Recent Closing of Harry Wright Lake is 'Anomaly,' Says Public Works Director

A of Harry Wright Lake in Whiting earlier this month due to elevated levels of bacteria in the water is not expected to be a regular occurrence, according to Manchester Township Public Works Director Stephen Stanziano.

“Historically, we’ve had no problems there in the past until this year,” said Stanziano.

The public works director attributed the higher levels of bacteria in the lake not to the quantity of rainfalls the area has experienced this summer, but rather to their intensity.

“The intense rainfalls we’ve gotten can stir up bacteria and all kinds of unfriendly things on the ground, and that will drain into the lake,” Stanziano said. “We’re hoping that it’s an anomaly this summer, it’s always been a problem-free lake. We’ve had no remediation there in the 17 years I've been here.”

Stanziano also said that the water samples taken from the lake, which led to the lake’s by the Ocean County Health Department, may not have been an accurate representation of the lake’s water quality.

“The samples were taken from water near the shoreline, but that’s where the lowest-quality water would be in the lake. That’s not where people are swimming,” said Stanziano — and suggested that samples taken from a deeper part of the lake, farther away from the shoreline, would have provided a more precise measurement of Harry Wright Lake’s water quality.

Stanziano said that the township has explored nearly every lawful option at controlling the number of Canada geese (whose droppings are a likely contributor to the higher bacteria levels) who frequent the area surrounding the lake, but to no avail so far.

“We can’t physically remove them without obtaining certain permits, since they’re a protected species. We’ve tried stationing plastic owls near the lake, since owls are predatory, to scare them away, we’ve tried geese distress signals. That worked the first time, but not the second time, since the geese determined that the signal was not real,” Stanziano said.

Stanziano said that the Farmingdale-based Geese Police, a company which uses border collie dogs to scare away the geese, has been successful and is something that Manchester Township could consider utilizing.

However, Stanziano didn’t credit the geese with being the primary reason for the test failure at the lake.

“I think they’re an annoyance, but we have beach attendants who rake up as much of what the geese leave behind as possible. The overall factor was the intensity of the rainfall,” said Stanziano.