More stringent standards that took effect this year cited
By: Jake Uitti
MONTGOMERY A well on the Montgomery-Hillsborough border serviced by New Jersey American Water has been shut down because tests in 2005 indicated arsenic levels exceeded newly revised state standards.
Since the shutdown, water has been sent to the affected area from the company’s Raritan-Millstone plant in Bound Brook, said Lendel Jones, spokeswoman for New Jersey American Water, the state’s largest water utility.
Ms. Jones said she could not give the exact location of the well because of security reasons, though she said few residents lived nearby.
Customers affected by the well closing were notified last week as part of the company’s 2005 Water Quality report, Ms. Jones said.
The well test showed 7 parts per billion of arsenic, Ms. Jones said. Arsenic is a potentially poisonous mineral that is known to cause cancer.
The state standard, which took effect in January, is 5 parts per billion. The federal standard for water, however, is 10 parts per billion, which also took effect in January. Before January, the federal standard was 50 parts per billion, Ms. Jones said, and New Jersey followed that same standard.
After tests in 2005, it was determined the well did not meet 2006 New Jersey standards for arsenic so it had to be shut down.
Ms. Jones said there is no significant health risk, and it would take between 70 and 90 years of drinking one liter of water per day to perhaps see health risks.
"Even then, it’s only a possibility," she said.
She said that as soon as the tests came back in 2005, New Jersey American Water knew action would have to be taken.
"As soon as we found out, we knew we had to be in compliance by 2006," she said. "So the well has been shut down and the water is being sent to the affected area from another source."

