NJ Must Fix Serious Problems with Drinking Water

In response to the article “Will New Jersey Tax Your Tap Water?” by Matt Arco, Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, has released the following statement:

“New Jersey has a serious drinking water problem and we have to fix it immediately. Not only is the quality of our water decreasing but the quantity is as well. Our water systems are falling apart and it’s not just lead contamination. Half of our water system is impacted by PFOAs and other contaminates such as perchlorate, PFNA, PFC, arsenic, chromium, and more. A third of our private wells test below the standard. We have $8 billion in pipes that need to be replaced and another $14 billion needed for upgrades to water treatment systems. We support Senator Smith’s bill, S2805. For the cost of a couple of bottles of water, we can start having a stable source of funding for our drinking water. We’ve been pushing for a long time to get a stable source of funding because there’s nothing more important than clean drinking water.

“We must protect the people of New Jersey and especially our most precious resource, our children, from threats in their drinking water. We desperately need to fund efforts to clean up our water systems before its too late. Our water supply rivers are too low and dirty because of the failure to clean up our waterways. This has made makes droughts worse because we don’t have enough back-up supply in our reservoirs. Our low reservoir levels have led to an increased threat of salt water intrusion, further threatening our water supply. For example, salty water from the Delaware Bay entering the Delaware River and getting dangerously close to water intake points in Delran.

“The Christie Administration rolled back important rules for water protections such as the Flood Hazard Rules, Water Quality Management Planning Rules and Highlands Septic Density Rules. These rollbacks allow for less protections of waterways and more development in environmentally sensitive areas. They remove stream buffers and allow development on the most pristine streams. This means more pollution in our drinking water and less water availability. Without an updated Water Supply Master Plan, developers can build in places that pollute our drinking water or where we do not have a clean water supply.

“Lead is also a major problem in New Jersey, especially in our drinking water. Lead is one of the most hazardous substances known to man and it impacts children, especially small children, in our urban areas. New Jersey cities have old outdated pipes in our streets and homes which can mean even higher levels of lead in our water. Many of our water systems go back to the Victorian era and even homes built in the 30’s and 40’s have pipes made with lead sodder. We also don’t do enough testing at the faucet; most of the testing is done at the plant. This means that the lead from these old pipes come into our water before it gets to our homes.

“We treat our wastewater with old systems where 25% can be leaking from the pipes. In cities like Newark, Trenton, and Passaic Valley we have open-air finished reservoirs that contribute to the lead problems. Open-air reservoirs have led to outbreaks of cryptosporidium outbreaks and contamination from run-off, geese, and more. Since they are open-air, we cannot add add orthophosphates to the water to prevent lead from the pipes leaching into it.

“We are seeing high bacteria levels in our reservoirs. When stormwater and pollution enter our waterways, the level of nutrients increases and oxygen levels drop. This dangerous algae bloom is also the result of warmer than usual temperatures that help accelerate bacteria growth from nutrient runoff. Phosphorus comes from animal and human waste as well as fertilizer. The more bacteria we see in our waterways, the more we are at risk from chlorine byproducts like chloroform or Trihalomethanes (THM). This not only changes the taste and color of the water so it won’t be as clear, but could have potential health impacts.

“We have 3500 contaminated sites near drinking water wells. There are well fields in places with contaminated sites in cities such as Camden and Atlantic City. These are Categorical Exemption Areas where you can’t drill new wells because of groundwater transportation. Some people say Camden is doing a good job on water but all their schoolchildren are drinking out of bottles. The Trii-County Pipeline was meant to replace depleted and contaminated wells in South Jersey by bringing in fresh Delaware Water for drinking. Instead of the pipeline going to Camden and Pennsauken, most of it went south for new development on farmfields in Gloucester and Salem County.

“We also need to do more to clean up our combined sewer overflow because they are a health hazard. Dilapidated storm water systems exacerbate the problem by increasing the water in combined sewers and we need funding to reduce the amount of water in sewers during major storm events. The biggest source of pollution we face is nonpoint pollution and we need to retrofit our stormwater basins to protect our waterways, while revitalizing our waterfront neighborhoods and communities. We need at least $13 billion just to fix our combined sewer overflow systems, but overall we need more than $45 billion to fix our water and sewage infrastructure.

“In 1999, New Jersey almost ran out of water in the northern part of state. If it wasn’t for Hurricane Floyd, we would have. We were seeing a breakdown of our water supply where the Passaic River was too dirty to take water from and the Wanaque Reservoir’s filters were getting clogged with algae. This situation could happen again because of our failure to clean-up nutrient pollution. We could be the first state East of the Colorado River to run out of water because of pollution, over-development, and climate impacts. Whether it’s old pipes leaking out water, contaminates like lead threatening our children, or problems with Combined Sewer Overflows, it’s time for us to act and protect our drinking water supply and infrastructure.”