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Local surfers are teaming up with officials from the University of Delaware College of Marine and Earth Studies to test water where a Lake Gerar outfall pipe empties into the Atlantic Ocean.
On Monday, Jan. 22, Mark Carter, who chairs the local Surfrider chapter, met with college scientists and officials from the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.
“I think it was a really positive meeting. Both sides were really understanding of each other,” said Carter.
In the initiative, state agency officials and volunteers are working together to test local waters with more frequency, said Carter. DNREC, however, already regularly tests water for bacteria and other hazards.
“We would like to do two tests per month where key surfing takes place: Grenoble Street and Herring Point. Possibly with testing Grenoble, we can even do another site in Rehoboth,” said Carter.
He said he plans to add testing water off Virginia Avenue and Rehoboth Avenue near the Boardwalk too.
“It’s one of those things where having more people do tests will result in even more data, which is better. The college will facilitate the testing for us as a neutral body,” he said.
“We talked about the guys that were getting sick there. We looked at a site where all Surf
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the outfalls were,” said Carter.
In November, six surfers said they got sick after surfing the ocean off Grenoble Place in Rehoboth Beach, but other surfers have come forth saying they fell ill after surfing in waters from Cape Henlopen State Park to the Indian River inlet.
All the surfers who reported getting sick blame their illness on the water, and they all reported similar symptoms: fever, chills and severe sinus infection, often accompanied by a green or yellowish discharge.
More recently, Carter said one woman reported that her two high-school age children also became sick after surfing off Grenoble Place in November, bringing the total number to eight surfers who said they became ill in Rehoboth.
Increased media attention caused the woman to report the illness earlier this month, Carter said.
He said surfers who say they became ill have reported their health has returned to normal. “The guys that have been sick have gotten better. The articles show a little bit of the sense of the readership and how it gives a sense of what’s going on,” said Carter.
Robin Tyler, an environmental scientist with the state agency, said he has visited the outfall site and said the state will resume testing Rehoboth waters in the spring.
“We have been down there and looked at the situation at the outfall to determine where we will be able to sample,” Tyler said. His department plans to sample the water at the outfall, which extends from Lake Gerar into the ocean. Tyler said conditions, especially in winter, were not safe for testing. “Someone would have to wade out into the ocean at the end of the pipe. Under these conditions – storm conditions – it wouldn’t be a safe thing to do,” he said.
Tyler said no new complaints have been logged, and in order to get the best sample, warmer temperatures are necessary.
“The way it looks now, we are planning to do some sampling in the spring. But it will be after water temperatures have warmed up, which is conducive to bacteria growth and when people start using the water more frequently,” said Tyler.
In the meantime, Surfrider volunteers have formed a partnership with the Lewes college, through its citizen monitoring program. Volunteers will begin sampling water in February, said Joe Farrell, a marine advisory specialist with the University of Delaware’s sea grant program. And Carter is looking for more volunteers. Since 1991, through a joint effort with DNREC, college scientists have already been testing the Inland Bays, and the college recently added the Broadkill River to its list of sites.
“What we do is piggyback these other programs DNREC has. Our staff person collects samples from all these beaches and brings them to the college,” said Farrell.
Carter said he reviewed DNREC’s testing sites and hopes to add to the college and DNREC’s work.
“We’re out there all year, we can help them out getting more samples,” said Carter.
“The beaches have been in pretty good shape, but Mark and Surfriders are concerned about some areas that are not routinely tested,” said Farrell. “What we were thinking about was how we could work together, in addition to DNREC? How can we provide data helpful to recreational users?” said Farrell.
Farrell said the college has had a partnership with the state for a number of years by cooperating with DNREC’s Division of Water Resources Shellfish and Recreational Water Branch. “I don’t consider the state bad guys, but they have multiple priorities they tend to,” said Farrell.
Cleanup Challenge
Aiming for cleaner beaches in 2007, a dozen volunteers scoured Fenwick Island beaches in a clean-up effort as a part of the Cleanup Challenge, which began Jan. 1.
In Fenwick Island, volunteers targeted state beaches and the park, and Carter said the shoreline was largely clean.
“We targeted access points between homes and the little dunes along the walkways leading to the beaches,” said Carter.
Carter anticipated about 25 people would help, but because of rainy weather, only a dozen turned out.
“Mostly we found cans and bottles and things like that. We also found what looked like a piece of a railroad rail - a 3-foot metal piece embedded in the sand. We found a tire too, but it wasn’t like a car tire, it was like a tractor tire. It took two people to move it out of the water,” said Carter.
Farrell agrees that in general, area beaches are clean. Still, he said, “We will have volunteers looking for harmful things.”
After a successful meeting with state and college officials, Carter said Jack Pingree, Shellfish and Recreational Water Branch program manager for DNREC, may also be a featured speaker at the surfer’s monthly meeting. The next meeting will be held at 7 p.m., Monday, Feb. 5, upstairs at Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats, 320 Rehoboth Ave.
Surfriders will hold another beach clean up Saturday, April 21, at Herring Point at Cape Henlopen State Park. For more information, or to volunteer, call 249-8834.
Contact Kevin Spence at newsroom@capegazette.com.
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