Published in the Asbury Park Press
BY JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
DOVER TOWNSHIP — Concerned about the water supply as summer approaches, three Township Council members said they plan to introduce an ordinance April 25 that would place mandatory restrictions on lawn watering and other outdoor water use.
Councilman Michael J. Fiure said the ordinance would permit property owners to water their lawns no more than three times a week. If the ordinance is introduced at the council's April 25 meeting, it could take effect after adoption in mid-May.
Fiure said the council will consider a measure that would allow owners of properties with odd-numbered addresses to water their lawns on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Those with even-numbered addresses would be limited to Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Fiure said the ordinance would probably prohibit watering between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., when experts from Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Ocean County say that 40 percent of water applied by sprinklers is lost to evaporation.
"The ongoing problems created by United Water Toms River and their intentional misrepresentation of critical information to both the township and the consumers makes it necessary for us to take proactive steps at this point to insure that, as the summer heats up and the water demand increases, we have no significant interruptions," Fiure said.
The water restrictions would be in effect through Sept. 30, Fiure said.
United Water spokesman Richard Henning said the company wrote a letter to township officials in December, asking them to consider mandatory water restrictions.
"This is welcome," Henning said. "We'd love to discuss conservation measures with the town and see what we can come up with."
Supports restrictions
Linda L. Gillick, who heads the Citizens Action Committee on Childhood Cancer Cluster, said she favors mandatory water restrictions. The citizens committee has repeatedly asked township officials to consider instituting such a program.
"It tells me that the township is serious about making sure that this town is supplied with an adequate amount of safe water," Gillick said. She said mandatory outdoor water restrictions could help prevent the usage of United's Wells 20, 26 and 28.
Well 20 has been used very rarely in United's system since 1997, when elevated levels of naturally occurring radiation were found in the well. Wells 26 and 28 have been used only once since November 1996, when traces of a chemical compound related to plastics production were found in the wells.
In early March, Dover Township filed a petition with the state Board of Public Utilities, asking the board to revoke United Water's franchise to operate here. The petition claims that United's negligent conduct endangered residents' health and safety.
It was filed less than a month after township officials learned that United had violated state law by failing to report to the state or to residents seven instances of elevated radiation levels in its system discovered during routine testing in 2005.
That news came after the state Department of Environmental Protection's September announcement that it had banned almost all new connections to United's system because the company had exceeded its state water allocation in three of the past five years.
That ban has halted almost all new construction in Dover, South Toms River and the Holiday City and Silver Ridge sections of Berkeley, all areas served by United Water. Under an administrative consent order signed by United and the DEP in October, the water company was instructed to ask the governing bodies in Dover, Berkeley and South Toms River to institute conservation measures in their towns as a way to cut back on water usage.
Watering guidelines
Linda Schoch, a horticultural consultant with Rutgers Cooperative Extension, said lawns normally need 1 to 1 1/2 inches of water a week during the summer to stay green and healthy. The extension service recommends that lawns receive about half an inch of water every three days, an amount that also includes rain.
It usually takes 30 to 45 minutes to give lawns half an inch of water, she said.
Schoch recommended that council members include private well users in any ordinance restricting water use, since those wells are drawing water from the same aquifers. United Water already has its own voluntary water conservation program in place.
The program uses a variety of measurements, including rainfall and temperature, to determine the moisture content of soil. A number is then produced which tells property owners how long to water their lawns if it hasn't been done within the past three days.
Fiure said the water restriction ordinance, which he and council members Maria Maruca and Brian Kubiel intend to introduce, will include fines for violations. Fiure recommended a fine of $100 for a first offense, $250 for a second offense and $500 for a third violation.
Those who accumulate more than three violations would have outdoor water service capped to prevent future use, Fiure said. The Police Department would be charged with enforcing the ordinance, but Council President Gregory P. McGuckin said he will propose that the township hire someone to enforce the ordinance and bill United Water.
Kubiel said that hand watering of vegetables, vegetable gardens, trees, shrubs and flowers, car washing and other less-intense water uses would not be restricted. But hoses used for hand watering will need to have an automatic shut-off valve, or at least a nozzle that evenly distributes the spray, he said.
Council members also agreed at Tuesday's meeting to form a "Water Resource Advisory Committee," similar to the former Water Resource Task Force that was created by the Township Committee in the 1990s.
The committee, to be appointed by the council, is needed because of "repeat patterns of misinformation on the part of United Water, and their intentional withholding of critical information concerning contaminated water in the township," Maruca said.
Kubiel said the committee will act in an "oversight capacity" and will have the ability to "carefully monitor what United Water is up to."
McGuckin said the council has not yet decided how many people will be appointed to the advisory committee.
Published in the Asbury Park Press 04/13/06
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