Letter to NJDEP regarding Moorestown's Water Crisis

August 7, 2016

Mary Simpson, Chief, Southern Bureau of Water Compliance & Enforcement, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection

Dear Ms. Simpson:

On June 30th, the NJDEP dissolved the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Township of Moorestown, due to lack of compliance by the town. It simultaneously issued an Administrative Consent Order to Moorestown, along with a $3,000 fine.

In the Order, the NJDEP listed numerous infractions and violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act at the North Church Street Water Treatment Plant, which has been our principal source of our drinking water. Because Moorestown’s water treatment plants have been unable to remove multiple contaminants, the Township currently relies almost solely on New Jersey American Water.

As you know, the North Church wells were shut down on Oct. 6, 2014, on NJDEP’s recommendation, after elevated levels of trichloropropane, ( TCP 123) an industrial solvent, were found in the water.

The Order says this same plant is not compliant with drinking water standards for manganese, Trichloroethylene, (TCE) radium, and gross alpha particle activity.

The NJDEP Order clearly stipulates that Moorestown cannot continue to operate Wells 7 and 9 at the North Church Street Water Treatment Plant, but this week the Township leaders are pushing ahead.

Last week’s Moorestown Patch reported that “Moorestown will soon be a step closer to installing its temporary treatment at the North Church Street Water Treatment Plant!”

These township leaders, who failed so miserably to protect townspeople from numerous waterborne contaminants, will now appropriate, by ordinance, $380,000 and borrow $361,000 to purchase equipment for their grand experiment at North Church.

The treatment, we are told, will “temporarily eliminate” and “remove any traces of” Trichloropropane (TCP 1,2,3) and Trichlorethylene

By issuing the Order, the NJDEP dutifully exposed the failures, errors, misrepresentations and omissions by our Townships leaders. Yet Manager Scott Carew, Engineer L. Russell Trice, and Mayor Phil Garwood, have yet to acknowledge a single error, or apologize to the townspeople for violating the Safe Drinking Water Act and being fined.

Their cavalier attitude toward us and our drinking water remains unchanged. Why should the NJDEP even consider allowing these same individuals to proceed with their “interim plan” to reopen the North Church wells or experiment with their $20 Million “permanent solution” to our drinking water crisis?

Before October 6th, 2014 shutdown of the North Church plant, our children drank well water containing measurable amounts of the chemical and radiological contaminants cited in your Order. Pregnant women drank it, and mothers mixed it with formula and gave it to newborns. We drank it out of the tap, in our coffee, tea and lemonade – all at a “safe” level we were told.

What is the allowable safety level for the entire combination of industrial chemicals and radioactive elements listed in your Administrative Consent Order? Is it the same for a fetus in utero as it is for a man weighing 175 pounds?

The NJDEP must use its regulatory power to prevent the reckless endangerment of our townspeople by neglectful and non-communicative local officials.

Regards,

James Mullin 757 Paddock Path, Moorestown, NJ, 08057 JVMullin66@gmail.com

CC: Hon. Tom MacArthur, Hon. Troy Singleton, Hon. Diane Allen, Hon. Herbert C. Conway Jr.