ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEY UPDATE ARTICLES
STATE DEFERS ACTION FIRST; THEN DECIDES TO MOVE TO MITIGATE RADIUM RISK
The NJ Department of Environmental Protection said in late December that about 64,000 people in southern New Jersey have been drinking water from public water supplies that contain unsafe levels of radium.
The agency ordered nine water suppliers in Atlantic, Cumberland and Sussex Counties to close their wells, drill new ones, or provide treatment for the contamination. The DEP said suppliers can continue to deliver the radium-tainted water to their customers for up to two years as long as they immediately begin plans to correct the problem.
Most of the people affected live in Atlantic and Cumberland Counties. The suppliers range from large municipal water authorities to small trailer-park landlords. The high radiation levels in southern New Jersey are coming from three types of radium - radium 224, 226 and 228, isotopes that are known to cause bone and nasal cancer. Radium is especially dangerous to children who have developing bone tissue.
The Geological Survey first detected radium 226 and 228 in public supplies in 1988. Then, two years ago, radium 224 was found in drinking water in Toms River, where tests are being conducted to see if there is a connection with the abnormally high rate of childhood cancer there. Tests in Camden, Gloucester and Burlington Counties are not complete, according to Barker Hamill, chief of DEP's Bureau of Safe Drinking Water. Information on any supplies to those counties that are found to exceed safe health standards will be released on a case-by-case basis when the tests are expected to be completed by July.
People with radium-tainted water can remove the radium with a standard water softener, which costs between $400 and $600 per residence and can be purchased at department stores. There are also "point of use: devices such as ion-exchange or reverse-osmosis treatment systems that can be installed at the kitchen sink. According to DEP, this water can be used for drinking or food preparation. It is safe to bathe or wash clothes in radium-tainted water according to the agency. As the amount of radium increases, so does the risk factor, officials said.
A study released by the Geological Survey in August showed that unsafe levels of radium were found in 33 percent of 170 wells tested in Camden, Gloucester, Atlantic, Salem, Cumberland and Ocean Counties.
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