Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
TOMS RIVER -- The failure of a pump at a well in Berkeley yesterday forced United Water Toms River to activate a different well with elevated radiation levels.
Dover Township officials said they learned that well 20 had been activated from the state Department of Health and Senior Services.
Township Committeeman George E. Wittmann Jr. said yesterday that United Water has also activated an interconnection with New Jersey-American Water Co. that can provide up to 1 million gallons of water a day.
"Apparently, the motor shorted out on a pump in Berkeley," Wittmann said. "They can't replace it until Friday so they needed to activate well 20 and the interconnection."
Company General Manager Edward A. Hughmanic later confirmed that well 20 was put into service at 9 a.m. yesterday and the interconnection made about 11 a.m.
Hughmanic said last night it appeared last night that United Water would be able to reach the proper water storage levels by this morning, and the use of well 20 and the interconnection would probably be discontinued if customers strictly adhere to the utility's conservation program.
Because of the prolonged heat wave with no rain and the pump failure, the utility was unable to restore water tank levels the past couple of nights, Hughmanic said. The mechanical failure was at well 35 in Berkeley, which can pump a million gallons a day, he said.
Well 20 has been off line for most of the past 2 1/2 years because it contains elevated levels of naturally occurring radiation. The well was used in June after a hot, dry spell drained United's water storage tanks.
When water from well 20 is blended with other wells in United Water's system, the water meets all state and federal drinking water standards, officials have said. State health and environmental officials have said that tests of the drinking water near well 20 in June showed radiation levels of 8.2 picocuries and 6.2 picocuries per liter. That meets the state standard, which requires drinking water to have less than 15 picocuries per liter.
Linda L. Gillick, chairwoman of the Citizens Action Committee on Childhood Cancer Cluster, said yesterday that she is worried that United Water may have to turn on wells 26 and 28, which have not been used since the hot, dry summer of 1997.
Those wells capture and treat a plume of groundwater contamination from the Reich Farm Superfund site, located a mile north of the well field.
"That's a concern," Gillick said.
She said United Water should have been urging its customers to conserve water, as other local water systems have been doing. She also criticized the lack of notification about well 20 being turned on.
"Where's the responsibility to the public to let them know?" she asked.
Information about the well being activated was available on United Water's hot line, at (732) 286-9143, but Wittmann said Dover officials decided to send out a news release about the well activation because neither United Water nor the state had notified the media specifically that the well had been turned on.
But Hughmanic said the company followed the emergency protocol approved by the state departments of health and environmental protection. Specific notification to the news media is not part of the protocol, he said, and the company notified the DEP as is its responsibility.
Over the sultry Fourth of July weekend, United Water had no problem meeting customer demand, which peaked at about 20 million gallons Monday.
In June, customers had used more than 22 million gallons of water, forcing United to activate well 20.
But over the past weekend, United Water did not use well 20 or the interconnection, Hughmanic said Tuesday. Hughmanic said he hopes that at least some of United Water's 45,000 customers have been watering their lawns according to the guidelines in the company's "Evapotranspiration" program, or "ET."
The program uses factors such as wind, rainfall and temperature to determine the moisture content of soil, and produces a number that indicates how long a homeowner should water grass if it has not been sprinkled within the past three days.
A homeowner would then wait another three days before watering the lawn again, with the amount of watering time determined by the ET number for that day.
Source: Asbury Park Press
Published: July 8, 1999
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