Canoeing and kayaking are also popular on the river, which can be paddled for 21.7 miles (34.9 km) from Don Connor Boulevard, below County Route 528 to Barnegat Bay.

[10] The cartographers Henry Charles Carey and Isaac Lea attempted to address any confusion by choosing "Goose or Toms Cr.

The manufacturing process created a large amount of sludge and toxic waste, which was initially disposed of in unlined pits located on-site.

[20] In 1980, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) issued an order requiring the removal of approximately 15,000 drums from an on-site landfill dump and to initiate groundwater monitoring throughout the 1,400 acres (5.7 km2) property, which included portions of the Pine Barrens and coastal wetlands.

That same year, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) completed a preliminary assessment under the Potential Hazardous Waste Site Program.

[24] In August 1971, the Reich family leased a large portion of their 3-acre (1.2 ha) farm off Route 9 to independent waste hauler Nicholas Fernicola.

The lease was to allow Fernicola to temporarily store used 55-US-gallon (210 L) drums on the property, located approximately 1,000 ft (300 m) from an intermittent stream draining into the Toms River.

In September 1997, the New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH), at the request of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, evaluated childhood cancer incidences in Toms River.

The results of this study were made available in January 2003; according to the primary hypothesis, the cancer rates were related to the "environmental exposure pathways" reported over the previous 30 years.

[35] The report acknowledged the findings could be easily biased due to the small sample size, and recommended the continuation of clean-up efforts at the Reich Farm and Ciba-Geigy sites.

[37] Recent public-private coalitions to restore the river and to preserve the wetland areas near its source in the Pinelands, as well as the EPA stage assessments, have resulted in an increase in water quality.

[38][39] Because the Toms River is tidal with a direct feed into Barnegat Bay and a substantial subwatershed area, it is prone to flooding, particularly at the mouth.

[43] On August 28, 2011, Hurricane Irene hit the eastern coast of the US for a second time, making landfall near the Little Egg Inlet, about 25 miles (40 km) south of the Toms River's mouth.

[44] The storm surge that followed, combined with the rainfall from the hurricane and the wet conditions in the weeks prior, led to record USGS gage readings for over 40% of all stations with at least 20 years of data.