today kicks off The Unofficial start to Summer and AAA travel is expecting over 1 million New Jersey residents will travel 50 miles or more this weekend that's about seven percent more than last year bringing us to pre-pandemic levels and gas prices are a full dollar less than last summer easing that pain at the pump and in the pocketbook and that's good news here in New Jersey where many of those traveling will be hitting the shore senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan took a trip to Asbury Park to see how Shore towns are making sure their beaches are safe and healthy places for folks to have some fun in the sun the state of the shore is fantastic look at it out there folks walking the boards in Asbury Park on a sparkling Sunday morning gave High marks to this Beach town and the whole Jersey Shore what grade would they give it I would say a hundred I was born and raised here and the work that they have done alone is is beautiful and they're only improving it officials reporting the 21st annual state of the shore survey agreed New Jersey he's looking at a good summer I'm happy to to share that our beaches are are ready to go the Jersey Shore staged a big comeback since 1987 when medical waste and dead dolphins filed beaches and alarmed tourists environmental issues do persist as advocates are now debating what's caused a recent spike in Marine Mammal deaths but New Jersey's dep commissioner says the Shore's water quality has vastly improved we have sampling completed everything that we've sampled for is within within parameters we continue to experience an exceptional water quality up and down our Coastline runoff from heavy rain can especially cause beaches with storm drains to fail water quality tests to beaches closed temporarily last year this season testing started May 15th and so far one sample at Fifth Avenue in Bayview in Seaside Park exceeded Health allowances but it's tested clean since then the dep reports Shore towns test water samples from 195 ocean and 25 Bay beaches every Monday we want to catch that influx of people there on the weekend so we sample first thing Monday morning and then as long as that sample comes back okay then then we don't sample again until the next Monday I want to announce that this year the EPA gave the state of New Jersey about three hundred thousand dollars to do the beach monitoring New Jersey congressman Frank pallone also announced today that he's co-sponsoring legislation to help towns upgrade their water infrastructure and to strengthen monitoring standards like requiring a same-day test turnaround sometimes it's almost 48 hours before they'll get the test results back so theoretically you know somebody could be swimming in waters that they shouldn't be the EPA should look at more rapid testing methods some of which now can be available within a few hours besides water quality sure resilience also looks better this summer with Dune systems running along almost the entire Coast Hurricane Sandy proved Shore towns with June barriers suffered less damage from Storm surges the Army Corps of Engineers has since helped fortify beaches along the coast but New Jersey had one lingering vulnerable spot in an area called Five Mile Beach earlier this year we finally got the last remaining holdout on Five Mile Island of Wildwood North Wildwood lower Township to sign on to the last remaining post Sandy Beach engineered Beach and dune project he says that will create a continuous line of protection Coastal expert Tom Harrington says New Jersey must now focus on defending its Bay shores which also took a hard hit during Sandy and right now we have four active projects along the Bayshore that we're hoping to have permitted for construction sometime in 2024-25 he warned a living Coastline needs constant care especially as sea levels continue to rise in Asbury Park I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight News [Music] [Music]