July 14, 2021| Environment
By: Lake Hopatcong Foundation
This week, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJ DEP) deployed two continuous monitoring buoys on Lake Hopatcong. Buoy ST-21 is located in River Styx and the Buoy ST-22 is located along the eastern shoreline across from Hopatcong State Park. According to NJ DEP Bureau of Freshwater and Biological Monitoring, two additional buoys will likely be deployed in the next week. The buoys are bright yellow, marked NJ DEP, and have strobe lights so they are visible at night.
UPDATE: Two additional buoys were deployed in Byram/ Indian Cove and Woodport Bay on July 20 and the Crescent Cove buoy has been removed for repair.
These monitoring buoys are part of the HAB Continuous Monitoring Program, developed to assist in the prediction & strategic response of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) in select waterbodies in New Jersey. Utilizing remote sensor and telemetry technology, the project creates a data feed of select water quality parameters in real-time to allow better, informed decision-making in HAB response strategies.
The data generated by this program will be displayed in real time, via NJ DEP’s Continuous Monitoring website. The data is used to inform HAB status and response actions and does not replace laboratory confirmation analysis for DEP alert postings. The sites selected were chosen due to recreational and/or drinking water significance, repeated HAB occurrence, duration, and elevated levels of the HABs at these water bodies.
