By Andrew Schmertz
Correspondent

Those making sure the state’s beaches are safe for swimmers wade through the water and take to the skies in an air and ground mission designed to keep beach-goers healthy. Virginia Loftin is one of the scientists on board.

“The reason we fly the coast is to look for anything that may effect bathing water quality. We’re looking for potential, slicks of flotable trash and debris,” said Loftin. “If it does impact the beach, or if it has the potential, we will call our local partners at the county health departments or the local health departments and let them know that there’s a potential for a wash up.”

This is one office with a terrific view. Flying low, and slow, the high wing aircraft provides excellent visibility of what lies below. The flying services are largely paid for by the “Shore to Please” license plate sold by the state. Pilot Dave Dorworth walks us through today’s flight path.

“We come out to route 72 to the causeway to Barnagat Bay. We go up the Barnegat Bay to the Metedeconk River, up the Metedeconk River to the outflow of pipes that is the Essex County Municipal Authority and then over to Sandy Hook,” Dorworth said.

During the summer the pilots of the parks and forestry service fly six days a week along New Jersey’s coast line. Scientists from the DEP are looking for anything that may impact the quality of the water below.

And scientists aren’t just using their eyes. On-board sensors can pick up high levels of chlorophyll — which could be evidence of algae and a possible sign of poisonous plants. That information is downloaded after every flight and is shown here.

At the beaches themselves, at least once a week, in the foggy-early morning hours, college students venture waist high into the water of lakes and rivers to collect samples, which are then taken to labs to study.

Matthew Csik from the Ocean County Health Department says they mainly look for naturally occurring bacteria that could make swimmers sick.

“In this case they are sampling for fecal coliforms, which is our fresh water indicator. In oceans, bays and rivers we look for enterococcus, which is a bacterium that lives in the GI tract of most warm blooded animals,” Csik said.

The water often fails after heavy rainstorms and failures then lead to beach closings until the water is safe again. Csik says that this summer, New Jersey’s beaches have been in very good shape.

Molly Applegate is one of the college students helping to make sure the water is good to go.

“I recently switched my major to have a concentration with public health. I just wanted to learn more about it and I thought this was a good way to kind of delve into that a little bit,” she said.

“We get a grant fund that comes from the beach act money at EPA to DEP and is then divvied up among the participating counties. We use that grant money to fund training, salary and equipment that we need to take care of this program,” Csik said.

So these are some of the beach lifeguards you don’t see — keeping you safe before you ever get here.