Diet Prescribed for Newton Lake's Algae Woes, but More Work Needed

With wall-to-wall algae mats choking it in many spots and smelly gunk overtaking the water flow, it’s time for Newton Lake to “go on a diet.”

That’s the assessment of an expert hired to clear Newton Lake of the sickly green algae that is not only an indication of the lake’s health, but is marring the lake’s scenic views.

The strategy for helping Newton Lake, however, is more akin to cosmetic surgery first, diet second, to help restore the waterway.

Newton Lake’s health and aesthetics have long been a community conversation, but as the sickly green algae mats encroached on the lake earlier than ever this year, the debate bloomed just as fast. What will Camden County do about it? Can it be a chemical-free process? Will any solution simply be a Band-Aid on a long-term problem?

Freeholder Jeffrey Nash, liaison to the Department of Parks, hosted a community meeting in Oaklyn Monday to answer those questions and more from the 50 residents gathered. He didn’t pull any punches when it comes to the state of Newton Lake.

“I know that it looks like crap,” Nash said. “We’re here to fix it.”

The plan calls for an immediate solution already underway to rid the lake of the algae mats and plant overgrowth. Then the long-term solutions will come into play, Nash said, and are still under discussion. First though, the lake needs urgent attention.

There is good news, said Stephen J. Souza of Princeton Hydro. His firm is working this week and next to get rid of the algae mats.

“When people say lake dying, it’s just the opposite,” Souza explained. “What’s happening is the lake needs to go on a diet.”

An abundance of phosphorous and nitrogen from storm water runoff, lawn care products seeping into the lake and the ubiquitous Canada geese and their even more ubiquitous droppings all help add to the problem.

“As soon as you get a little bit of an increase in water temperature, it’s just like a dandelion growing on your lawn. The algae takes off,” Souza explained. “The thing about this type of mat algae is that it starts from the bottom and gets its nutrients from the sediment. As the mats build up and photosynthesize and create oxygen, it pushes up the mats from the bottom.”

Princeton Hydro is using a Truxor machine to dislodge and discard the algae mats from lake; the discards will be sent to a landfill. Then the company will treat Newton Lake with a copper sulfate-based algaecide. The algaecide is not harmful to humans or wildlife, Souza and Nash assured residents.  

The approaches have to work in tandem because New Jersey doesn’t allow algaecide when more than 40 percent of the water surface is covered with algae; it can lead to fish kills. And simply tossing the algae without the copper sulfate won’t end the conditions allowing the algae to bloom.

The plan calls for the algaecide application as needed through Sept. 30, the latest date allowed by the state. All told, Princeton Hydro’s work will run about $25,000.

Five-pronged approach in the works

But Princeton Hydor’s work isn’t going to be enough, said Andrew Kricun, executive director and chief engineer of the Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority.

If Camden County has learned anything recently, it’s that a bunch of small solutions don’t work in the long term. Those aerator fountains? Nope (even if they look nice.) Letting the riparian buffers grow tall? Cutting them back completely? Nope. Even dredging in 2002, a $1 million undertaking, didn’t lead to any long-term success.

“The key is really to eliminate storm water and sediment from getting into the (lake),” Kricun said. “Four of our five prongs are going to be about that.”

The county’s five-pronged, long-term plan involves:

• Identifying and eliminating large-scale sources of runoff, such as the runoff from the PATCO speedline.
• Installing rain gardens around the lake to capture and divert the storm water runoff before it can reach Newton Lake.
• Maintain the riparian buffer to prevent sediment from entering the water.
• Take erosion control measures around the lake.
• Educate residents about their part in controlling what enters the lake, including picking up pet waste, avoiding certain lawn care products and not feeding the Canada geese.

What about dredging, several residents questioned. One man noted that Nichols Pond, which sits between Merrick, Belmont/Dayton and Bettlewood avenues, used to be 6 feet deep. Today it’s so shallow the aerator installed there to help with water flow doesn’t work; some days parts of it are little more than mudflats.

Kricun and Nash didn’t discount dredging, especially spot dredging, but noted that other measures could help with water flow first. If the multi-prong approach works, the Newton Lake’s sediment levels should drop, naturally deepening the lake.

“We have to come up with a long-term solution, find out how much it’s going to cost and figure out how we’re going to pay for it because we don’t want my successor in 20 years to be here again,” Nash said. “We’ll move ahead now to address the short-term problems and for the long-term problems, we’ll have more meetings like this.”