Published in the Asbury Park Press
BY JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
DOVER TOWNSHIP — Joseph Meneghin didn't realize that danger could come from a sprinkler.
The Meneghins had a sprinkler system installed at their new house on Fiddlers Run in northwest Dover in spring 2003. But late last year, tests of their irrigation well showed levels of benzene far above the maximum contaminant levels permitted by the state in drinking water.
"You're on your own when you have an irrigation well," said Meneghin, whose household uses public drinking water.
The Ocean County Health Department requires drinking water wells to be tested when a new home is built or an older home is sold. There is no testing requirement for nonpotable wells, such as the Meneghins' irrigation well, because they are not typically used for drinking water or bathing.
The Meneghins' well had 28, 25 and 18 parts per billion of benzene in three separate tests. The state standard for benzene in drinking water is 1 part per billion; the federal standard is 5 ppb.
The family has shut down the well and is considering installing filtration or drilling a deeper well into a lower aquifer.
Benzene, a nearly colorless liquid used as a gasoline additive and chemical solvent, is a human carcinogen, and Meneghin fears that inhalation of the benzene could have contributed to his 6-year-old daughter's liver cancer. Benzene is a volatile chemical that can be absorbed by humans through inhalation.
"It's a cause for concern," Meneghin said. "It's somewhat possible that there could be a connection" to his daughter Gabriella's cancer.
Gabriella liked to play in the pool and run through the sprinkler on hot summer days. Her cancer was diagnosed last year. Now, she is doing well and is undergoing treatment.
At a recent meeting of the Citizens Action Committee on Childhood Cancer Cluster, Meneghin voiced his concerns about the irrigation well contamination to officials from the state Department of Health and Senior Services and the Department of Environmental Protection.
Jerald A. Fagliano, a health department epidemiologist, advised Meneghin not to use the irrigation well.
"If you have 30 ppb in your water, you shouldn't be using that water," Fagliano said. "Benzene does come out of the water into the air."
Meneghin decided to test his irrigation well after his neighbor, Karl Putnam, had his well tested and found 5 ppb of benzene in the water. Putnam, a Dover native who had lived on Vermont Avenue for years, was aware of potential contamination problems in the area because he had run a well-drilling service.
"I was on Vermont Avenue for 20 years, and we always had well water," said Putnam, who moved to Fiddlers Run last spring. "We always had it tested, and I knew there had been contamination in the area. So I had the irrigation well tested, too."
Putnam and Meneghin are convinced that there will be more pollution found in the area when the DEP and the county Health Department begin more extensive testing in the neighborhood.
DEP spokesman Fred Mumford said that in the next couple of weeks, the agency will begin a source investigation in the area in an attempt to determine where the benzene is coming from.
In 1994, private wells at five homes in the North Maple Avenue area were found to be contaminated with benzene, dichloroethylene, trichloroethane and dichloroethane, all volatile organic pollutants.
About $54,000 in state Spill Fund money was used to connect homes in the area to public drinking water provided by United Water Toms River. Mumford said the private wells were sealed because they were used for drinking water.
In its upcoming investigation, Mumford said, the DEP "will be looking at a number of sites, and sampling will be conducted in the spring and the summer."
Mumford said property owners in the area were sent letters about the sampling, and he hopes that all of them will grant access to DEP representatives so that the testing can move forward quickly.
"We will be sampling those irrigation wells, as well as other sampling," Mumford said. "It is hard to predict what this investigation will find, and hard to predict a specific time frame when the report will be completed. The data they obtain will drive the rest of the investigation."
Robert Ingenito, Ocean County's environmental health coordinator, said the Health Department plans its own sampling in the Fiddlers Run area and intends to start taking water samples by the end of this week.
"We are scheduled to do a lot of sampling out there," Ingenito said.
He said that many of the residents may have their irrigation wells capped for the winter months, so Health Department officials will wait to sample those wells until they are opened and turned on for the spring and summer months.
Meneghin and Putnam said they hope that the source of the contamination can be found and that other homeowners in the area can be warned that their own irrigation wells might be polluted.
Meneghin has obtained a 1983 DEP report on a spill at a former Exxon service station near the intersection of Routes 9 and 70, near his home. The report indicates that a 4,000-gallon fuel tank leaked, and Meneghin wonders if there is a connection to the pollution found in his well.
"I don't think Karl and I are going to be the only people who come up high," Meneghin said. "Before they turn on that sprinkler, they should know what might be in there."
Putnam said he hopes the investigation discovers the contamination source as well as a cleanup method.
"I'd like to see a complete investigation by the county and state to determine where the pollution is coming from, and have a cleanup outline," Putnam said. "I'd like to see how far it's spread."
Published in the Asbury Park Press 03/23/06
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