What's it Going to Take to Clean Up Newton Lake?

Camden County Freeholder Jeffrey Nash is blunt in his assessment of the condition of Newton Lake.

"It looks terrible," he said. "It smells terrible."

What Nash describes as "one of the most beautiful venues in Camden County" has an image problem—namely, the gloppy, green thickness of algae that covers the vast majority of its surface.

The freeholder is proud of county landscaping efforts to improve conditions at Newton Lake, which have included trimming back overgrowth and building retention walls along the perimeter of the waterway.

He is equally frank that first-draft plans for dealing with the algae blooms——haven't resolved the issue.

"That was not a success," Nash said.

Collingswood Mayor James Maley said that he has been working closely with the freeholders to investigate the problem, and complimented their efforts to date.

"They’re being prudent," Maley said. "They’re trying to spend tax money wisely, so you don’t go in and do the most expensive, biggest project first."

Maley said that "a mix of a lot of factors" have created the algae breeding ground.

"With it being stagnant and shallow water, the sunlight penetrates to the bottom, and all kinds of things grow," he said.

"Then you add to it runoff of things coming in, people’s fertilizer, all those things that people use everywhere that washes in, the sun cooks it."

Ironically, Maley said, one of the biggest reasons that the water level in Newton Lake has dropped off is because there are no longer sewage treatment plants—one in West Collingswood and another in Oaklyn, he said—that discharge into it.

"The good news is that’s not happening," Maley said. "The bad news is that’s not happening."

In the days before the Camden County Municipal Authority (CCMUA), Nash said, "you had sewage but you did not have algae."

So it's back to the drawing board for now. A multi-town, public hearing on the subject could be scheduled this month, and Nash said the county is considering both short- and long-term answers.

One possible approach would involve using an environmentally safe chemical pesticide to kill off the surface layer of algae. The other, costlier approach that the county has been trying to stave off, is dredging.

But Nash said, "if that's what it requires, that's what we're going to do."