Published in the Asbury Park Press
BY JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
DOVER TOWNSHIP — Public drinking water is one step closer for 40 homes in Windsor Park.
The Township Council on Tuesday agreed to seek bids for work to connect the homes to United Water Toms River's system. The state will reimburse the township for the work, using $580,000 raised through corporate business taxes.
The council hopes to be able to award a contract in July, Councilwoman Maria Maruca said.
Maruca represents Ward 1, which includes the Windsor Park section near Barnegat Bay, where groundwater contamination has been a persistent problem.
Maruca said if the township awards a contract in July, the work would commence shortly afterward in the area of Beachwood and Veeder avenues.
But residents who live just outside the known contamination area remain frustrated and are concerned that a state Department of Environmental Protection ban on new connections to United Water's system could prevent them from hooking up to public water even if the mains are installed on their streets.
Vision Avenue resident Stephanie Mezza said Wednesday night that her home is not among the 40 houses that will be connected using state funds, even though pollution has been found in a well at a nearby home.
"On my street, there are three homes that are contaminated," said Mezza, who has three young children. "As soon as they shut off these other wells, the carcinogens will have nowhere else to go. They will seep into our well within a year or two."
Mezza, like many residents of the area, does not drink her tap water or use it for cooking, although she does use it for bathing.
Boxer Street resident Rosemarie Intile said her home is also not among those getting connected, because there are only four homes with polluted wells within 1,000 feet of her home, instead of the five required by the DEP. Homes across the street from her will be connected.
Still, she said, she is happy that public water is finally coming to the 40 homes.
"To me, it's good news to be able to have the opportunity to connect," Intile said. "For the person that can't afford it, they should have that opportunity, too."
Maruca said that nine additional homes in the area will be allowed to connect to United's system if the property owners pay for their own hookups. It could cost several thousand dollars for a homeowner to connect to the system.
The DEP has exempted those houses, and the 40 homes that will be connected using state funds, from its ban on new hookups to United Water's system.
The DEP paid for 80 homes in the area of Veeder, Windsor and Beachwood avenues to get city water several years ago. The wells at those homes were included in a groundwater contamination zone delineated by the agency.
The wells were found to contain traces of mercury and volatile organic chemicals, including trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene. All are known or suspected human carcinogens.
Testing has been conducted in Windsor Park since 1996, and 21 drinking water wells initially were found to be polluted.
Additional sampling conducted in 2004 by the DEP found mercury and volatile organic contaminants, including trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene, in at least 31 private wells.
DEP officials have said they do not know the source of the pollution. The area has a high water table, and dry cleaning solvents or septic tank cleaners used by homeowners long ago could have seeped into the ground water.
Affected residents attended a council meeting in late January to ask that the remaining 300 to 400 houses in the area that still rely on private wells be connected to United's system.
Maruca had lobbied earlier this year for the township to consider paying to hook up all the homes, but with Dover facing a tight budget for fiscal year 2007 it seems unlikely that the rest of the council would agree.
Township officials also have asked United Water to consider connecting the remaining homes to its system, at its expense, but the water company has not agreed. Maruca said township officials will continue to negotiate with the water company on behalf of residents with private wells.
Maruca said the township is still seeking to award a contract for water testing in areas of Dover that rely on private wells. When the township initially sought bids for the work, the price was much higher than officials had anticipated.
Published in the Asbury Park Press on 05/25/06
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