Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
TOMS RIVER -- Carbon filtration systems have been installed on two United Water Toms River wells before a state-mandated deadline, a water company official said yesterday.
George Flegal, United Water's assistant manager, said the filtration systems were installed on wells 29 and 22 and were operational by May 29. The state Department of Environmental Protection had set a June 9 deadline for installation of the carbon filters.
The deadline was imposed to make sure the filtration system was fully operational by summer, when water demand is highest. Hot, dry weather has led to higher than normal demand the past few days, Flegal said, with customers using more than 20 million gallons of water each day.
Flegal said United Water has spent about $1.3 million to install the filtration system. The state is expected to reimburse the company for the full cost. A bill providing $1.5 million for the filtration system was approved by the Legislature in late May.
Gov. Whitman ordered the filtration system be installed on the two wells last fall, after traces of trichloroethylene, a suspected carcinogen, were found in Well 29 in the summer. Levels of about 0.4 to 0.8 parts per billion were found. The state considers water with up to 1 part per billion acceptable for drinking purposes.
Also found in Well 29 were traces of styrene acrylonitrile trimer, a chemical compound related to plastics production. No traces of either chemical have been found in Well 22.
Well 29 is adjacent to wells 26 and 28, which capture a plume of contaminated ground water from the Reich Farm Superfund site, one mile north of the well field. Those two wells are already being treated with aeration systems to remove volatile organic contaminants -- such as trichloroethylene -- and the carbon filtration systems, which remove the trimer.
The Citizens Action Committee on Childhood Cancer Cluster has asked that all shallow wells at the the well field off Dugan Lane and near the Garden State Parkway, be equipped with carbon filtration and aeration systems.
Water from wells 26 and 28 has only rarely been used in the drinking water system since November 1996, when traces of styrene acrylonitrile trimer were found in the two wells.
Flegal said United Water recently completed another project, the installation of a 2 million-gallon storage tank at the parkway well field. The tank has been in operation for about a month, Flegal said.
The tank cost about $1 million to build, he said.
Work is also in progress on an interceptor well being installed in the parkway well field by Union Carbide Corp. Flegal said Carbide recently began drilling an interceptor well, which is intended to capture and treat the Reich Farm plume, and prevent it from migrating into other wells in the parkway field.
Carbide has taken responsibility for the plume of underground contamination from Reich Farm. An independent trucker dumped drums of chemical waste from the company's Bound Brook plant at the farm site in the early 1970s.
Source: Asbury Park Press
Published: June 8, 1999
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