Chef’s Night Out: More Than Just The Food

By Stephanie Faughnan

The water in the finished tank - which comes from the Brick Reservoir, from the Metedeconk River and/

(Towers - See Page 6)

The Morris (Avenue) water tower is one of three that has cell phone equipment attached, which is a source of revenue for BTMUA. This towner has a capacity of 2 million gallons and was built in 1973.

Brick MUA: How Salt Usage Harms Our Environment

By Alyssa Riccardi BRICK

– The Brick Township Municipal Utilities Authority and the Barnegat Bay Partnership teamed up to educate residents on how deicers affect our environment and how to use them responsibly.

With being in the midst of the winter season, snow and ice are inevitable. With that, many use road salt and another deicing products to keep our walkways and driveways safe. Although these products are helpful, they impact our environment and water supplies.

During the free community education program, Shari Kondrup from Brick Utilities explained how these products impact our water resources as well (Salt - See Page 5) to 12th grade. Visual arts teachers selected works from their art students all around the 12 schools and hung them throughout the halls and cafeterias inside the school. The displays consisted of more than just 2D art, but showcased ceramics, murals, digital designs and photography which are usually classes taken by the high school students.

The district also expanded the festival to their performing arts programs such as dance, drama, choral, instrumental, and bands. Performances were held in the auditorium and hands-on workshops were held inside classrooms.

Jennifer Lane, Supervisor of Science 6-12, STEM Coordinator and Visual Arts, stated that the festival is held around this time since March is Youth Art Month.

“It’s the most well-attended event in the entire district with over 1,000 people. It’s an extraordinary evening, it’s a very joyful and inspiring,” Lane said. “We wanted the students to see if they continued with their art path, how far they could actually go. It’s a great way to display everything that we do curriculum-wise within the school day.”

From personal experience and her art background, Lane explained that teaching the arts is fundamentally important.

“The arts were incredibly important to me growing up and I think they’re part of a whole child approach. In Brick we are so proud of our sports teams, we’re so proud of our leadership students who are in honor society and student government. The third critical piece in my opinion also with academics is that we really highlight the creative students and the students who have that capability,” Lane said. “Our music, performing arts and visual art programs are award winning and those students deserve their right to shine as well because they are equally important to everything that we do here at Brick schools. It completes the whole picture.”

Jude Harzer, Art Educator, Mural and Art Club Advisor at Brick Memorial High School, explained how the arts provide life-long learning skills to kids.

“With our tagline being ‘Arts Are Essential,’ it’s important because I think it is life-long learning and I feel like art’s being celebrated, especially during and post pandemic. It’s integral; like music, visual arts, graphic design. It’s the largest initiative in the world now. Being a creative thinker and problem solver, you find that in the arts. Not only are you teaching skills that are usable, we are trying to teach them to develop creativity and that’s rare in schools,” Harzer said.

“You get to see the level of achievement. [District Art Festival] is one night we get to see everyone’s talent. It’s impressive. Unless you have an event like this, no one sees the talent,” she added.

Inside Brick Township High School library was art created by students from both of the district’s high schools. One major display of artwork was done by Brick Memorial High School Senior Mary Jacob, who is a part of the school’s Mural and Visual Arts program and president of the Art Club. Her work is comprised of nine illustrative panels that will be displayed permanently at Warren Wolf Pre-K. Each mural has a distinct theme featuring animals as well as the school’s mascot Warren Wolf.

“Since it’s a new preschool they wanted illustrations, something that represents the schools but also for it to have a childlike theme,” Jacob said. “They needed a student to make up the designs, and I know digital illustration so I said ‘I could start them.’ Since I created the first illustration, it was kind of set that I’d be making the rest of them. That way all the digital illustrations would be the same style.”

Jacob began working on the project in November, with the final panels being painted as a collaborative effort by Mural students, Art Club, and Jacob herself.

“I worked on them every chance I had. I was thinking of themes and I thought it would be cool to do animals. With kids, it’s fun. I wanted to make sure I did one of each animal, with no repeats,” Jacob said.

“I really got into digital illustration during the pandemic, but I’ve always been into painting and more. People pass by and ask ‘what story book is this from’ and I tell them I made this and the characters. I’m really happy how they came out,” Jacob added.

Jacob said her plan is to go to school for graphic design, hoping it will lead to multiple career paths.

“I want to do more murals. Long term I want to do a little bit of everything, whether it’s illustrating a book or graphic design. I’m just very inspired,” Jacob said.

Brick Memorial High School Senior Ty Hogan had multiple pieces of work featured at this year’s event.

Being a graphic design student, his ‘Mustangs’ t-shirt design was voted on by staff and students to be printed. Several students got to visit Farro’s Tees along with Hogan to see and take part in the printing process.

“I actually whipped this up in the last five minutes of class. There were some other designs that I made before this one that I wish got in. But I never make anything that I don’t like, and I wouldn’t turn it in if I didn’t think it was good,” Hogan said.

Hogan was also the winner of this year’s poster design for the District Arts Festival. His poster featured images like a camera, dancer, music notes and theater masks, along with the slogan ‘Arts Are Essential.’

He explained how after working on the design, he discovered that it was the wrong size and became pixelated when printed out.

“I wanted to give up,” Hogan said. “I very quickly, in a day, with pure determination and some last-minute tweaks, ended up making it was it is now, upscaling it.”

In addition to his graphic design work, he is also a talented drummer and will be performing at the Stone Pony with his band and the end of March. “I’m blessed with two talents, as I’m a musician as well,” Hogan said. “For graphic design, I’d like to go to a good college. I hope to have good teachers, continue learning, and hone my craft.” as described ways to minimize these impacts.

During the early 20 th century, ice was manually shoveled off roadways. Today, it’s removed mechanically and deicers are applied to roadways prior to winter storms. Deicers are also used on sideways to prevent accidents just like roadways.

“It’s estimated that in 2021, over 25 million metric ton of salt were used,” Kondrup said. “Even though deicers keep us safe, it damages infrastructure and continues to do so. It damages roadways, sidewalks, buildings, and even our cars.”

Additionally, animals are attracted to road salts which man contain mineral concentrations that can aid in antler development and pregnancy. However, it causes road hazards for vehicles as certain animals come out during twilight. Birds mistake the salt as seeds as well.

“It’s studied that drinking water for these animals have contained highering salt levels over the years. No matter how the salt is consumed, it still harms wildlife,” Kondrup said.

Kondrup also explained how deicers can harm waterways through non-point source pollution and point source pollution.

“Non-point source pollution comes from many different sources of pollu - tion and cannot be traced back to an identifiable source. How does this get into our waterways? It can be blown in by the wind, thrown in by people, or rain/storm water that drains into the streams. Anything that is in the streets such as litter, oil, pet waste, and fertilizer creates pollution,” Kondrup said. When it comes to salt brine or rock salt, the snow and ice melt with the salt and washes into the storm drains.

“The salt doesn’t go away, it lingers. After decades of use, scientific studies are showing higher salt concentration in our streams, during the summer time as well,” Kondrup said. “As the salt mixes with the river water, some of it will go down stream with the flow of the river. Since salt water is heavier than fresh water, it will sink down to the bottom into the sediments within the stream bed.”

Deicers can also affect our ground water. Non-point source pollution can contaminate an aquifer when it rains or snows and ice melts, she said. The salt will wash off into the surrounding soil. This will stay saturated in the soil and eventually percolate into the ground water.

“Salt washes off land surfaces into streams from snow and ice melting and/or from rain. Salt percolates into groundwater/unconfined aquifers from snow and ice melting and/or from rain,” Kondrup said. “The stream becomes salty from surface runoff and recharge from the aquifer. As fresh water now becomes more salty, fresh water aquatic vegetation will die off. Fresh water aquatic species will move to fresher water upstream. This allows invasive species to move in. A change in the soil can have the same effects.”

Over 80% of our water supply comes from the Metedeconk River Watershed, she said.

She further states that we can try to remove salt from water, however not all treatment processes can fully remove salt from our water.

What is Kondrup’s opinion on deicers? She believes that although we need deicers, we should be using them in a controlled way to manage usage.

“I’m not saying we shouldn’t be using deicers because we need them to keep our environment safe during inclement weather during the winter time. But we need to know how we can use them responsibly,” she said.

According to Kondrup, all deicers, whether they are labeled environmentally safe or not, will have some impact on our water sources and environment.

Sodium chloride is especially damaging to the environment. Kondrup said when using a deicer to read the labels and ingredients and choose one that will be effective for temperatures in your area.

Here are some additional tips she listed to use deicers responsibly:

• Do not salt while snowing or before. Either shovel periodically as it snows or wait until it stops. Clear the snow before it changes to ice.

• Try to shovel to a bare surface if possible. Then salt if necessary. Remember all deicers can’t melt ice past a certain temperature. If the one you are using won’t melt past the temperatures in your area and the pavement is still icy, use a different deicer or sand for traction.

• Don’t use too much salt. A 12 oz mug is enough to salt 10 sidewalk squares or a 20-foot driveway.

• When the pavement is dry, sweep up any excessive salt, store it in a bucket and use it for the next storm. Do not rise the salted areas with a hose. This may cause the areas to refreeze or to go down storm drains into our water supply.

• Evaluate and use salt where needed.

• Ask questions to snow removal services.

“Remember, once you put salt down it doesn’t go away. Salt alters the composition of soil, slows plant growth and weakens concrete, brick and stone that make up our homes, garages, bridges and roads. It travels into our lakes, rivers, streams and wetlands putting our aquatic life at risk and endangering our fresh water resources,” Kondrup said. “It only takes one teaspoon of salt to permanently pollute five gallons of water.” or from wells that are located at the BTMUA site - is treated and purified there before it gets sent to the other tanks. The water sources, referred to as “our portfolio of source water,” is varied, Maggio said, since some municipalities only have wells.

To learn more about the Metedeconk River Watershed, visit metedeconkriver.org. To learn more about the Barnegat Bay Partnership, visit barnegatbaypartnership.org.

BTMUA has four deep wells drilled to some 1,800 to 2,000 feet that tap into the Potomac-Raritan-Magothy (PRM) Aquifer, and a number of much smaller Cohansey Aquifer wells that are much shallower, to a depth of some 60-80 feet.

Water that has been used is wastewater and goes to one of the three Ocean County Utilities Authority water treatment plants and is not reused, he said.

The water towers here, which range in capacity from 350,000 gallons to 2 million gallons, are just empty space inside and are filled with water.

“One of the more important functions of a water tower is, it enables us to more easily and efficiently meet our customer’s demand,” Maggio said.

Customers are not drawing a constant flow of water during the day. There are peaks and valleys - such as during the night when very little water is drawn - and a higher demand in the morning when everyone is taking showers and preparing food.

There are also peaks during the summer when people are watering their lawns, he said.

“If we were trying to just directly meet that demand from the treatment plant, we would have pumps constantly revving up and slowing down to provide the water for the people that are using it,” Maggio explained.

The water towers provide a reservoir that has meters, or control valves, that sense a drop in pressure when there is high demand. The tanks provide water to make up for the drop in pressure instead of pumps having to constantly rev up, he said.

While the tanks operate on gravity, each tank has a booster station, or a pumping station which keeps the pressure up mechanically.

“There’s limits to how much pressure you can get from the height of the tower,” Maggio said. “Just the height of the tower will not necessarily provide adequate pressure.”

Brick has enough water tanks to meet the need. The Authority is just getting started on a long-term project to do general routine maintenance on the tanks, with a significant portion going towards painting the steel vessels inside and out.

Each tank will be inspected by an engineer who makes recommendations on any maintenance that is needed.

“Everything has a lifespan,” Maggio said. “For a water tank, it all depends on the conditions, but with painting, and keeping up with maintenance, even the tower from 1964 is a very good candidate for a paint job as opposed to a replacement.”

The special NSF (National Sanitation Foundation) - approved paint for use in drinking water protects the steel tanks from corrosion and the elements.

Painting a tank is a big operation. First, a large sheet is placed around the structure to enclose it, the old paint is sandblasted off, inside and out, and the old paint is collected in the sheet and taken offsite.

A new paint job should last 15 to 20 years, Maggio said. Painting a tank takes months and costs in excess of $1 million.

BTMUA supplies the water to all of Brick township except for the barrier island, which is supplied by New Jersey American Water.

Garden Club Upcoming Meeting

BRICK – It’s March and the first meeting of the year will be on March 19 at 7 p.m. Speaker for March: Confessions of a First Generation Female Farmer is the intriguing title of the talk this month. It will be presented by Hannah Conner of Ramblin’ Sol Farm (and CSA.) Hannah will share how she became a small scale organic farmer, what the current challenges are and why addressing those challenges is important to our food system and our food security as a whole. Hannah has a Bachelor of Science in horticulture. Before starting her own farm, she worked on various farms and in nurseries and flower shops.