in Ventnor and Delavan Ave in Margate. That’s about 11 blocks.
Play it safe…. for the next few days…..stay south of the Margate Fishing Pier, and north of Swarthmore in Ventnor.
Feedback from Concerned Citizen, Glenn Klotz > It’s sad to watch our beautiful wide beaches being destroyed for no other reason except greed. This engineered beach will create even more problems than its supposedly going to solve. For one thing, access to the ocean beach on the other side of the berm is going to be a daunting experience for many especially the old and families with young children.
Because the Army engineered much of the berm with existing beach sand taken from along the bulkhead out to the berm the backside of this thing is steep and the only way over it will be a climb when they bother to build the paths ( probably not this summer.) The areas behind the berm will become for all practical purposes a dead zone to be crossed after going over the existing bulkhead.
If the remaining beach in front of the berm can’t be maintained the beach there will become very narrow at high tide and storms will scarp the face of the berm making access even harder. Without a doubt building, this in the middle of the busiest beach time of the year is punishment for defying Gov. Roadcone. It’s his parting gift to Margate for flipping him a bird.
Glenn Klotz