Park officials say the move could further damage the image of the beach, which suffered in 1988 and 1992 when medical waste washed ashore.

Sludge was not a factor in last summer's beach pollution, in which medical waste washed ashore.

Medical waste has washed ashore on two Delaware River beaches and authorities said yesterday they are trying to find out where it came from.

That has been especially true this summer, when medical waste and other trash has washed ashore, and for thousands of hot visitors to Jones Beach State Park, the pool offers an alternative.

The first reported medical waste on beaches in the Greater New York area (including hypodermic needles and syringes possibly infected with the AIDS virus) washes ashore on Long Island.

Work conditions were filthy and uncomfortable, as excrement and waste would wash onto the shores from the raw sewage and sometimes the corpses of humans, cats and dogs also.

More medical waste, including syringes and blood vials, washed ashore yesterday on Rockaway Beach in Queens.

I'm stiff all over, and it seems such waste of time to wash and dress, besides, the irritation of the interruption, and my clothes are impossible.

New Jersey investigators examined wind and weather charts to determine if waste from the transfer station could have washed along the entire coast as far south as Delaware during the two-day period.

For the whole of last year's swimming season there were 12 closings, all for short times and involving limited stretches of beach, and none because waste and debris had washed ashore.