By CLAIRE LOWE
Staff Writer

The Pennsylvania dentist who allegedly dumped medical waste into Townsend Inlet causing the closing of Avalon beaches around Labor Day weekend has been indicted by a state grand jury, Attorney General Anne Milgram announced Tuesday, Nov. 18.
On Sept. 2, Thomas W. McFarland Jr., a dentist out of Wynnewood, Pa. turned himself into the Avalon Police Department and admitted he was responsible for the approximately 260 Accujet needles, 180 cotton swabs and various other waste items that began washing onto the beaches of Avalon on Aug. 23. The waste continued to wash ashore between 9th and 24th streets and caused four closings over a 10-day span.
McFarland, 59, who owns a summer home in the Avalon Manor section of Middle Township, used his own Boston Whaler fishing boat to dump the medical debris. He was charged on Sept. 5 with unlawful disposal of a pollutant and unlawful disposal of unregulated medical waste after a search of his Avalon Manor home, boat and SUV, and his dental practice provided evidence to back up his claim.
Certain information obtained in the first days of the investigation pointed to McFarland’s practice as a potential source of the waste. Avalon officials recovered a wrapped dental drill bit bearing a lot number. Detectives from the Environmental Crimes Bureau contacted the manufacturer and learned that McFarland’s practice was one of a small number of practices in the Middle Atlantic States that purchased such drill bits from the lot in question.
Detectives also determined that McFarland received promotional merchandise from the Accuject manufacturer at a time when they were distributing needles bearing the same lot numbers as those that washed up in Avalon.
“This indictment is a step forward in the prosecution of this crime. It reinforces our message that, working with the Department of Environmental Protection, we will keep New Jersey’s beaches clean and safe through vigorous enforcement of our laws,” Milgram said.
The indictment was handed up to Superior Court Judge Linda R. Feinberg in Mercer County, who assigned the case to Cape May County, where McFarland will be order to appear at a later date to answer the charges. Both charges are third-degree crimes and can result in fines of $75,000 for the former and $50,000 for the latter.
The indictment is the result of an intensive investigation by the Division’s Environmental Crimes Bureau, the Avalon Police Department and the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office which commenced with the discovery of the waste and quickly led to charges against McFarland.