Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
TOMS RIVER -- United Water Toms River turned off a well with elevated radiation levels yesterday morning, as three local legislators called on the company to notify electronic and print media outlets when any "suspect wells" are activated.
". . .May we suggest an immediate fax or telephone call to the media outlets so that they may pass this information on to the public," state Sen. Andrew R. Ciesla and Assemblymen James W. Holzapfel and David W. Wolfe, all R-Ocean, wrote in a letter to United Water spokesman Richard Henning.
The three legislators were reacting to concerns from Linda L. Gillick, who chairs the Citizens Action Committee on Childhood Cancer Cluster, and other committee members and parents of children with cancer, who have asked for notification when wells 20, 26 or 28 are activated. Well 20 was the one that was temporarily used this week.
"If people are still afraid of drinking and bathing in water when certain wells are on line, you have a responsibility of notifying them, through the news media, prior to taking any action," the legislators wrote.
But United Water spokesman Henning said the company does not intend to include the media in its notification process, which was worked out more than a year ago with state health and environmental officials.
United Water notifies the state Department of Environmental Protection when one of the wells is activated, Henning said. He said he believes state health or environmental officials should notify the public if they believe there are any hazards associated with drinking the water when one of the wells is activated.
"We believe that the appropriate people to make such a notification and to decide what that notification means are the people who are most involved in the ongoing investigation" into elevated levels of some childhood cancers in Dover Township, Henning said.
Well 20, which contains elevated levels of naturally occurring radiation, was activated on Wednesday morning to restore water tank levels, United Water Toms River General Manager Edward A. Hughmanic said. The company was forced to activate the well after a motor failed on a United well in Berkeley.
The motor is expected to be replaced today, and well 20 was turned off yesterday morning after the company's water storage tanks were refilled, Hughmanic said. United officials, along with state health and environmental officials, have pointed out that when well 20 is activated, water from the well is blended with all the other wells in United's system before the water is distributed.
United's water continues to meet all state and federal drinking water standards even when well 20 is pumping, but that has not placated Gillick and other committee members, who do not believe the standards are stringent enough.
Wells 26 and 28, which capture and treat a plume of groundwater contamination from the Reich Farm Superfund site, have not been used in the drinking water system since July 1997. Water from those wells is pumped, treated to remove contaminants, and allowed to flow onto the ground.
Gillick said yesterday that she agreed that notification needs to be made when any of the wells are turned on, and called on state officials to be part of the process.
"The only way that the public can be assured as to what they are drinking and bathing in is to have all the facts," Gillick said. "I want to be able to make my choices knowing what is going on."
Gerald P. Nicholls, director of the DEP's Division of Environmental Safety, Health and Analytical Programs, said yesterday that after the DEP is contacted about a United well being activated, DEP officials inform the Department of Health and Senior Services.
The health department is responsible for calling Gillick, as a citizen representative, and on Wednesday, the health department also called Dover officials. On Wednesday, Dover Committeeman George E. Wittmann Jr. issued a press release about the well activation to local media outlets.
Nicholls said he did not know of any plan to change the procedure.
Health department officials did not return telephone calls seeking comment yesterday.
Source: Asbury Park Press
Published: July 9, 1999
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