A 59 year old dentist from Pennsylvania was with unlawful discharge of a pollutant and unlawful disposal of regulated medical waste on Thursday. Thomas McFarland’s charges are both third-degree crimes. Each charge carries a maximum prison term of five years. Fines could total $125,000 if he is convicted on both counts.

According to New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram, McFarland took his small motorboat in Townsends Inlet at the north end of Avalon on August 22 and dumped a bag of waste from his dental practice in Wynnewood, Pa. However Milgram did not offer any specific motivation for the dumping.

The dentist threw away more than 250 used syringes and 180 cotton swabs.

"It's clear to us that the people of New Jersey and all those who enjoy the shore can be assured it was an intentional act and not a testament to unhealthy water," said Anne Milgram.

He was a suspect way before he showed up at the Avalon police station on Tuesday and confessed because investigators had already traced the debris because it included a wrapper with a manufacturing date from a dental drill bit made by Microcopy Dental in Georgia.

New Jersey takes great pride in its beaches as it has 127 miles of them on the Atlantic Ocean, which comprise a large part of its $35 billion tourism industry. The law is very strict when it comes to dumping waste beginning in the late 1980s, when thousands of beach-going days were lost because of waste washing ashore.