Howell Township's problem stands out among the 16 or so municipalities and private water companies in Monmouth County that draw from the new reservoir, residents and officials say, because of a decision this year by the Appellate Division of Superior Court and the controversy that preceded it. Water bills have doubled or quadrupled in the last year or so and are expected by local and state officials to go even higher.

Recreation and esthetics aside, Howell Township and other Monmouth County communities that must now augment their ground-water supplies with the reservoir's more expensive surface water are not pleased with the results. Since the reservoir opened and began operating a year ago, under the New Jersey Water Supply Authority, the lake and several hundred adjoining acres have attracted a plethora of wildlife - deer, waterfowl and songbirds - and residents say that the sailing and fishing for bass and trout are excellent. The meandering verdant preserve has a 740-acre lake that sprang up in the middle of what used to be little more than the scrubby northern fringes of the Pine Barrens.

IT is hard to find anyone who does not admire the beauty of the Manasquan Reservoir.

Howell township municipal court