Recent reports state that the Passaic Valley Water Commission’s (PVWC) water quality samplings were not properly completed the previous year. The PVWC provides clean water to communities in Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Passaic and Morris Counties. Parts of West Paterson and Totowa are supplied by the commission.
"Water provided to these communities by PVWC consists of finished water from the Little Falls water treatment plant, finished water from the Wanaque plant operated by North Jersey District Water Supply Commission or a blend of the two finished waters," said Joseph Bella, executive director, in his testimony before the Assembly Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee on May 12. "The treatment processes at Passaic Valley Water Commission's Little Falls treatment plant were designed to achieve and exceed compliance with existing USEPA and NJDEP drinking water regulations."
Bella addressed findings by the commission that the PVWC’s monitoring requirements for drinking of water were not met. Invalid samples were realized after a third-party audit was used by the commission. The PWVC recently sent out water reports for 2007 to its customers this past May. They disclosed that "the results of two samples for the November 2007 monitoring period were invalidated by the NJ Department of Environmental Protection as a result of errors in the laboratory quality assurance procedures."
The report specified that there was a failure in completing the analysis of a sufficient number of total Coliform samples, which is bacteria that inhabits the intestines and colons of human and other vertebrates. It concluded that the water quality could not be assured at that time but a commission spokesperson contends that the water consistently safe.
PVWC officials contend that the laboratory quality assurance procedure has been corrected as of Feb. 14 this year and will not occur again.
"In summary, Passaic Valley Water Commission, the New Jersey DEP, NJ USGS, and the water industry has taken aggressive steps to define, understand, and mitigate this situation," concluded Bella. "Much more work is ahead of us particularly in the areas of toxicology and treatment. However, this nationwide work can only be accomplished with the full support and engagement of the USEPA and the waste-water industry for these ongoing efforts."
Drugs and chemicals in the drinking water supply have been a concern in New Jersey for some time. Testing done by the state and federal government found pharmaceutical agents, among other compounds, in many of the state’s rivers and streams. The issue is also of concern in other states as well.
In the U.S., public drinking water in governed by the Safe Water Drinking Act (SDWA). It was originally passed by Congress in 1974 to protect public health by regulating the nation's public drinking water supply. The law was amended in 1986 and 1996 and requires many actions to protect drinking water and its varied sources - rivers, lakes, reservoirs, springs, and ground water wells. In accordance with the Act, the commission had up to one year to report trouble with its testing, attributing that there was no major public safety concern.
Experts say that bottled water consumers and household filter systems do not eliminate the exposure to agents either. Many companies simply repackage water without analysis and filtrations do not completely eliminate foreign compounds. The long-term affect on humans and other forms of life are yet to be determined but they attest that there are obvious warning signs already visible and apparent in nature and wildlife.
