Deal Lake, Monmouth County, NJ

Deal Lake Commission           Monmouth County, NJ

                                                                                                                                                            View the historic 1896 lake photo

Next Commission Meeting

Thurs, October 15, 2009 @ 7 pm

Loch Arbour Municipal Building

Annual Lake Lowering

October 13 - 19  Deal Lake will be lowered about one foot to allow lakeside residents the opportunity to clean their shoreline, etc.

Coming Up.....

October 18 - 9am to 3 pm           Friends of Deal Lake are sponsoring a Lake Clean-up.  Meet at Asbury Park Boat Ramp - 7th Avenue at Main St. Gloves and trash bags will be provided.


      Friends Of Deal Lake

The Friends meet monthly, usually the 4th Thursday at Interlaken Borough Hall. Please check their website for latest information at FriendsOfDealLake.com.
The Friends of Deal Lake is a grass roots advocacy group. If you would like be part of this active organization, please attend their next meeting or contact them at FriendsOfDealLake@Yahoo.com.

Deal Lake Regional Storm Water Management Plan (RSWMP) News

The NJ DEP continues to drag their feet as to when final approval will be given to our RSWMP.   Updates on progress will be provided at our regular monthly meetings.

Download the latest versions of our RSWMP Regulatory Standards and Voluntary Measures.

Here are a list of suggestions from our Environmental Consultant and an older list of p roposed projects that we are considering for inclusion into the Deal Lake RSWMP.

Great Stormwater Website Check out the State of Maryland's Department of the Environment website about Stormwater. It's one of the best educational sites we have seen.

Maps and Facts

A simple map helps understand the complexity of Deal Lake's Ecosystem.

Fishermen

Deal Lake's public boat ramp is located at the western end of 7th Avenue next to the railroad tracks. Just West of Main Street (Route 71). Here's a Google Map to the Boat Ramp. Many trophy size Large Mouth Bass have been caught. Read NJ's Best Kept Fishing Secret.

Bacterial Source Study Presentation

At our February 13th meeting, John Tiedemann of Monmouth University and Bill Sciarappa of Rutgers University presented the results of water testing at 10 locations within Deal Lake. The testing revealed high occurrence Fecal Coli from waterfowl, wild animals, farm animals (mostly likely transported via geese) and humans (most likely from breeched sanitary sewers). Pet waste is relatively low. More to come.

Lake Clean-up - Sunday Oct 18 - 9am-3pm

The Friends of Deal Lake are sponsoring a Lake Clean-up. Please give a few hours of your time to help pick-up trash and debris that has floated into Deal Lake. The clean-up time is from 9 am to 3 pm. Meet at the boat ramp just off Main Street on Seventh Avenue.  For more info go to FriendsOfDealLake.com.   See you Sunday!

Deal Lake Recieves Herbicide Treatment

On Tuesday, June 16th, The Commission's Lake Consultant applied about 1000 pounds of Navigate Herbicide to try to control the excessive weed growth. Although not as bad as last year, evasive weeds are still a problem in sections of Deal Lake.

State of Deal Lake Report Released

A working draft of the Commission's first comprehensive report has been released.   Download State of Deal Lake Report in pdf.

Purpose: "This report focuses attention on the critical environmental problems of Deal Lake and its tributaries. The report offers the best cost-effective solutions and emphasizes the need to bring municipalities, county departments and state agencies together to find funding and resources to implement these solutions.

For decades the emphasis has been to clean the ocean without regard for the polluted coastal lakes and their impact on the ocean. This report lays the foundation to restore Deal Lake by identifying all the issues and proposing realistic solutions. Some solutions are contrary to existing state regulations."

   Weed Harvesting Completed              8/29/08

The Commission completed weed harvesting of the Sunset Section of Deal Lake. The difference is astonishing! Just like last year, it looked like you could walk across the lake on a green carpet.

              This photo shows the excessive weed growth

The first phase of weed control occurred on June 13th when our lake consultant, Princeton Hydro, applied over 1100 lbs of Navigate, a systemic herbicide that killed most weeds in the shallow areas of the Sunset Section.

                        Applying Navigate Herbicide

On July 30th, the only contractor in the tri-state area, began a thorough harvesting of the 8 acre section and removed about 50 cubic yards of Milfoil, Labomba, and Lillies.

              Here's the Weed Harvester at work

Ocean Township Public Works was stationed on the lake access point just off Wickapecko Drive with a huge clam shell front-end loader and one of their leaf and brush trucks. The entire operation went quite smooth, thanks to the experience of the OT Public Works employees and Director.

As the weed harvester is working close to shore, the before and after can be clearly seen.

Knowing that the weed problem is spreading to other sections of lake, the Deal Lake Commission has already begun the process to apply for a Weed Treatment permit from the DEP for next year. Ultimately, the solution to ending the weed problem is to remove the last 50 years of organic build-up that feeds the growth. As discussed in our State of Deal Lake Report, since dredging right now is out of reach, our best solution is to "hydrorake" the shallow sections of the lake to remove all the organic material, weeds, and debris.   Aquatic Analysts has a video on YouTube. View the company's video to see how the Aquamog or Hydrorake works.

Deal Lake is a beautiful treasure savored by residents, vacationers, fishermen and boaters for over a century. Lenni Lenape Indians would fish and eat the bounty of clams and oysters. During Colonial times the British harvested seafood to be sent back to England. During the Revolutionary War, Patriots would execute small attacks on British ships retreating to Deal Lake for cover from the British Navy as they fired their cannons at them.

Called Lake Uliquecks by the Lenape Indians, an 1781 map shows Deal Lake was known as White's Pond. In the early 1800's it was known as Hogs Swamp Pond. On the 1851 Lightfoot map, it was called Corlies Pond or Great Pond while Sunset Lake was known as Little Pond.   An 1873 map calls it Boyleston Great Pond and shows it still is accessible to the ocean. With the engineering completed around 1890, Deal Lake was created as it is known today, closing off the inlet and creating several separate lakes and ponds. Deal Lake was a model system of the late nineteenth century for Flood Control and Storm Water Management. Over time, the lake lured many to build along its banks. Today, almost the entire shoreline has been developed with many homes built within the 100 year flood plain.

The Deal Lake Commission was created by the seven Monmouth County, NJ towns that surround Deal Lake. The Commission was chartered in 1974 by the Borough of Allenhurst, City of Asbury Park, Borough of Deal, Borough of Interlaken, Village of Loch Arbour, Neptune Township, and Ocean Township.

Today, the Commission oversees the vitality, on-going maintenance and restoration to preserve Deal Lake for future generations. Each town appoints one volunteer Commissioner to serve annually. Commissioners give of their time because of their love for this lake and for their desire to preserve this treasure for future generations.

These views are of Terrace Pond looking towards the Colonial Terrace Golf Course. This section of Deal Lake was entirely filled in and completely over grown with trees and vegetation. Dredging, completed in 2003, restored most of the lake to pre-1969 conditions.