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Beaches along an eight-mile stretch of Long Beach Island are officially cleared of debris for the Fourth of July weekend, officials said Thursday.

But some still question the Long Beach Island Health Department's decision not to inform the public about the wash-up.

Trash and medical waste, including about 20 syringes, washed ashore Sunday along eight miles of beach from Barnegat Light to Surf City.

"The DEP had a boat out there (Thursday) off the coast of LBI, and nothing was found," said Elaine Makatura, spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection. The DEP has also conducted flyovers of the waters off Long Beach Island since Sunday and reported water conditions were satisfactory. Makatura said the DEP determined the wash up to be household medical waste. She added it was not clear where the trash was dumped. But recent heavy rainfall combined with high tides caused a combined sewer overflow that could have washed the trash into the ocean.

Tim Hilferty said Wednesday the material that washed up did not differ from materials that have washed ashore with northeast winds and heavy rain.

Anne Leyden of Cheltenham, Pa., told The Press that in addition to syringes she saw catheters, butterfly catheters, medical tubing, blood test tubes, urine specimen bottles, condoms, fecal bags and hazardous waste bags on the beach. Hilferty said he could not confirm seeing any of these items. Hilferty has said the waste included wood, plastic, bottle caps, cell phone cases, ribbons, balloons and syringes.

Cindy Zipf, executive director of Clean Ocean Action in Highlands, Monmouth County, said if officials would have notified the public immediately about the wash-up the response would have been more positive. COA has tried to get the state to take a more proactive approach to informing the public when wash ups occur, she said.

Hilferty said the public was not notified because the wash-up was cleaned up quickly, and he was comfortable there was no threat.

"It breeds distrust by not taking a proactive approach, and then stories are trickling down about what was seen. This is a fundamental breakdown of the public's right to know. The towns ought to be out front talking about this," Zipf said.

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