Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
TOMS RIVER -- The most recent tests of water in United Water Toms River wells at the parkway well field show no trace of contaminants from a groundwater pollution plume emanating from the Reich Farm Superfund site, according to a state health official.
Speaking at the monthly meeting of the Citizens Action Committee on Childhood Cancer Cluster on Monday, epidemiologist Jerald A. Fagliano said monthly water sampling done between April and December 2000 showed "no impact of the Reich Farm contamination plume in the community water system."
"We are continuing to see the same levels of contaminants in those wells that had been detected over the past several years," said Fagliano, of the state Department of Health and Senior Services. "We did not see any contaminants in the treated samples."
Water samples are pulled from the well heads of various wells in the parkway well field, which is located off Dugan Lane near the Garden State Parkway. Pollution levels at the well head would be expected to be higher than levels found in the actual drinking water system, since water from several wells is blended together before it reaches customers' homes.
Also tested was the point-of-entry where water from the parkway wells enters the drinking water system.
The parkway well field has been impacted by a groundwater pollution plume from Reich Farm for more than a decade. Wells 26 and 28 at the parkway field capture and treat most of the pollution plume from Reich Farm.
Water from the two wells is pumped from the ground, run through carbon filtration and air stripping systems to remove pollutants, and then pumped back onto the ground after treatment is finished. The treated water is also tested, to make sure the treatment process is working.
Water from the two wells has been used only rarely in the drinking water system since November 1996, when an unknown chemical compound, styrene acrylonitrile trimer, was found in both wells.
The compound, a byproduct of plastics production, is found in the Reich Farm plume. The toxicity of the trimer is not known, although an ongoing study funded by Union Carbide Corp. is attempting to discover if the compound can cause cancer in humans.
An independent trucker dumped drums of chemical waste from Carbide's Bound Brook plant at Reich Farm, a former chicken farm off Route 9, in the early '70s.
The testing is done by the state Department of Environmental Protection, which initially reported that July samples from wells 26 and 28 contained contaminants like trichloroethylene and the trimer even after the treatment process had been completed.
But Fagliano said DEP officials later determined a mistake had been made and the DEP had labeled untreated water samples as treated samples.
Published on February 1, 2001
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