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Treat 4 more wells, Toms River water utility urged
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Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
TOMS RIVER -- Saying "it is clear something is terribly wrong in Toms River," Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg yesterday called for additional water treatment systems to be installed on four United Water Toms River wells.
Standing in front of a memorial in Riverfront Landing Park inscribed with the names of dozens of Ocean County children who have died from childhood cancer, Lautenberg called for an air stripping system as well as carbon filtration to be installed on four United Water wells that draw water from the shallow Cohansey aquifer.
"We can not just wait for the conclusion of the current studies to take action," said Lautenberg, D-N.J. "The circumstances in Toms River call for extraordinary precautions."
Lautenberg and Sen. Robert G. Torricelli, D-N.J., have written to the Department of Environmental Protection, asking that agency consider requiring that treatment systems be placed on all the Cohansey wells in the parkway field, which is located off Dugan Lane. State agency officials, while saying the request is under review, don't believe they have the power to make such an order.
Two wells in the well field, numbers 26 and 28, already are being treated with both air stripping and carbon filtration systems. The air stripping system captures volatile organic chemicals, while the carbon filtration removes styrene acrylonitrile trimer, a chemical byproduct of plastics production discovered in the two wells in November 1996.
The treatment systems are necessary because the two wells tap a plume of groundwater contamination that has migrated into the well field from the Reich Farm Superfund site, located about one mile to the north.
Linda Gillick, who heads the Citizens Action Committee on Childhood Cancer Cluster, and other committee members have asked that the treatment systems be installed on the four other Cohansey wells in the well field. Their requests took on new urgency after state and federal environmental officials announced that the Reich Farm plume had spread into parkway Well 29.
The plume was pulled into Well 29 when the water company pumped the well at a higher than normal rate to meet increased demands for water during the summer months.
Tests of water at the wellhead of Well 29 found levels of trichloroethylene, a probable carcinogen, between .4 and .8 parts per billion. The state standard for trichloroethylene in drinking water is 1 part per billion.
The water also was found to contain trace amounts of the trimer. There are no state and federal standards for the amount of trimer in drinking water.
By October, the chemical traces had disappeared from Well 29, but Gillick said yesterday that changes in water usage and pumping could draw the plume into any of the nearby parkway wells again.
"We need protection on the wells that are drawing water in the area closest to the toxic plume," Gillick said.
Lautenberg and Torricelli also have written letters to United Water and to Union Carbide, Corp., asking the two companies to cooperate by installing the treatment systems. Carbide has taken responsibility for the Reich Farm contamination, and has paid the cost of installing and maintaining the treatment systems installed on wells 26 and 28.
"We understand residents' heightened concern about the quality of water," Union Carbide spokesman Tomm Sprick said yesterday. But he said the DEP and the state Department of Health and Senior Services "are the lead agencies with regard to health issues and are responsible for determining acceptable drinking water standards, based on scientific information."
"It is their role to determine whether activated carbon or any other control technology is needed to protect the water supply," Sprick said. He said Carbide will continue to cooperate with the regulatory agencies, a statement echoed by United Water Toms River General Manager Edward Hughmanic.
Gerald P. Nicholls, director of the DEP's Division of Environmental Safety, Health and Analytical Programs, said DEP Commissioner Robert Shinn already has replied to Lautenberg's letter.
Nicholls said DEP officials do not believe they have the regulatory authority to force installation of additional treatment systems. He said the federal Environmental Protection Agency may be "in a better position" to do so, since the well field has been contaminated by a Superfund site.
Nicholls said, however, that DEP officials are continuing to review the matter.
Lautenberg and his staff members said yesterday that they believe the DEP has the authority to order additional treatment, since the state agency has assumed responsibility for enforcing the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.
United's water continues to meet all state and federal standards, and EPA officials have said previously that they do not regulate contaminants that appear at the low levels found in Well 29.
The confusion over which agency might be responsible for mandating additional water treatment does not surprise Joseph Kotran, father of 2 1/2-year-old Lauren, who was diagnosed with central nervous system cancer at the age of 6 months.
Kotran said while he is pleased that Lautenberg is attempting to get additional treatment for the parkway wells, he is not convinced the senator's efforts will be successful.
"We're a little bit more hopeful, but we're not optimistic," said Kotran, who was one of several parents of children with cancer to attend yesterday's rally. "This has been very frustrating."
Asbury Park Press
Published: October 27, 1998
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