Wells found to have excess radioactivity
S.B. officials assure public: Water supply is safe to drink
BY CHRIS GAETANO
Staff Writer

CHRIS GAETANO Mayor Frank Gambatese takes a drink of water, confident there is nothing to worry about.

Two South Brunswick drinking wells have been shut down in response to findings that the water within them contains radioactivity levels slightly higher than federally mandated maximums.

According to Environmental Protection Agency standards, radium 226/228, a radioactive metal that naturally occurs in rocks, soils and groundwater, should not exceed 5 picocuries per liter (pCi/L). By those same standards, gross alpha radiation levels, which radium gives off, should not exceed 15 pCi/L.

The radium levels of the wells in question were found to be between 6.6 and 7.7 pCi/L. The gross alpha radiation levels were found to be between 20 and 27 pCi/L.

A letter sent to township residents in May informing them of this discovery stated that the radiation levels in the water do not present an immediate public health risk, but also stated that there might be a small long-term cancer risk involved.

Radium is absorbed into the body in a similar manner to calcium, though not as efficiently - while some of it will bond to bones, most of it is passed through the body as waste. The EPA has estimated that if 10,000 people were to drink 2 liters of water with 5 pCi/L per day for 50 years, one case of fatal cancer would emerge. That one person would probably develop bone cancer or lymphoma. The letter sent to residents stated that most drinking water naturally emits small levels of radiation and that when amounts grow high enough to be of concern, its source is usually found to not be man-made.

According to Public Affairs Coordinator Ron Schmalz, the two wells involved have been out of service for almost two years, and when they were active, they were only used during the summer, when demand for water spikes. The drinking water had always been within acceptable range when it was tested from the faucet, but the EPA changed its mandated testing methodology in 2000, compelling municipalities to test from the source instead. This is how the township discovered the elevated radium levels in the water of those two wells.

"When the wells are activated during the very dry months, they mix with the other water in the system, so they were always in normal range at the faucet, but now, going to the well head, they are in excess," said Schmalz.

He also said that other towns in the area have gone through similar experiences, naming nearby Monroe as one example.

Monroe Township Municipal Utilities Authority Executive Director Michael Rogers confirmed this, stating that five wells were found to have exceeded federally acceptable radiation levels in 2004. Rogers said that the township has been working to remediate the problem in various ways.

"Two we've retrofitted for radium treatment, a method called ion exchange, and two other ones we have converted to irrigation wells - they are no longer drinking-water wells. And the fifth one we are in the process of designing a third plan for," Rogers said.

Schmalz said that South Brunswick will be discussing what to do about the wells over the next few months, but the township might purchase water from elsewhere in the meantime. The letter stated there is no need to drink bottled water.