BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer
Howell HOWELL — Although first-round test results of water quality in six homes left municipal officials concerned last winter, the second-round results from three homes of customers of the Parkway Water Company now have Howell officials upbeat.
They are so upbeat, in fact, that Mayor Joseph M. DiBella is hopeful that the latest results from the private company that tested the water in the homes could be used to revive the purchase of the private water company by the Brick Township Municipal Utilities Authority (BTMUA).
The BTMUA is a public utility that had bowed out of the purchase of Parkway Water following the release of first-round test results of six homes in Ramtown. The test samples were taken in November.
Four homes were to be retested in March, but only three homes were available for testing when the samples were taken.
The independent testing commissioned by Howell officials was one of many developments over the two years that have passed since the Parkway Water Company, Marlboro, informed its Ramtown customers that wells supplying their water had been found to contain radium 226 and radium 228 in amounts that exceeded the maximum contamination levels (MCL) allowable under standards established by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
Radium is a natural element contained in soil that becomes a contaminant when it is disturbed through construction activities or the introduction of lime or fertilizers into the soil. If it enters a water supply and is ingested, radium can affect a person’s body because the body does not flush the element, but instead allows the radium to absorb into the bones. Because the element sits in a person’s bones, it is known to pose a particular risk to developing bones.
Municipal officials have said the DEP’s Department of Safe Drinking Water has continually assured them that consuming the water does not pose an imminent health danger.
A water softening system is an accepted method of eliminating radium from water systems.
The homes tested by Brinkerhoff Environmental Services Inc., Manasquan, were chosen at random from among the residential customer base that makes up the 1,800 customers of Parkway Water in the Ramtown section of Howell.
On June 21, Laura Brinkerhoff was joined by colleague Yvonne Estrada at the Township Council meeting where they presented the results of the second round of testing their firm performed.
Brinkerhoff said testing was done on water drawn from the street point of entry into the home, then at the water meter and from water taken from the farthest point of entry into the home (i.e., the sink located the farthest from the street pipe connection to the house).
Brinkerhoff acknowledged there were discrepancies in the first- and second-round test results and said there was no definite explanation for the fluctuations. She said the flushing of the mains by Parkway Water the night before the second-round testing done in March could have affected the outcome, but not in a significant or detrimental way.
Brinkerhoff said although the second-round testing of two of the homes showed elevated MCLs at the curb line, the overall results were acceptable according to DEP standards.
Estrada said the flushing of the main could have accounted for the elevated curb line results.
Brinkerhoff said there could be some scaling present in the street pipes, but if it was present in the homes there would have been higher levels found at the farthest water tap in the homes.
Brinkerhoff said she concluded that the overall results appear to mean the “overall concentrations of radionuclides seem to be dissipating.”
DiBella was so encouraged by the second-round test results that he said he would reach out to the BTMUA in an effort to get officials of the utility to revisit the possibility of purchasing the Parkway Water Company.
“I would like to get both parties back to the table,” DiBella said.
He said he hoped the second-round results would “jump-start” negotiations between the BTMUA and Parkway Water. The mayor said he will also ask the DEP to convene a meeting with all the parties to discuss the matter.