AVON-BY-THE-SEA — The Borough of Avon-By-The-Sea was recently approved for a $490,768 grant through the Department of Environmental Protection to complete phase II of the Living Shoreline project.
“On the Avon side of Sylvan Lake, the wall was crumbling and it needed to be replaced and there were a lot of water issues with the lake,” said Avon-By-The-Sea Grant Coordinator, Barbara Suchecki. “The living shoreline was something we looked into because it could replace the wall and bring other benefits to the lake as well.”
The borough originally started this project in 2016 by applying for a Section 319[h] grant through the DEP to create a living shoreline on the Southeastern side of Sylvan Lake. This type of grant is distributed throughout the state to help eliminate state water quality impairments, according to the New Jersey State website. The grant of $472,750 was awarded to the borough and construction started in 2017.
This shoreline project has now helped to create a type of natural filter in which water runoff would flow through rocks and different types of plants before entering the lake, eliminating nonpoint source pollution that could negatively impact the lake. This grant also helped to pay for the removal of a deteriorating bulkhead wall.
