Middlesex Water Expands Tainted Supply Notice In Edison-Metuchen

EDISON, NJ — The Middlesex Water Company on Monday expanded its tainted water notification to now include the entire retail service area north of the Raritan River.

Last week, the company said high levels of Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) was found in groundwater samples from the Park Avenue Treatment Plant in South Plainfield. The initial list of impacted communities included a portion of Middlesex Water Company (MWC) customers in Edison, Metuchen, and Woodbridge.

The revised notification now includes all MWC customers in Edison, Metuchen, Woodbridge, South Plainfield, Clark, and Carteret which were previously not included.

"Essentially, if you pay your water bill to Middlesex Water, you are a retail customer and are affected by this notice," Edison Township told residents.

Only customers in South Amboy were not affected by this notification.

MWC said they expanded the notification area based on a recent conclusion that the new areas receive some portion of the water supply from the treatment plant that exceeded the PFOA drinking water standard.

“Our distribution system is an integrated network where different source waters move in different areas of the distribution network throughout any day, depending on overall customer demands and uses,” the company said in a statement.

“This comprehensive expansion of the notification area assures that all customers who are or may be served with any amount of this supply, at any time, are apprised of the potential health risks and the company’s efforts to remediate those risks as well as our customer’s options.”

On Oct. 22 MWC informed the customer the water supply has high levels of PFOA.

The company told consumers that it received a notice in early September that the PFOA limit rose to 36.1 parts per trillion (ppt) in a sample collected on Aug.2, which is more than twice the permissible limit of 14 ppt enforced by the NJ Department of Environmental protection.

Middlesex Water said the heightened reading was due to a new shift in standards by the NJDEP. The NJDEP started regulating PFOA last summer. The company said the PFOA levels still complies with the non-enforceable EPA health advisory level of 70 ppt. However, the language in the notice was required by DEP regulation.

Read Related:

Middlesex Water Says Edison-Metuchen Water Supply Has High PFOA

Middlesex Co. Mayors Announce Action After Tainted Water Notice

A few days later, the Mayors of four Middlesex County townships have come together to jointly address water safety concerns.

Woodbridge Mayor John E. McCormac, Metuchen Mayor Jonathan Busch, South Plainfield Mayor Matthew P. Anesh, and Edison Mayor Thomas Lankey said they have retained an environmental consultant to review the notice issued by Middlesex Water Company to residents of their respective towns.

The mayors announced they were also exploring the possibility of retaining legal counsel to further review the actions being implemented by MWC to comply with federal and state safe drinking water standards.

Middlesex Water representatives have organized town halls in affected communities to address the concerns.

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