Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
TOMS RIVER -- Despite his own reservations, the president of United Water-Toms River yesterday said the company will cooperate with the governor's order to place carbon filtration on two additional wells at its parkway field.
But in a letter to U.S Sens. Frank R. Lautenberg and Robert G. Torricelli, both D-N.J., United Water President Frank J. DeMicco said the company is "very concerned about the implications of installing treatment on a water supply in the absence of a sound scientific basis for doing so."
DeMicco said the company's water continues to meet all state and federal standards, and that no link has been established between the public water supply and elevated levels of some childhood cancers here.
Responding to a request made by the two senators, Gov. Whitman on Thursday ordered carbon filtration systems to be installed on United's parkway wells 22 and 29. Carbon filtration and air-stripping systems, to remove contaminants, are already in place on two other parkway wells, 26 and 28.
The estimated cost of installing the filtration is $1.5 million, but it is not yet clear who will pay.
Cancer activists have called for the additional filtration at the well field since trace amounts of trichloroethylene, a suspected carcinogen, were found in Well 29 during the summer.
Also found in the well were small amounts of styrene acrylonitrile trimer, a chemical compound related to plastics production that was previously found in wells 26 and 28.
The toxicity of the trimer is not known. A study is under way to determine if it is a potential human carcinogen.
DeMicco noted that despite two forms of treatment, water from wells 26 and 28 has been pumped to waste, and has not been included in the drinking water supply for most of the time since November 1996, when the trimer was discovered in the two wells.
DeMicco said once all the treatment systems are installed, the company anticipates that all wells receiving carbon filtration will be available for use in the water system.
Linda Gillick, who chairs the citizens committee, has said water from wells 26 and 28 should not be used in the drinking water system, since those wells are used to treat a polluted ground water plume.
The Superfund site is located about one mile north of the well field, and the polluted ground water is normally captured and treated by wells 26 and 28.
Additional tests of Well 29 found no sign of contaminants earlier this month, but members of the Citizens Action Committee on Childhood Cancer Cluster have called for carbon filtration and air stripping systems to be placed on all wells in the parkway field that draw water from the shallow Cohansey aquifer.
Whitman's order would equip two more parkway wells with carbon filters, which remove the trimer. But the governor did not order the wells to be fitted with air strippers, which remove volatile organic chemicals like trichloroethylene.
She also did not order additional treatment for two other wells that draw Cohansey water.
Asbury Park Press
Published: October 31, 1998
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