LONG BRANCH — The city’s largest lake has been added to a federal study on coastal lake flooding since superstorm Sandy.
Lake Takanassee, along with two other Monmouth County lakes, was added last month to an ongoing study by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on coastal lakes impacted by the 2012 storm and how to reduce the flooding that has since recurred.
“They are doing a study on coastal lake flooding, and any help we can get with the lake we’ll be happy,” Long Branch Business Administrator Howard Woolley Jr. said.
Along with Takanassee, Wesley Lake in Asbury Park and Deal Lake are the other county lakes that were added to the study.
Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-Monmouth, Middlesex) said the study would benefit the areas surrounding the three lakes added to the study.
“When superstorm Sandy struck, its enormous storm surges caused flooding of our coastal lakes,” Pallone said. “The result was devastating for the surrounding area.
“A key element of the continued Sandy recovery is ensuring our coast and communities are better prepared when the next storm hits. The Corps’s study will help accomplish just that, and I am glad to announce that Lake Takanassee, Deal Lake and Wesley Lake will be included.”
The study is designed to help the federal government, states, and local communities better understand changing flood risks associated with climate change and to provide tools to help those communities better prepare for future storms.
Through the study, the Army Corps will develop a nine-step “Coastal Storm Risk Management Framework,” which will help officials identify and reduce risk for coastal areas.
Faith Teitelbaum, a trustee in the Whale Pond Brook Watershed Association, said the main issue with Takanassee is silt that has built up throughout the lake.
Along with the federal study, the lake has been subject to several attempts to reduce flooding and eliminate pollution including county dredging projects, cleanups spearheaded by Teitelbaum and the repair of the spillway on the easternmost portion of the lake, which would allow the city to control the water level during high tides and storm events.
“The Ross Island part was dredged and the little piece on the other side of Van Court was dredged,” Teitelbaum said. “But now they are supposed to be dredging Hollywood Lake, and that’s the one that’s been causing all the problems.
“That’s the one that gets all the algae growth on the eastern side of it, and it is just clogging up the whole system.”
With the buildup of silt on the western edges of the lake over the years, the aim of the dredging is to reduce pollution while curtailing a growing flooding problem in the surrounding area.
The first phase of dredging the lake from Norwood to Woodgate avenues was completed in 2013.
The dredging project is a partnership between Monmouth County and the city, with the county providing some manpower, funding and a depository for the dredge spoils as landfill cover.
For the first phase of dredging, the city was able to use the dredge spoils to stabilize the banks of the main portion of the lake.
In recent years members of the Whale Pond Brook Watershed Association have partnered with the governing bodies of all five municipalities within the watershed on mitigation plans for issues related to the brook, including flooding and pollution.
The Whale Pond Brook Watershed is the land area where surface water runoff empties into the Atlantic Ocean. It encompasses Ocean Township, Long Branch, West Long Branch, Eatontown and Tinton Falls.