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WOULD AFFECT:
Sites where humans, ecosystem not at risk
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Published in the Asbury Park Press
BY TODD B. BATES
ENVIRONMENTAL WRITER
DEP may up groundwater pollution limits
State officials are considering allowing up to 10 times the accepted levels of contaminants in ground water in some pollution cases if human and ecological health are not at risk, according to a draft document.
Such variances may be issued only at sites where contaminant levels are not decreasing, according to draft guidance by Department of Environmental Protection officials.
But a water expert at the New Jersey Institute of Technology questioned the guidance, which would apply to areas that are not currently used as sources of drinking water.
"Population is growing, and these contaminants don't degrade very quickly," said Taha Marhaba, associate professor and acting director of the New Jersey Applied Water Research Center at NJIT in Newark.
DEP spokeswoman Elaine Makatura said, "The DEP will not comment. It's a . . . draft report for discussion purposes."
The internal document — titled "Guidance for the Management of Low-Level Groundwater Contamination Cases" — may represent a DEP effort to deal with some of the thousands of known contaminated sites in New Jersey. As of April 2005, New Jersey had about 13,700 such sites, according to the DEP Web site.
At many sites, data indicate that groundwater is contaminated at levels that violate state groundwater quality standards "but is not posing a threat to human or other ecological receptors," the draft guidance says. Receptors include drinking water wells, well protection areas, surface water and indoor air.
"The long-term management of cases with groundwater contamination that does not represent a current risk to public health or other ecological receptors is not new to the department," according to the draft. In these cases, the DEP creates Classification Exception Areas, or CEAs, which have been established throughout the state.
These areas do not meet groundwater standards because of pollution, a permitted discharge or other reasons, and "designated aquifer uses are suspended in the affected area" while a CEA is in effect, according to the DEP Web site.
The draft guidance would cover sites with groundwater contaminants at concentrations no greater than 10 times current standards, up to 1,000 parts per billion for individual organic compounds or up to 10,000 ppb for total organic compounds.
While limits for toxic metals such as arsenic, chromium, lead and mercury could rise tenfold, the limit for methyl tertiary butyl ether, a long-time gasoline additive, could increase only twofold because of its "very high mobility."
Asked how many contaminated sites or groundwater areas could be affected by the guidance, DEP spokesman Fred Mumford said in an earlier interview that "it's premature to discuss any implications as . . . this draft has not even been proposed."
"Clean water is very scarce now, especially in New Jersey where we have groundwater depletion all over," NJIT's Marhaba said. "I believe that the state should be consistent in the way that they're developing these criteria."
Published in the Asbury Park Press 05/22/06
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