Letter to the Editor: Biggest Question Remains Concerning Moorestown Water

To the Editor:

I do not believe there is an MCL on the consumption of any quantity of battery acid but I assume most intelligent people would know that it wouldn’t be good for their health. This holds true for carcinogens in our drinking water particularly when the levels are higher than the limit (.03ppb) NJDEP and the Drinking Water Quality Institute have been advocating for well over 15 years.

After I was denied information by the township, I was able to research and obtain the information I needed to answer that question for myself from the DEP. My conclusion was the same as with the battery acid, only common sense would need to be applied.

I have to give credit to the resident who originally brought this to the towns attention. If not for him, we could still possibly be in the dark, drinking this water and the Church Street wells may not have been shut down.

If township officials had not denied my wife basic public information she’d asked for, I would have never researched exactly what having high levels of 123-TCP meant for my family.

In doing so I discovered the denial letter in regards to the grant money that could have helped Moorestown pay for its clean up. It then dawned on me the denial letter was received back in June, although township officials told residents and the press they were looking into this spill relief fund in late August. Their timeline doesn’t add up.

Township officials have posted a letter from Director Fred Sickels (10.24.14) stating that the current water supply from the Kings Highway Treatment Plant and NJ American Water meets all drinking water standards. I can only ask that Mr. Sickels and our township officials provide the same letter stating that during the time period of March 2013 thru Oct. 6, 2014, when the Church street wells were in use, that our water met the NJDEP and DWQI standards and recommendations for the last 15 years.

Tell me was it safe shutting down the wells abruptly providing no information, cancelling the next council meeting, in combination with internal NJDEP emails that told you to not to use them unless in complete emergency situations does not give me a good feeling. Again, was it safe?

This is all I want to know. Don’t tell me you had no legal obligation to notify the public, don’t tell me it’s not mandatory to test (because it was). Tell me it was safe. It’s a simple question and I would like to have it answered. Was the water safe for my family to drink, yes or no?

Michael Babcock

Moorestown resident