An aquifer that is the main water source for half a million people in southern New Jersey has been found to have unsafe levels of a cancer-causing agent, according to a federal study.
After an eight-year study from 1989 to 1996, the U.S. Geological Survey found that 33 percent of wells that draw from the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer contain levels of radium, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in Sunday's editions.
The aquifer is a groundwater supply that contains 17 trillion gallons of water under 3,000 square miles of southern and central New Jersey. According to the state Department of Environmental Protection, about 200,000 private wells draw water from there to serve about 500,000 people.
The analysis, released in the past month but not publicized, found unsafe levels of radium in Camden, Gloucester, Atlantic, Salem, Cumberland, and Ocean counties. Other parts of New Jersey are being tested.
In the more heavily developed parts of those counties, unsafe levels of radium were found in 65 percent of the water supplies tested.
Radium, a naturally occurring radioactive element, is a known cause of bone and nasal cancers, and is especially dangerous to children, who have developing bone tissue. When radium is ingested, the body mistakes it for calcium and deposits it in the bones.
"Because it accumulates in the body, radium is considered to pose a greater cancer risk than most other radioactive elements," the Geological Survey report said.
Radium gets into the water because of pollution from fertilizer and lime used on the land. When chemicals from the fertilizers sink into the ground, they bring radium deposits along with them and help radium move into the water.
People with private wells in the counties with polluted water should have their water tested, DEP officials said. If radium levels are too high, residents should either hook into the municipal supply, buy water-treatment equipment or buy bottled water.
"The issues associated with radium in the drinking water are significant public health concerns," said Eric J. Evenson, district chief for the Geological Survey in New Jersey. "It is an issue that warrants public health concerns. It is of direct concern for individual well owners."
Some municipalities also draw water from the aquifer, but mix it with water from other sources to decrease the amount of radium. Federal officials said that doesn't remove the radium, but brings levels within acceptable U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards.
The EPA has set a limit of 5 picocuries per liter of water as the maximum amount of radium allowed. At that level, one in 10,000 adults who drink the water over the course of a lifetime risks fatal cancer.
A curie is a unit used to measure radioactive agents. A picocurie is one-trillionth of a curie.
Radium levels in the aquifer ranged from 0 to 30.3 picocuries per liter, with the highest levels in Cumberland County. Federal officials estimate that more than 50 adults in southern New Jersey are likely to develop cancer from drinking water from the aquifer.
Unsafe radium levels were first found at the aquifer in 1989, and officials have found unsafe levels of mercury and nitrates since the early 1990s.
The aquifer is popular for well use because it lies close to the surface, but that proximity to the surface is a double-edged sword, officials said.
"The Cohansey aquifer is a dilemma," said Anthony S. Navoy, assistant district chief of USGS. "It's the easiest to get water out of, but it is also the easiest to contaminate."
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