Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
TOMS RIVER -- United Water Toms River representatives will meet with Dover Township officials and members of a citizens group to establish a way to let the public know when the company is using water from certain wells.
The meeting of utility and municipal officials and members of the Citizens Action Committee on Childhood Cancer Cluster will be at 8 a.m. May 23.
"The company is willing to sit down and come up with a plan that works for everybody," said Ulises Diaz, United's director of public affairs, speaking at last night's citizens committee meeting.
Diaz spoke after residents, two Dover Township Committee members and Linda L. Gillick, who chairs the citizens committee, all strongly criticized the water company and state officials for not notifying residents recently when well 20 was turned on.
The well, located off Indian Head Road, has been offline most of the past five years because it contains elevated levels of naturally occurring radiation.
"This is absolutely appalling," Sunray Drive resident Joseph Kotran said of the lack of a notification system for the public. ". . . It's absolutely ridiculous that adults in today's world can't get together and work these things out."
Asked Gillick, "What are you going to do to notify us immediately?"
Following the meeting, Gillick said water company officials agreed to call her and Dover Township officials to notify them if wells are turned on between now and May 23.
United officials have stressed that when water from well 20 is blended with water from other wells in the company's drinking water system, the water customers actually receive meets all state and federal drinking water standards.
Gillick and other members of the citizens committee have questioned the standards, however, noting that water quality tests look at only a fraction of the chemicals that can potentially be found in drinking water.
Recent hot temperatures sent water demands soaring, straining United's resources, and the company had to activate well 20 twice. Wells 42 and 34, which together can supply about 3 million gallons of water daily, were both offline over the past two weeks.
Well 42 was taken out of service for routine maintenance, while the pump broke on well 34. United General Manager George Flegal said well 34 is back in service and well 42 should be back by the end of the week.
United serves more than 95,000 people in Dover and Berkeley townships and South Toms River. When United's resources are strained, the company first activates an interconnection with New Jersey-American Water Co. that can supply up to 1 million gallons of water a day. After that, well 20 is turned on, and, as a last resort, the company can then activate wells 26 and 28, which have not been used since the summer of 1997.
Those two wells capture and treat most of a ground-water contamination plume from the Reich Farm Superfund site, located off Route 9.
James S. Blumenstock, senior assistant commissioner for the state Department of Health and Senior Services, said that when United must activate the interconnection or turn on well 20 or the other wells, the company notifies the state Department of Environmental Protection.
DEP then notifies the state health department which is responsible for calling the citizens committee, the Ocean County Health Department and the Dover Township Committee.
Committeeman John F. Russo Jr. said Mayor Ray Fox was notified recently when well 20 was turned on, but he said Fox did not tell the other committee members. Russo said the township administrator's office was not notified.
United also has a hot line - (732) 286-9143 -- which is supposed to be updated to inform residents when the wells are turned on.
Dover resident Angela Quartuccio said the hot line was not in operation when she called to check the morning of May 4, when well 20 was turned on.
Flegal said the hot line was turned back on the afternoon of May 4.
"I had not recollected that we had to put a message on the hot line," Flegal said.
He said the hot line was reactivated after Gerald P. Nicholls, director of DEP's Division of Environ-mental Safety, Health and Analytical Programs, reminded him that it was supposed to be operational.
Published on May 15, 2001
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