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effects of pollution sources on ambient water quality can best be recorded. The 

 stations are listed in Table A of the Appendix. The DEPE, the DOH and the health 

 agencies review the locations of the stations annually, and add new stations or 

 delete old stations to reflect changes in the location of recreational beaches and the 

 discovery and remediation of pollution sourci s. 



In 1992 all but two of the ocean stations were located at recreational bathing 

 beaches. This report refers to those stations as recreational monitoring stations. 

 Two stations were located at areas closed to recreational water activities that have 

 recurring water quality problems. These two stations are referred to as 

 environmental monitoring stations. 



Not all recreational beaches have monitoring stations associated with them. 

 When beaches are adjacent and the water flow is not obstructed, the beaches can 

 share a monitoring station, because the water quality at the monitoring station will 

 be representative of the water quality at the adjacent beaches. 



For this reason, many recreational ocean beaches can share monitoring stations 

 but recreational bay beaches cannot. Ocean beaches are contiguous; in the absence of 

 potential pollution sources located between the beaches (for example, sewage 

 treatment plant discharges, stormwater discharges, and tidal flows from inlets), the 

 water quality at the beaches is similar. The same is not true of bay beaches. Bay 

 beaches are more isolated than the ocean beaches because the shoreline is not 

 continuous. Marshes, bulkheading, and nonsloping shores separate beaches in the 

 bay. Therefore, water quality at one bay beach is not representative of the water 

 quality at nearby beaches. 



At the monitoring stations, the health agencies monitor water quality in 

 accordance with the procedures specified in the Field Sampling Procedures Manual 

 published by the DEPE in May 1992, and the New Jersey State Sanitary Code, Chapter 

 IX, Public Recreational Bathing, N.J.A.C. 8:26. From May through September the 

 samples collected at the monitoring stations are analyzed weekly. The laboratories 

 of the Atlantic County Municipal Utilities Authority and the Monmouth, Cape 

 May, and Ocean County Health Departments perform the analyses for the 

 monitoring stations in those counties. Samples from Middlesex County monitoring 

 stations are analyzed by State-certified private laboratories. 



The samples are analyzed to determine the concentrations of fecal coliform and 

 enterococci. As discussed in section B below, fecal coliform is the regulatory 

 standard for analyzing nearshore water quality. Enterococci is an alternative to fecal 

 coliform as a bacterial indicator of fecal pollution; the DEPE uses enterococci data to 

 quantify the relationship between concentrations of that bacteria and fecal pollution, 

 and to establish a database of ambient enterococci concentrations. 



The water analyses for fecal coliform concentrations are performed using either 

 the modified Al most probable number (MPN) technique or the membrane filter 



