Pursuant to statutory authority granted to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) at N.J.S.A. 58:24-2, and to ensure that the public health is not at risk from the consumption of shellfish that may have been subjected to pollution or other condition that may render the shellfish dangerous to health, by Administrative Order 2012-10A signed by the DEP Commissioner on October 26, 2012, effective immediately after sunrise on October 29, 2012, the Department closed all waters of the State to shellfish harvest because of potentially degraded water quality resulting from Hurricane Sandy.
The Department has determined, through monitoring of water quality and analysis of shellfish tissue, that the coastal waters of Sandy Hook Bay are now safe for the harvesting of shellfish in accordance with the Shellfish Growing Water Classification rules at N.J.A.C. 7:12. Accordingly, the Department hereby reopens the following waters and returns them to their prior classification:
All of the New Jersey State waters within the Sandy Hook Bay represented by the following depuration areas 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, 2B, 2C, 10A, 10B, 10C, 10D, 10E, and 11D (see map)
Portions of Administrative Order Number 2012-10a signed by me on October 26, 2012, and all previous Administrative Orders or portions thereof that are inconsistent with this Order, are hereby superseded and repealed.
This Order shall take effect at sunrise (7:12 A.M.) on December 15, 2012.
Any questions can be directed to the Bureau of Marine Water Monitoring at (609) 748-2000.
http://nj.gov/dep/bmw/sandy/20121215hooksignedwithmap.pdf
