Monmouth County Information

Drainage Patterns

The Mount Pleasant Hills essentially divide drainage in the County into three directions. To the west of the Hills streams flow into the Delaware River and Raritan River basins. To the north of the Hills, streams empty into the Raritan and Sandy Hook Bays and to the east streams and rivers flow east to the Atlantic Ocean and in the case of the north branch of the Metedeconk River, into Barnegat Bay. Major drainage is to the east, however, and the Hominy Hills further separate flow to the north into the Swimming River watershed and to the south into the Shark River and Manasquan River watersheds.

Major streams flowing to the Delaware River are Crosswicks Creek, Doctors Creek and Assunpink Creek. Streams flowing into the Raritan River Basin are Deep Run, Manalapan and Matchaponix Brooks and the Millstone River. The Navesink and Shrewsbury Rivers, Comptons Creek and Chingarora and Matawan Creeks all flow into Raritan and Sandy Hook Bays and the Shark and Manasquan Rivers flow into the Atlantic Ocean. All streams except Crosswicks Creek have their headwaters in Monmouth County and flow outward. This also includes Toms River and the north branch of the Metedeconk River. Stream patterns are for the most part symmetrical and of the dendritic type. This means that the streams (if viewed from the air) resemble tree root systems and that feeder streams are nearly equally distributed on both sides of the main stream. This type of stream pattern in Monmouth County is controlled by the erosion pattern discussed in the previous section.

Numerous small ponds lie near the Atlantic Coast of the County. Originally these ponds were small streams that flowed directly to the Ocean. Over the years, movement of sand along the coast (littoral drift) as well as deliberate filling has caused blockage of many of the stream mouths, thus creating the small ponds. Poplar Brook and Wreck Pond nevertheless still have some communication with the sea, however slight.

The littoral drift that closed many stream mouths has also caused considerable erosion of beaches; most notably at Long Branch and Sea Bright and with this sand has formed long sand spit, which is now known as Sandy Hook. In this manner the flow of the Shrewsbury and Navesink Rivers was diverted, from flowing into the Ocean, northward into Sandy Hook Bay. An inlet existed at various times near the present site of the Highlands Bridge, but was finally filled in over one hundred years ago.

During the past five years the US Army Corps of Engineers has undertaken a massive beach replenishment project that will add approximately 150 feet of beach along the entire Monmouth County coastline. There has been extensive debate over the effectiveness of this type of dredging activity. Early results have been mixed with some portions of beach having been severely eroded by major northeast storm events. Regardless of the outcome, the results will be of little significance to mosquito breeding habitat.

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Monmouth County Mosquito Extermination Commission
PO Box 162 • Eatontown • New Jersey • 07724
(Tel) 732-542-3630 • (Fax) 732-542-3267
mosquitoes@co.monmouth.nj.us