By Kenny Walter
Staff Writer
OCEAN TOWNSHIP- The township council is hoping a federal grant will help curtail some of the flooding issues near Deal Lake
The council submitted an application during the Feb. 25 meeting for a Nonpoint Source Pollution Control Grant through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that could fund two retention ponds at Seaview Square Mall to help with stormwater runoff.
“This will help mitigate a lot of water back there,” Mayor Christopher Sicilliano said during the March 10 workshop meeting. “It is a lot of impervious (coverage) that is going to flow into the retention ponds.
“That’s going to go a long way to head off a lot of water that is being sent into Deal Lake.”
Township Manager Andrew Brannen said the sediment being picked up by the flowing stormwater in various parking lots in the area would be dropped off into the retention ponds before they would hit Deal Lake.
“These would now be sediment based, it would give that stormwater a controlled structure and it won’t get from here to the next system until some of the sediment drops out,” Brannen said. “So you are going to keep it out of Deal Lake.
“These will have to be maintained but it is a lot cheaper with much better access.”
Brannen also said during the meeting the town will revise plans to extend the parking lot at the municipal building by bringing the stormwater retention system above ground.
“All the stormwater was going to go underground and it got very expensive to do that,” Brannen said. “So we are going to go a different route and go with a basin. We are going to lose eight or nine spots, but we are still going to have almost 40 spots.”
According to Brannen, the town will save approximately $200,000 by revising the stormwater plan on the parking lot.
In 2014, the council authorized a $120,000 bond ordinance to fund the purchase of a small piece of property from neighboring Congregation Torat El to expand the parking lot to improve the safety conditions for cars looking to exit the municipal complex onto Monmouth Road.
According to Brannen, the town will have to go back to the planning board for approval of the revised plan.
