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Concerned citizens, fishermen, residents of Deal Lake and area stakeholders will gather Friday to protest against a 3.5 mile beach replenishment project that stretches from Loch Arbour to Elberon.

The president of a local fishing organization says the project will destroy a well-known fishing area called Jetty Country, and a member of the Deal Lake Commission has growing concerns about the sand that is already entering the Deal Lake flume structure from the Asbury Park replenishment project.

At the Friday protest, to be held at the Deal Lake Flume House at 5 p.m., Asbury Park Fishing Club President Joe Pallotto will urge the Army Corps of Engineers [ACOE] not to pump a lot of sand onto the beaches between Loch Arbour and Allenhurst, not to notch the jetties and to be aware of the area around the flume structure, he said.

“This is Jetty Country to the fishing anglers —  once they notch those jetties it will be over for the fisherman.”

The roughly 3.5 mile section of beach reaches from Lake Takanassee in the Elberon section of Long Branch and extends approximately 3.5 miles, ending near Deal Lake in the Village of Loch Arbour.

An ACOE report and environmental assessment of the project calls for six existing groins to be modified to allow sediment to pass through.

The modifications, commonly referred to as notching, remove the rocks from the area of the groin closest to the sand so that water can pass through. But they prevent access to the groin during high tides and creates rip tides, causing hazardous swimming conditions, Pallotto said.

Pallotto is the protest’s main organizer, and it is not the first time he has protested against beach replenishment. During the 1990 beach replenishment project that rolled through Asbury Park, Pallotto was employed as the Asbury Park Beach Supervisor and served as a liaison to the Army Corps of Engineers replenishment project. Back then, he warned the sand would back-fill into Deal Lake and cause irreparable harm to the flume structure itself, but no one paid any mind, he said.

The Deal Lake flume structure lies under the jetty that separates Asbury Park’s Northernmost beach from Loch Arbour [opening at end of jetty shown at right].

“They thought I was nuts,” said Pallotto.

Pallotto made his stand, protesting against the project and making his case in the local media outlets and to Congressman Frank Pallone.

An $8 million dollar flume extension project was the end result, Pallottosaid.

Beach nourishment in Asbury Park is complete and sand is already being pushed up into the flume during high tide, Pallotto said. The replenishment effort, coupled with the sand that was already forced into the Lake by Hurricane Sandy, will make for dire circumstances in Deal Lake’s future, he said.

Don Brockel, chairman of the Deal Lake Commission, said sand from the Asbury Park beach replenishment is already clogging up the flume and diverting sand up into the lake.

“The reason I’m concerned is the Asbury Park replenishment project buried a good portion of the Eighth Avenue jetty in four to five feet of sand [shown above] which will be pushed into the north side of the jetty and thus could clog the flume over the next few years,” Brockel said. “We want to ensure the Corp understands the impact of their plans and provides funds for emergency sand removal in front of the flume.”

Members of the Deal Lake Commission teamed up with the The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to request $6.9 million in federal assistance to dredge the eastern end of Deal Lake that was damaged by Hurricane Sandy, and are still working to get the funds appropriated.

“We would like to note that there is tons of sand in Deal Lake that [the Corps] can have free of charge for their replenishment efforts,” Brockel said.

Renourishment for the Elberon to Loch Arbour Reach will occur every six years for the remaining 32-year period of analysis, the report says. The total project first cost, which includes real estate administration costs and pertinent contingency, engineering and design and construction management costs, is $134,638,000, the report said.

[Photos of the Eighth Avenue jetty and Deal Lake flume entrance provided by Don Brockel.]

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