Published in the Asbury Park Press
By TODD B. BATES and PAUL D'AMBROSIO
STAFF WRITERS
The April 16 form letter from the state Department of Environmental Protection to a repeat violator of New Jersey's safe drinking water law was unremarkable except for the recipient.
The DEP had mailed the letter and an accompanying order to itself.
The enforcement arm of the agency was telling the Division of Parks and Forestry that it had better test the well water at Double Trouble State Park, Berkeley, for nitrate or possibly face fines amounting to thousands of dollars a day.
The Double Trouble case is not unique. In fact, state government was the largest single violator of the federal and state Safe Drinking Water Acts among nonresidential water system operators in New Jersey from 1993 to July 1999, according to an
Asbury Park Press review of DEP records. Nonresidential systems serve schools, businesses, governments, restaurants and other places.
The state committed about 700 violations over 6 o years, with DEP-run well-water systems at nearly two dozen state parks, forests and recreation areas logging 480 of those infractions, according to a Press analysis. The next biggest offender, a
private company, committed 71 violations.
Peter Page, the DEP's communications director, said the agency's figures are lower because officials were able to rule out some violations that turned out to be false. DEP figures show the state committing 574 violations 387 of them at 22 DEP-run
water systems, according to Page.
The DEP is charged by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with ensuring that public water systems meet federal Safe Drinking Water Act rules.
In an interview Friday, DEP Commissioner Robert C. Shinn Jr. said: "Obviously this was an absolutely unacceptable performance on the parks' part, on our part, and we are, I think, taking every action to get this rectified."
Most of the DEP violations were for failing to test well water for total coliform bacteria, an indicator of possible fecal contamination, or nitrate, which is commonly used as a fertilizer. Certain types of bacteria and nitrate can quickly make
people sick if concentrations of the contaminants are high enough.
Some of the DEP water system operators also failed to notify the public of the violations as required by law. And some of the systems earned "unacceptable" ratings from the DEP.
DEP officials sent enforcement orders to four parks including Double Trouble a forest and a recreation area, ordering them to get their acts together or face possible fines.
Although the DEP has not fined any of its own facilities, the agency plans to take a "zero-tolerance" stance, beginning July 1. That's when it wants state and county officials to begin fining all nonresidential water systems including its own for
any failure to sample for primary contaminants, check water quality after pollution limits are exceeded, or notify the public when violations are committed.
According to the DEP, a total of 34 water samples taken from 22 different wells at nine parks exceeded the limit for bacteria.
"In each case, the wells were immediately taken out of service by park superintendents, and follow-up testing was performed, and there was no evidence of anyone getting ill from drinking water," Shinn said.
Although it's possible a well could be contaminated by bacteria for up to 90 days between the required quarterly tests, many of the water systems are shut down for the winter, he said.
Page said none of the water samples taken at state parks has exceeded the 10 part per million standard for nitrate.
"We're confident that the public has not been exposed, nor employees, to unsafe (nitrate) levels," Shinn said.
In a written response to Press questions last month, the DEP said "various reasons, such as incomplete communication, oversight, staff changes, paperwork not forwarded to the Bureau of Safe Drinking Water, as well as unknown reasons" led to the
violations at state parks.
Shinn said part of the problem was that the DEP had delegated to county health agencies the responsibility to inspect water systems at state parks.
County officials told DEP officials last year that they were uncomfortable taking enforcement actions against state and federal facilities, and "our look into it revealed that there was a significant problem" involving state facilities violating
the rules, Shinn said.
The DEP took over the responsibility for inspecting state and federal facilities in March, he said.
Although annual testing for nitrate has been required since 1993, some parks were testing once every three years, which was the previous requirement, he said.
"It became apparent because of lack of training and poor communication (that) some superintendents were monitoring (the water) based on regulations that were superseded for some time," Shinn said.
James K. Hamilton, administrator of the DEP's Water Compliance and Enforcement group, said in an interview last month that DEP officials met with their colleagues in the Division of Parks and Forestry earlier this year and stressed the importance
of meeting drinking water rules.
The DEP was not the only state agency to violate the rules. The DEP also has found violations at water systems run by the Division of State Police and the Departments of Corrections, Transportation, Human Services, and Military and Veterans' Affairs,
according to a Press review of DEP data.
Shinn said the DEP has taken steps to ensure that state facilities are testing the water. The DEP also has asked laboratories that analyze water samples from state facilities to immediately notify the DEP when contaminant limits are exceeded.
Meanwhile, eight well-water systems serving Ocean County government facilities have not been inspected for as many as 9 o years, because of a misunderstanding over who was supposed to perform the work, according to Robert J. Ingenito, chief sanitary
inspector in the Ocean County Health Department.
Inspections are done to ensure that water systems are testing their water and meet standards.
Although inspections are overdue at the eight Ocean County water systems, officials said water testing has been done all along and the systems met drinking water standards.
Though the DEP let its Division of Parks and Forestry avoid fines, Colts Neck officials were not so lucky. The Monmouth County Health Department fined Colts Neck for failing to conduct some tests of well water serving the municipal building and the police department.
The township paid two fines totaling $125 this year, but its health officer blamed the oversight on a laboratory hired to do the testing. The township is now in compliance with drinking-water laws.
Widespread problem
The list of DEP parks, forests and recreation areas that have failed to test their drinking water or exceeded contaminant limits spans the state, from east to west and north to south.
At Double Trouble State Park, a scenic spot in the Pinelands, park officials did not sample for nitrate for four years in a row from 1995 through 1998, according to DEP officials.
Nitrate testing is supposed to be done annually and for good reason. Nitrate, which is converted by the body into oxygen-robbing nitrite, can lead to potentially deadly "blue baby syndrome" in infants.
Double Trouble also failed to notify the public of its violations, according to DEP officials.
The park returned to compliance when it collected samples in June. The samples met drinking water standards, and "no further enforcement action is to be taken," the DEP said.
Other state parks in Monmouth and Ocean counties with testing or other lapses in recent years include: Allaire State Park in Wall, Monmouth Battlefield State Park in Manalapan, and Island Beach State Park in Ocean County, according to a Press analysis of DEP data.
But a DEP accounting of violators left Monmouth Battlefield State Park and Island Beach State Park off the list.
At sprawling Wharton State Forest, which overlaps Burlington and Atlantic counties, the DEP issued administrative orders in April against 13 water systems that serve offices, a visitors center, campsites and other facilities. All 13 had failed to test
for nitrate in 1996 and 1997, and failed to notify the public about the violations.
In May, the DEP gave unacceptable ratings to three water systems in Wawayanda State Park in Vernon, Sussex County, for failing to test for bacteria during as many as six three-month periods over three years.
One of Wawayanda's three water systems exceeded bacteria contamination limits during July, August and October 1998 and March 1999, according to DEP officials.
That system was shut down, and the rest of the wells resumed testing and returned to compliance this year.
DEP officials have held several meetings over the years with supervisory and management-level staff about "the need to monitor water systems operated by Parks and Forestry," according to a DEP statement.
Monitoring requirements also are explained to water system operators when the systems are inspected, DEP officials say.
A difference of opinion
Joseph J. Przywara, public health coordinator in the Ocean County Health Department, said he repeatedly told DEP officials over the years that the county did not want to inspect public well-water systems at county buildings.
"My understanding was we would not inspect county facilities because, in essence, we're inspecting ourselves, and we didn't think that was appropriate," Przywara said. "It was pretty clear in many conversations we had in the past that we were not doing" the inspections.
"We don't want to inspect our boss," said Robert J. Ingenito, chief sanitary inspector in the county health department. "We don't want to inspect where we get our paycheck from. I mean, to us, it's a conflict."
But DEP officials "were unaware until recently" that Ocean County officials were not inspecting the facilities, according to a DEP statement to the Press.
Officials inspect water systems to ensure that the operators are testing the water and that it is meeting drinking water standards.
The eight Ocean County facilities and the dates DEP and county officials said they were last inspected include: Berkeley Island Park in Berkeley (Nov. 1, 1991); Lacey Garage, part of the county road department (April 27, 1993); Air Park Emergency Services,
Ocean County Airport Hangar, Civil Air Patrol, and Air Terminal Building 56, all within the Robert J. Miller Airpark in Berkeley (all Dec. 7, 1992); Stanley H. "Tip" Seaman Park (May 1, 1990) in Tuckerton; and Parkertown Park (July 17, 1992), in Little Egg Harbor.
Despite the overdue inspections, regular water tests at the facilities have "passed with flying colors," said Thomas M. Haskell Sr., general supervisor of plumbing for Ocean County.
A DEP official sent a letter dated Dec. 7 to Przywara saying "it is critical" that the county health department inspect county and municipal facilities, and that the county make such inspections a priority next year.
Cases can be referred to the DEP's Bureau of Safe Drinking Water for appropriate enforcement, "if an enforcement conflict should arise," the letter stated.
Ingenito said all of the overdue inspections will be done in the next few months.
Published: December 20, 1999
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