Tuesday, May 15, 2007

The Explosive New Jersey Shore

When I think of the NJ shore, the sun, sand, ocean, even a Bruce Springsteen song comes to mind. The last thing I want to think about is the possibility of being blown up. Yet that is exactly what will be on the minds of beach-goers when Surf City reopens their stretch of sand on Memorial Day.

From The New York Times:

After removing 1,111 pieces of potentially explosive military ordnance from the sand and surf, the United States Army Corps of Engineers is ready to declare the beaches here and in neighboring Ship Bottom safe and recommend that they be reopened in time for Memorial Day.

So, once the State Department of Environmental Protection approves, the “Beach Closed” signs will come down. But in their place will be new signs prohibiting beachgoers from using metal detectors or digging deeper than a foot into the sand. These “land-use controls” will be posted at every entrance and on every lifeguard stand along the 1.4 miles of affected beach on Long Beach Island.

“We really don’t expect anybody to find anything, but you don’t know,” George Follett, an explosives safety specialist for the Army Corps who has been overseeing the removal of the devices, said on Monday. “If there’s a lot of wave action, something might be uncovered.” Keith Watson, the project manager, said he did not expect umbrellas to pose a problem, but children digging too deep might be warned to ease off.


I always loved digging deep holes in the sand when I was a kid at the beach. Being told not to dig and why would have scared the crap out of me. Now I just want to know why it is there. Apparently in World War I the navy dumped old munitions into the sea if they weren't needed and the explosives sat at the bottom of the ocean. Then the Army Corp of Engineers helped widen NJ beaches by dredging the bottom of the ocean, bringing along little bits of explosive metal amongst the grains of sand.

Store owners believe it will be a slow summer because of all the warnings. I certainly have no plans on going down there and many parents wouldn't want to take a risk with their active little ones. It seems a lot easier to go to another beach instead.