FILTER THE CHEMICAL SOUP IN NEW JERSEY’S DRINKING WATER

[ensho]

http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=1397


New Jersey should filter its drinking water to remove hundreds of chemicals, most of which are unregulated, from its drinking water supply, according to a rulemaking petition filed today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The plan to screen many chemicals out of tap water was actually developed by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) but has been in limbo for the last six years.

State testing has detected “approximately 600” chemical compounds “in 199 samples collected” including five brands of bottled water, according to a recent DEP white paper. The vast majority of these chemicals, including pharmaceuticals, hormones, and cleaning products, are not regulated by either the federal or state government. As a result, there is no regulatory effort to reduce or eliminate them from drinking water.

The April 2010 DEP white paper, entitled “Investigations Related to a ‘Treatment-Based’ Regulatory Approach to Address Unregulated Contaminants in Drinking Water,” advocates used granular activated carbon filtration and other techniques to remove most chemicals in drinking water, noting that carbon filtration alone removed more than half of identified chemicals.

“Pre-treatment of drinking water is not a panacea but would be a major step forward,” stated New Jersey PEER Director Bill Wolfe, a former DEP analyst, noting that no single technique or combination of techniques will filter all chemicals out of drinking water. “The alternative is having the public serve as a chemical sponge for hundreds of unregulated compounds coming out of our spigots every day.”
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jeez Louise

they have to do something because in N.J. the underground water is forever contaminated.

babies, kids and preg. women are drinking that stuff and suffering the consequences.

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and

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http://atlantaprogressivenews.com/news/0683.html

Advocates Claim Atlanta Violating Safe Drinking Water Act

A group of Atlanta neighborhood activists have been engaged in a years-long battle to get the City of Atlanta to seek a permit for the shafts--through which waste water is sent into deep underground tunnels--something they believe is a requirement of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

The tunnels go long distances to treatment plants, where the water is treated at the surface and then is discharged to a river or stream.

The first problem is that non-drinkable water, including sewage, is not supposed to be injected underground into tunnels, according to the Code of Federal Regulations Title 40, Section 144.12, "Prohibition of movement of fluid into underground sources of drinking water."

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Advocates are particularly concerned about the part of Atlanta's sewer system which is combined, meaning that sewage and stormwater travel in the same tunnel to the treatment plant.
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they also said that some of the tunnels were never given a permit.

Obama and Team's money for redoing sewer/water/etc. will hopefully help Atlanta and N.J.

just because your drinking water looks clear doesn't mean is.

[Altoid_Cyclist]

1. Bookmarked so that I can look at their links when I have more time.

It's been 20 years since I left Connecticut. I worked for a chemical manufacturing and distribution company. A lot of the chemicals that we shipped went to the big chemical companies in NJ.

One company in particular used to laugh and or brag about how many people they either killed off with their toxins or scared off because the people were afraid of developing cancer. They said that enabled them to expand since they could buy up properties at bargain basement prices.


And then there was Ciba Geigy which was supposed to be operated in an environmentally friendly manner since they were a European company. Toms River served as an example of what a myth that was.


From http://rarediseases.about.com/cs/leukemiasrare/a/031602.htm
Ciba-Geigy Corporation

From 1952-1990, the Ciba-Geigy Corporation (now Ciba Specialty Chemicals) operated a dye manufacturing plant in Toms River. Waste products from the plant were either stored in some 69,000 drums or were treated and pumped through a pipeline to the Atlantic Ocean. In 1980, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection required Ciba-Geigy to begin groundwater monitoring and drum removal at the plant site. In 1983, the Toms River site was placed on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Superfund list. The EPA discovered that the waste on the site was leaching into the groundwater below. In 1989 it ordered Ciba-Geigy to begin cleaning up the site and the groundwater.

Read more here: http://rarediseases.about.com/cs/leukemiasrare/a/031602.htm

[ensho]

2. laugh and brag

"One company in particular used to laugh and or brag about how many people they either killed off with their toxins or scared off because the people were afraid of developing cancer. They said that enabled them to expand since they could buy up properties at bargain basement prices."


money grubbing pricks

[Altoid_Cyclist]

3. That's being much too kind.

This is a link to a "Superfund Site" in Bound Brook which was one of their many plants involved in lawsuits before they sold off most of their company.

Excerpt:
EPA added the American Cyanamid site in Bridgewater Township, New Jersey to the Superfund National Priorities List on September 1, 1983 because hazardous chemicals were found in the soil and ground water. The 575-acre superfund site located in Somerset County contained various areas used for the disposal of chemical sludge and other wastes. Site soil and ground water were contaminated with metals and VOCs, which are potentially harmful contaminants that can easily evaporate into the air. Various other contaminants were found on-site including: cyanide, PCBs, and chromium. The site is across from the Raritan River and lies above the Brunswick Aquifer, New Jersey’s second largest source for drinking water. There are 30 private wells close to the site. Approximately 14,000 people live within a three mile radius of the site. The site is fenced off and access is restricted.

http://www.epa.gov/region02/superfund/npl/american_cyanamid/

The two companies that bought most of their assets also agreed to assume all outstanding suits against them.

The people (and I use that term with some hesitation) that I met from AC were possibly the most arrogant and self centered ***holes that I ever met.

[mdmc]

4. ..