2022 Midsummer Issue

Area Agencies Band Together
For the Sake of the Lake
Photo by KAREN FUCITO
Concerted efforts by locals, organizations and
government officials to tackle water safety,
lake pollution and a historical restoration are all
aimed at improving life at Lake Hopatcong.
On June 24, a bright sunny day—a perfect
lake day—officials gathered at Lee’s County
Park Marina to address water safety, a yearround
concern but one that takes on even more
importance during the lake’s busiest time of year:
summer.
It marked a solemn day, the seventh anniversary
of the boating death of Christopher D’Amico Jr.,
10, of Mount Arlington.
“It was a beautiful June day just like today. That
day, there was not a cloud in the sky and in an
instant, my family’s life was changed forever,” said
Christopher D’Amico Sr., the boy’s father.
The boy fell off the front of a pontoon boat and
was hit by the propellers.
“It’s called the tunnel of death. They fall off,
the boat goes over them and there is no way to
escape,” said Mount Arlington Mayor Michael
Stanzilis, who hosted the event.
Stanzilis said Christopher was one of two young
people killed in recent years at the lake after falling
off the front of pontoon boats.
D’Amico said he was at the marina with his wife,
Laura, and their two other children to remind
boaters and parents to use common sense while
on the water. He said his son’s death sparked the
passage of Christopher’s Law, sponsored by state
Sen. Anthony R. Bucco and signed into law in
2016. The law requires people who rent pontoons
or “party boats” to undergo a safety tutorial.
But boating safety is just one aspect of summer
safety, officials at the event said, drawing attention
to the drownings the week before of two Kenvil
brothers in a Mine Hill lake that brought to 14
the number of pre-summer drowning deaths
statewide.
10
Story by MICHAEL DAIGLE
Christopher D’Amico Sr. speaks at a June press
conference at Lee’s County Park Marina.
LAKE HOPATCONG NEWS Midsummer 2022
“About half of those [14] victims were under
25 years old,” said Morris County Commissioner
Director Tayfun Selen.
“Saddest yet is that many of the deaths were
preventable. Some did not know the waters or
hazards where they had waded in, and others
could not swim,” Selen said. “Most were just
having fun and not paying attention. That also is
the overwhelming cause of boating accidents.”
To ensure those using the lake are doing so
safely, the Morris County Sheriff’s Office has
added additional officers on the lake this year. The
bolstered presence is the result of the January 1
merger of the county park police into the sheriff’s
department, said Detective Denise Thornton.
The move allows twice as many sheriff’s officers
to be on the lake, operating two boats and a
personal watercraft. The department has had
officers on Lake Hopatcong since 2008, she said.
Morris County Sheriff James Gannon said
in a statement, “We work cooperatively and
in partnership with police in Jefferson, Mt.
Arlington, Roxbury, and Hopatcong, along
with US Coast Guard Auxiliary to ensure a safe
environment on and around Lake Hopatcong.
We are there when people need help, but we are
not a replacement for common sense, and that is
what water safety is all about. It’s about common
sense.”
A Cleaner Lake
Along with making the lake safer, efforts to
make the lake cleaner have also been ongoing.
Two main ingredients for a harmful algal bloom
are high levels of phosphorus, which is plant food,
and high temperatures. Both were present in
2019. The result was a HAB-induced green lake
that was unusable for months.
A series of heavy rains were followed by days
when the temperatures topped 90 degrees. Water
temperature measured at mid-lake—between
River Styx and Great Cove—hit 80.6 degrees in
July of that year.
The rain washed additional
pollutants into the lake
and the high temperatures
fostered the rapid growth
of cyanobacteria, which
produced the HAB.
The four lake towns are
working under a 20-yearold
agreement with the
state Department of
Environmental Protection to
reduce the amount of total
phosphorus by 7,253 pounds
over time.
Following the 2019 HAB—Lake Hopatcong
was one of 70 New Jersey lakes affected—the
search was on for new in-lake and off-lake
programs that would more aggressively remove
phosphorus from the lake and prevent it from
being washed into the lake.
In 2019, the Lake Hopatcong Commission was
awarded a $500,000 grant as part of the DEP’s
$13.5 million initiative to reduce and prevent
future HABs. In addition to the state grant, the
four lake towns and Morris and Sussex counties
provided $330,000 in matching funds to support
the pilot programs.
A separate program in Hopatcong installed an
aeration system in Crescent Cove, designed to
stir up the torpid water of that closed-end cove
and introduce more oxygen into the water. Along
that same shoreline, 35 homes in Hopatcong were
connected to public sewers.
Also, Hopatcong State Park in Landing was
connected to the Musconetcong Sewerage
Authority system, the last of properties in Roxbury
to be sewered.
In subsequent state funding, the Lake
Hopatcong Commission received $206,000
to conduct a refined quantification of Lake
Hopatcong’s internal phosphorus load, using
a combination of existing water quality data,
additional water quality sampling and modeling.
The report will be completed by early 2023.
The commission will also implement nonpoint
source pollution reduction projects in the Lake
Hopatcong watershed including the installation
of floating wetland islands, shoreline stabilization
with native plants, the replanting of stormwater
basins and maintenance of existing filtering boxes
to optimize stormwater filtration.
Separately, the Morris County Park Commission
received $495,000 to install several major green
infrastructure features at Lee’s County Park
Marina.
A $54,000 grant will be used to improve
stormwater management in Witten Park in
Hopatcong.
In June, nine floating wetland islands were
installed in Ashley Cove and Landing Channel
with help from staff and volunteers from the
Lake Hopatcong Foundation, Lake Hopatcong
Commission and Princeton Hydro, an
environmental consultant for Lake Hopatcong,
said Holly Odgers, a spokeswoman for the
foundation, in a release.
“These floating wetland islands are woven rafts
of recycled polymer that float on the water’s surface
and house a host of native wetland vegetation,”
she said. “Since a pound of phosphorus can
produce 1,100 lbs. of algae each year, that means
each 250-square-feet of floating wetland islands
can mitigate up to 11,000 pounds of algae.”
New funding is being sought for projects in
Roxbury, Mount Arlington and Jefferson, said
Kyle Richter, the foundation’s executive director.