Contaminated Water
Aug 29th, 2008 at 6:42 am by Susie
What moron decided to do this?
More than one in 10 private drinking-water wells in New Jersey are contaminated, new data indicate, and residents may never know it.
Even if they do, they’re not required to install treatment systems, and state law “suggests” only that officials notify neighbors.
A report prepared by the state Department of Environmental Protection, based on tests of 51,000 private wells between 2002 and 2007, found that 12.5 percent failed to meet drinking-water standards for one or more contaminants, such as nitrates from fertilizer and fecal coliform.
Applying that percentage to the state’s 400,000 private wells suggests that 50,000 households could be drinking unsafe water.
The DEP did not take steps to notify the public other than posting the report, dated July, on its Web site’s home page this week as a “hot topic.”
