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Save water, company urges residents
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Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
TOMS RIVER -- Assuring residents that the public water supply should be more than adequate this summer, United Water Toms River officials last night still asked last night for customers' help conserving water.
"At this time last year, we were in an East Coast drought situation," United Water Toms River General Manager George Flegal said. "This year the situation is much better, with all the rain we have had over the past few months."
Flegal said the company can supply about 25 million gallons of water daily without using its wells 26, 28 and 20.
If those wells are used, the company can supply 27 million gallons a day, but Flegal noted that wells 26 and 28, which capture and treat a plume of underground contamination from the Reich Farm Superfund site, have not been used since the summer of 1997.
Well 20, located off Indian Head Road, has elevated levels of naturally occurring radiation. It has occasionally been used in the system but was not used at all last summer.
Flegal and Uli Diaz, United Water's director for external affairs, asked residents to follow the evapotranspiration program, dubbed "ET," which lets residents know how often to water their grass. Variables like rainfall, wind speed and humidity are used to calculate the moisture content of soil, then a daily number is produced that tells residents how often to water their grass, if at all.
The ET number will be published in local newspapers and broadcast on WOBM radio starting around Memorial Day. It also will be available by calling United Water at (732) 349-0227, Ext. 3034.
The 100,000 people United Water serves in Dover Township, Berkeley and South Toms River use about 12 million gallons of water a day in the off-season, a figure that swells during the summer months. During last year's hot, dry July, customers used about 18 million gallons of water a day, Flegal said.
Over the long July 4 weekend, demand peaked at 22.3 million gallons on one sultry day, straining the system. United has 24 operating wells and also has two interconnections, with the New Jersey-American Water Co. and the Manchester Municipal Utilities Authority to supply extra water when needed.
The company has also had success with its aquifer storage and recovery system (ASR), in which water is pumped from a shallow aquifer during the winter months and then injected deeper into the ground, into another aquifer, for storage.
United operates one ASR well, No. 46, which is located at Route 70 and Whitesville Road. Flegal said the company can draw up to 3 million gallons of water from that well a day.
He said that so far, about 85 to 90 million gallons of water have been stored in the ASR well.
Also last night, committee members adopted, with little fanfare and no public comment, an $8.9 million capital bond ordinance that the governing body had argued about since January.
The smaller bond issue, which was initially proposed by Democratic Committeeman Richard M. Larsen and John M. Furey, contains $5 million for open space purchases and $1.5 million to buy property for recreational use.
Committee members are expected to discuss shortly which parcels of land they plan to acquire with the money.
Published in the Asbury Park Press 4/09/03
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