There were few swim-suited beachgoers to turn away from the Jersey Shore on June 11 — the ocean is too cold for most in the week before summer officially begins — which was fortunate because the water was rampant with fecal bacteria from Highlands all the way down to Cape May.

There were 155 "beach actions" this summer — advisories or closures for bacteria or other dangers — and nearly one-third of those happened that second week of June.

It was the worst week for beach water quality at the Shore since 2007, according to data from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

That single event pushed the percentage of "failed" bacteria tests from Shore beaches this summer to nearly 5 percent, as high as it's been in a dozen years, an Asbury Park Press analysis shows.

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But the DEP notes that at the most popular locales — oceanfront beaches — the failure rate is much lower, about 2 percent. This despite samples being taken near hotspots, like stormwater outfalls or the perennial problem site, Wreck Pond.

"Even with this conservative, weighted approach, New Jersey’s water quality is excellent," DEP spokesman Larry Hajna told the Press.

Every year, more than 180 million people visit beaches in America, and every year 3 million to 4 million get sick from swimming in tainted beach water, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Rashes and diarrhea are the most common maladies.

As usual, oceanfront beaches in New Jersey were less likely to be offenders than counterparts along the bays and rivers, the data confirm. To see the worst oceanfront locations, watch the video at the top.

"When beaches are closed due to water quality issues, they are most likely to be on back bays and along rivers — areas where water exchange may be slow," Hajna said.

Just 2.3 percent of test samples taken from oceanfront beaches tested outside the standard for safe swimming.

Beaches along the bays were found to have excessive bacteria 8.8 percent of the time.

Beaches along the Manasquan, Metedeconk and Toms rivers, however, were unsafe for bathers in 30.5 percent of samples. That's the worst showing for river beaches since 2006.

Beachwood is once again the site of the most failed samples. This 400-foot stretch of sand is the closest public beach to the headwaters of the Toms River.

It was closed to swimmers for an entire week in May and under an advisory or shut down five more times this summer.

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Other beaches that struggled include:

East and West beach in Pine Beach — both river beaches exceeded federal swimming standards six and five times, respectively

25th Street bayfront beach in Barnegat Light, where five samples came back too rich in fecal bacteria for swimming

Windward Beach in Brick also had five samples (out of 22) that reported unacceptable bacteria counts.

The most significant source of pollution continues to be stormwater that leaches first into the rivers, then out into the bays before finally reaching the ocean.

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Stormwater is the most effective mode of transport from land to sea for the fecal bacteria that collects on roofs or sidewalks in the form of animal waste and, occasionally, human excrement from a leaky sanitary sewer pipe.

The statewide bacteria outbreak on June 11 followed 2 to 3 inches of rain the previous night and into the pre-dawn hours — just before samples begin to be collected up and down the coast.

Experts generally suggest avoiding water contact for 24 to 48 hours after a heavy rain.

New Jersey, the most developed state in the nation, is especially sensitive to precipitation's impact on water quality because asphalt and concrete limit places where rain can soak into the ground, rather than being funneled to a curb that connects to a sewer system.

That's not to say that New Jersey, which has a robust monitoring program that includes coastal surveillance flights six days per week in the summer, is in the middle of a crisis.

In fact, EPA data shows that New Jersey beaches were under advisory or closed just 0.4 percent of the time in the past 12 months. That means that on any given summer day just one of the state's 217 public lifeguarded beaches was under some kind of swimming restriction.

Only three states — Oregon, Delaware and North Carolina — reported better numbers.

In New York, bathers would have been at risk on 7 percent of possible beach days. Florida beaches were unfit for swimming 2.7 percent of the time.

The tourism industry generated $7.3 billion and accounted for 50,000 employees in Monmouth and Ocean counties in 2017, according to the Tourism Economics research group, and beaches are the main draw for out-of-towners.

The Jersey Shore was once perceived — and not without justification — as a cesspool of industrial contaminants, a home for raw sewage outflows and a dumping ground for medical waste.

In 1988, Shore beaches were closed more than 800 times. That's more than 12 times as often as in 2018.

Even though syringes returned a couple of times this summer, a lot has changed over the last 30 years.

Ocean dumping was banned in 1988. The federal Clean Water Act was empowered in 1977 and New Jersey originated its own coastal water program three years before that.

In the past year the DEP has set aside $10 million for projects within the Barnegat Bay watershed, including a plan to clean up the Metedeconk River, and the department has partnered with boroughs like Atlantic Highlands, Red Bank and Belmar to identify sewer leaks and other sources of pollution, according to Hajna.

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Russ Zimmer: 732-557-5748, razimmer@app.com, @russzimmer