Nutley Issues Drinking Water Advisory On Haloacetic Acids

NUTLEY, NJ — Nutley town officials issued a drinking water-related notice Monday. According to officials, there is no emergency and residents do not need to boil their water or take other corrective actions.

Nutley officials wrote:

“Our water system recently violated a drinking water standard. Although this incident was not an emergency, as our customers, you have a right to know what happened and what we are doing to correct this situation. We are required to monitor drinking water for the presence of contaminants including disinfection byproducts (DBPs) on a quarterly basis. The DBPs test results from the last four (4) quarters that ended on December 31, 2018 show that our system exceeds the standard, or maximum contaminant level (MCL) for haloacetic acids (HAA5). MCL for HAA5 is calculated based on locational running annual average (LRAA) of samples collected from the last four (4) quarters at each sampling location for the past 12 months. The LRAA of HAA5 at location N-7 is at 66.2 ppb and at location N-8 is at 66.7 ppb. These values exceed the HAA5 MCL of 60 micrograms per liter (ug/L).”

Nutley officials said that if a situation arises where the water is no longer safe to drink, residents will be notified within 24 hours.

“If you have a severely compromised immune system, have an infant, are pregnant, or are elderly, you may be at increased risk and should seek advice from your health care providers about drinking this water,” officials wrote.

According to officials, the situation is not an emergency.

“If it had been an emergency, you would have been notified within 24 hours,” officials wrote.

According to the Nutley advisory, HAA5 are five haloacetic acid compounds which form when disinfectants react with natural organic matter in the water. People who drink water containing haloacetic acids in excess of the MCL over many years may have an increased risk of getting cancer.

Here’s what’s being done, Nutley officials said:

“This is an issue with our source water supplier, Newark Water Department and their disinfection process. When disinfectants are used in the treatment of drinking water, disinfectants react with naturally-occurring organic and inorganic matter present in water to form DBPs. Only a small section of Nutley receives its supply from the Newark Water Department. According to Newark Water Department’s recent public notice, it is anticipated that the problem will be resolved within 3 to 6 months. We have taken the following corrective action: Hydrant flushing in the affected areas was performed to introduce fresh water into the system.”

For more information, contact Dominic Ferry, Licensed Water Operator at (973) 284-4984 or dferry@nutleynj.org.

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