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$5,000 APIECE: 2 ex-managers also face
license suspensions
ACCUSATION: They shut down well
to pass water quality test
DEP fines 2 from United Water
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Published in the Asbury Park Press
BY JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
DOVER TOWNSHIP — United Water Toms River's former general manager and a former operations manager have been fined $5,000 each by the state Department of Environmental Protection for deliberately turning off a Berkeley well in September in an effort to conceal elevated radiation levels in the water.
The fines were levied against former United General Manager George J. Flegal and former Operations Manager Richard Ottens. The two men also face two-year suspensions of their DEP operator's licenses, which are required for work as managers at public water systems.
DEP spokeswoman Darlene Yuhas said the state Attorney General's Office is also conducting a criminal investigation of the two men's actions.
The fines against United were announced Wednesday, the same day that the DEP also disclosed penalties it had levied against the Strawberry Point Homeowners Association in Byram and its former operator, William H. Horton, and Roxbury Water Co. and its operator and president, John F. Hosking.
The penalties involved submitting false and inaccurate reports or failing to accurately monitor drinking water quality.
"We license New Jersey's water system operators to perform an essential public service," DEP Commissioner Lisa P. Jackson said. "Our investigations showed these operators shirked their fundamental responsibilities under the law. Equally regrettable, by deliberately distorting data, they violated the public's trust."
Linda L. Gillick, who chairs the Citizens Action Committee on Childhood Cancer Cluster, said the fines for Flegal and Ottens are not high enough.
"Knowing how sensitive this whole water system issue is, in a town that has had elevated levels of childhood cancer, I cannot believe that the DEP would fine those individuals so lightly," Gillick said. "I just hope there will be more of a punishment coming."
Yuhas said the fine amounts were determined by an administrative formula and were above the minimum permitted by law.
2 appealing rulings
Both Flegal and Ottens said they have sought legal representation and are planning to appeal the fines and license suspensions. Appeals of such administrative fines would be heard by a judge in the Office of Administrative Law, the DEP said.
The DEP said Wednesday that in September 2005, Flegal and Ottens shut down Berkeley Well 35 off Mule Road just before the well was scheduled to be tested for the presence of radiation.
Flegal and Ottens apparently believed that elevated radiation levels in the Berkeley well could cause United's system to exceed state standards for radiation in drinking water, according to a DEP statement.
The Berkeley point of entry, where water from the threeBerkeley wells is blended together before distribution to customers, exceeded state standards for "gross alpha" radiation in testing conducted in May and September 2005. United Water serves about 100,000 people in Dover, South Toms River and the Holiday City and Silver Ridge sections of Berkeley.
Gross alpha is a type of energy released as radiation when water causes elements found in the earth's crust to decay. It occurs naturally in shallow aquifers throughout southern New Jersey.
The Berkeley wells have complied with state standards for radiation in all testing done since September, United Water spokesman Richard Henning said Wednesday. Henning said the company's entire system has been in compliance with radiation standards, as well as all other drinking water standards, in all testing conducted since November.
Flegal said Wednesday he disagrees with the state's contention that he manipulated the system to obtain better test results.
"Obviously, I disagree with what they are saying," Flegal said. He has retained New Brunswick lawyer Steve Fox to represent him, he said.
"Quite honestly, I have a lawyer that is responding to their allegations, and I don't agree with their statements," Ottens said of the DEP.
Henning said he could not discuss personnel matters, except to say that Flegal and Ottens no longer work for United Water Toms River. Nadine Leslie has been United Water's general manager since the company's failure to report elevated radiation levels became public in early February.
"This was certainly contrary to all of our company policies and . . . procedures," Henning said. "Certainly we have new management in place, new procedures and controls that we've discussed, not just internally but with the state and the DEP. We're very confident, in terms of the new leadership and the new controls, that we will see good results in Toms River."
Criminal probe urged
But township officials, who want United Water removed as Dover's public water provider, called for a criminal investigation into the men's actions.
"A $5,000 fine" and a license suspension are "just a slap on the wrist," said Mayor Paul C. Brush.
Council President Gregory P. McGuckin agreed and noted that Dover has accused the water company of intentionally failing to disclose seven instances of elevated radiation levels in its system discovered during testing in 2005.
The DEP fined United Water $64,000 earlier this year for failing to report the elevated radiation levels to the state and to the public, as required by law.
"We said two months ago that it could only have been intentional when they did not file the reports they were supposed to file," McGuckin said. "This clearly proves they were manipulating the system, and that is very disheartening."
The township filed a petition with the state Board of Public Utilities in March, asking the board to revoke United's franchise to distribute water here. In its petition, the township accuses United of threatening the public health and welfare and purposely misleading township officials.
McGuckin said the petition will be amended to include the charges against Flegal and Ottens.
The state has banned all new connections to United's system since September because the company exceeded its water allocation in three of the past five years. That ban has halted almost all new construction in the utility's service area.
Published in the Asbury Park Press 05/11/06
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