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LINCOLN PARK
Temporary advisory goes into effect for second time this summer
NorthJersey
LINCOLN PARK — At 11:30 a.m. on a sweltering summer Monday, the gates to the borough's local swimming hole were open, but there wasn't a single car in the parking lot. Despite temperatures just under 90 degrees, only one person was sunbathing.
It was eerily quiet. There were no lifeguards on duty and no children running around building sandcastles. No one was fishing. Two people were manning the ticket booth, but nobody was in line.
Last Tuesday, the waters of Lincoln Park Community Lake were declared off limits because of a confirmed report of a harmful algal bloom (HAB). The declaration prohibits swimming, fishing and boating. It is advised to keep pets out of the water, too.
"I'm hopeful we're back open this week," Patti Delaporte, the lake director, said Monday.
The park will remain open for beach activities.
This is the second confirmed bloom report for the lake this summer, according to the New Jersey Department of Environmental HAB monitoring page. The last event resulted in an advisory that began June 1 and lasted 21 days.
Delaporte said the borough initiated the latest report as a precaution when a suspected HAB was spotted last week. The DEP confirmed the bloom, and the Health Department was notified and posted the advisory the next day.
The state tested the lake Friday, but the results were not immediately made available. Another round of testing was expected Monday. Delaporte said two consecutive passing results are needed for the advisory to be lifted.
"It's something that seems to be happening more frequently," she said, referring to lakes in other towns.
There were 10 suspected freshwater HAB reports so far in 2018, with six confirmed cases, the DEP said. Reports came in June from Barry Lake in Vernon, where a bloom was not detected, and Echo Lake in West Milford, where a HAB was confirmed by the agency.
Owen Kelly is a longtime Lincoln Park resident who frequents the lake and has fished there about eight times this year. He says it’s a great community meeting place and that the closure is a bummer.
“The bloom has been frustrating because it affects the fishing,” he said. “They’re trying their best to keep the place clean and pretty. The beach is lovely. They’re trying to remedy some of this.”
Kelly said he hasn’t caught a single fish in the lake this year and believes the fish population is down because of the blooms.
“I used to catch three or four bass on every outing,” he said.
Delaporte said that on a typical summer weekend, Lincoln Park Community Lake is jampacked and the parking lot is full. She said it's a popular lake but not everybody knows about it. Because of the advisory, the parking lot was not full this past weekend, she said, but members still came out.
On Monday the water appeared clean, and there was no obvious bloom sighting.
Larry Hajna, a spokesman for the DEP, said the advisory will remain in effect and water monitoring will be conducted until the bloom dissipates.
"These events tend to occur later in the summer, when water temperatures are their warmest," Hajna said. "They can take a while to dissipate, usually when weather turns cooler."
HABs are not truly algae, but are usually the result of cyanobacteria, he explained. Because cyanobacteria can be confused with typical algae blooms, the DEP launched a public information effort last year to help people identify and report them. Visit the DEP's information page to learn more: state.nj.us/dep/wms/HABS.html.
Algal blooms occur in freshwater and marine environments and are not all harmful, according to the DEP. They form from a rapid increase in algae and often result in a thick coating on the surface of the water. This can lead to low dissolved oxygen levels, which in turn can harm aquatic organisms, particularly fish.
Lincoln Park Community Lake is open to residents and non-residents. For information about membership and swim lessons, visit the borough's website: lincolnpark.org/327/LPCL---LP-Community-Lake.
Follow Jai Agnish on Twitter: @JaiAgnish. Email: [email protected].