Mayor Ron Shapella appointed three people to advise the dozen residents whose wells were contamined by a nearby state road salt storage facility.
By: Linda Seida
WEST AMWELL Mayor Ron Shapella has appointed three people to advise a group of about a dozen residents whose wells were contaminated by a nearby state Department of Transportation road salt storage facility.
Zoning Board of Adjustment Chairman John Cronce, Environmental Commission member Joel Coyne and Board of Health member Rick Kropp will meet with the affected residents, Mayor Shapella said. The meeting has yet to be scheduled.
Mayor Shapella made the appointments last month.
Residents along Route 179 have been trying to work out a remediation deal with the DOT.
The most recent public meeting held to discuss their concerns was in October when some of the affected residents felt their concerns were not being adequately met.
Since then, "The results have not been satisfactory for the people who have been affected," Mayor Shapella said.
The DOT has provided bottled water for residents affected by the contamination.
It has offered to install a reverse osmosis system at one point of entry in each dwelling plus 10 years of maintenance. Some residents have said the offer isn’t an acceptable permanent fix, but only a temporary one
A reverse osmosis system, also called an RO, filters out many impurities and contaminants by forcing water through a semi-permeable membrane.
Mayor Shapella said, "There needs to be some flexibility" in the solutions the state offers residents whose wells were affected, rather than a one-solution-fits-all fix.
Mr. Cronce, a former mayor of West Amwell who runs his own septic and excavation business, lives in the area along Route 179 that was affected, but his well has not suffered a problem, Mayor Shapella said.
"He’s very familiar with these types of issues," Mayor Shapella said.
Mr. Cronce attended a few of the public discussions about the salt contamination that were held last year with representatives from the DOT at the township building.
At one of the meetings in October, he advised township officials to bring in their own experts to help with the remediation negotiation rather than rely on those provided by the DOT.
Mr. Coyne is an environmental health specialist who works in the Bernards Township Health Department.
Mr. Kropp is employed by the U.S. Geological Survey, a science-based organization whose focus includes water, geology, biology and geography. It is the sole science agency for the Department of the Interior.
The wells have been contaminated for years, but some of the residents didn’t stop drinking the water until early in 2006. At least one resident has said she was never told it was unsafe to drink.
The salt contamination was discovered during a DOT cleanup of gasoline that leaked from tanks in 1999.