The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has placed swimming advisories on five coastal locations across Ocean and Cape May counties after water testing found enterococci levels exceeding the state's regulatory limit of 104 colonies per 100 milliliters of sampled water. The flagged sites — Cedar Point Beach and Beachwood Beach West in Ocean County, plus Wildwood and Bay, Baywyn and Bay, and Ferry and Bay in Lower Township, Cape May County — remain under active monitoring as of June 21. The advisories arrive at peak summer travel season, putting the state's graduated enforcement framework under scrutiny.
How the Advisory and Closure Framework Operates
New Jersey's protocol draws a deliberate line between advisories and closures. An advisory is triggered the moment a single test result clears the 104-colony threshold; it initiates a round of follow-up sampling but does not automatically shut down a beach to swimmers. A full closure requires two consecutive samples that both fail to meet water-quality standards, and beaches stay closed until testing confirms bacteria have returned to acceptable levels. As of June 21, the DEP's monitoring dashboard recorded no active coastal or freshwater closures statewide, meaning the five advisory sites remained open even as resampling continued.
The Enterococci Indicator and Its Limits
Enterococci are the standard microbial metric for recreational water quality at saltwater beaches because they correlate reliably with sewage contamination. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency characterizes the bacteria themselves as "typically not considered harmful to humans," but treats elevated readings as a sentinel signal — evidence that other pathogens, including viruses, bacteria, and protozoa, may be present. Those organisms can cause illnesses involving the skin, eyes, ears, and respiratory system. The EPA also flags a secondary exposure route: consuming seafood harvested from waters with fecal contamination can result in illness.
Scope of the June Testing Round
The current advisories follow a wider testing sweep conducted the week prior. On June 16, elevated fecal bacteria were detected at three ocean beaches in Monmouth County and six river and bay sites along the Jersey Shore, according to NJ.com. The majority of those locations returned to acceptable levels after follow-up testing, a pattern consistent with the transient nature of stormwater-driven contamination events.
Sourcing the Contamination
The EPA identifies several pathways through which enterococci reach recreational water: discharges from wastewater treatment plants, leaking septic systems, stormwater runoff, sewage released from recreational boats, and waste from domestic animals and wildlife. The agency's multi-source framework matters for remediation — a single-cause fix rarely resolves readings that trace back to diffuse, weather-dependent inputs. New Jersey DEP, the state Department of Health, and local health officials jointly conduct the regular beach-testing program that generated the current advisories. Monitoring of the five flagged sites will continue until bacteria levels satisfy state standards.