By Jon Hurdle NJ Spotlight
New Jersey officials have found “forever chemicals” at above state health limits in water systems serving two schools and in more than 40 private wells in Mercer County.
The Department of Environmental Protection detected the chemicals at the schools and in another local public water system during tests at three sites in the Pennington/Hopewell area, the agency told NJ Spotlight News. Those discoveries have so far led to tests of 142 private water wells, 42 of which contained the chemicals at levels that exceeded newly enforced regulatory limits.
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The DEP is currently sampling residential and commercial private wells for PNFA, PFOA and PFOS, the three kinds of PFAS chemicals for which New Jersey has set strict health limits in drinking water over the last few years.
The DEP said Monday it is also investigating whether private wells are contaminated with PFAS in other parts of the state but did not immediately identify them.
The agency said it is working with property owners to install point-of-entry water systems that filter out the chemicals. It urged homeowners whose water exceeds the state limits to switch to bottled water and seek reimbursement for the cost of installing treatment systems from the New Jersey Spill Fund, a state fund that compensates householders for damage to property from hazardous substances and pays for their cleanup. It has not yet identified the source of the contamination.
