Claire Wolters reports for the Temple News

Michael Williams Sr. and Lance King make up the two-man team that hauls, drives and disposes of the trash at Temple University. Their day begins at 6 a.m. when they rev up the trash truck and ends around 3 p.m., or whenever the last of the mess has been dealt with.

The two are drivers for Temple’s Service Operations Department, a team of about 13 workers who manage everything from garbage disposal to transportation of students and athletic teams. Williams and King do a little of each task, but primarily collect trash. 

Each week, the men collect approximately 15 tons of trash from dumpsters stationed behind university buildings on Main Campus, Temple University Hospital and Ambler Campus, said William Majzik, the assistant facilities manager. Dumpsters hook on the back of the truck while tipsters are manually tipped in.

The crew is not legally responsible for cleaning up student residences and homes in the area around Main Campus, which falls outside of their jurisdiction. But due to the large accumulation of waste from college parties or move-out days, the crew is sometimes called upon by Temple Police to also sweep up “Temple-affiliated neighborhood trash,” Majzik said.

One of the biggest obstacles the crew faces is rodents, said Majzik, who has worked at Temple for 20 years. Back in the early 2000s, this meant mice. Now, “rodents” encapsulate a larger range of creatures, including hungry rats that crawl in and curl up in the back of the truck, he said.

“You really can’t exterminate a trash truck,” Majzik added. “They can come from anywhere.”

When dealing with rats, William Parker, who worked as a driver this fall, said, “We run.”

“Fast,” added Christopher Rhone, his former partner.

Parker recently advanced to a general mechanic position at Temple after working in the Service Operations Department for 17 years, and Rhone is taking a medical leave, Majzik said.

Williams and King quickly transitioned to fill Parker’s and Rhone’s shoes. King has worked at Temple for 13 years and has been driving the trash truck for five weeks, while Williams has worked at Temple for 20 years, spending his time in Grounds Maintenance. 

“Work is work,” Williams said. “It’s a little dirtier, that’s about it.”

Both men grew up in Philadelphia — Williams in North Philadelphia and King in West Philadelphia — and said the streets used to be much cleaner.

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Some 350,000 supply lines bringing drinking water to New Jersey residents are thought to have lead components

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

It could cost up to $2.3 billion to replace all of the estimated 350,000 water-service lines in New Jersey with lead issues, according to projections by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Where the state is going to find the money to tackle the problem remains a mystery, one that popped up as DEP Commissioner Catherine McCabe was questioned yesterday by lawmakers during the agency’s annual appearance before the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee.

“That’s a statewide problem,’’ said Sen. Troy Singleton (D-Burlington), referring to lead service lines that contribute to unsafe levels of the heavy metal in drinking water, not only in urban areas, like Newark and Trenton, but all over the state.

“In terms of financing, that’s our biggest challenge,’’ McCabe replied. “We don’t have enough funds to do it. I would put the ball back in the Legislature’s court so that we all could work together to brainstorm ways to help the people who have to replace those lead lines.’’

The issue of how to address the state’s well-recognized problems with lead in drinking water has emerged as a priority ever since Gov. Phil Murphy said it is time to focus on water-infrastructure problems in his State of the State address in January. More than 1.5 million people in New Jersey get their potable water from service lines with elevated levels of lead, according to Murphy.

Current patchwork fix doesn’t hit the mark

The department arrived at the projected $2.3 billion cost by taking the estimate of 350,000 lead service lines in New Jersey provided by the American Water Works Association and assuming an average replacement cost of $6,500 ($3,000-$10,000, depending on location).

With no permanent funding in place, the state is relying on a patchwork of ways to finance replacement of lead lines — some on the local level, others with the state providing funding assistance.

In March, Newark launched a $75-million bonding program designed to replace up to 15,000 service lines from the curb into residences. Those lines have been found to be leaching lead, making it unsafe particularly for young children and infants living in the homes.

Besides Newark, the city of Trenton and the Suez company have been ordered to replace lead service lines, the latter in homes in northern New Jersey where 8,600 of its customers are estimated to have lead service lines.

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Laura McCrystal and Justine McDaniel report for Philly.com

New Jersey unveiled a proposal Monday for a drinking water standard for two PFAS chemicals, moving to establish limits that would be among the most stringent in the country and could force at least 40 public systems to clean up their water.

The proposed standards, released in the state register, are much tougher than current federal advisories for the chemicals. New Jersey is among the states moving most quickly to address the problem, which has affected drinking water systems nationwide.

The Department of Environmental Protection proposed drinking water limits of 14 parts per trillion (ppt) for PFOA and 13 ppt for PFOS, two types of per- and polyfluouralkyl substances known as PFAS. Such standards, known as maximum contaminant levels, set a legally binding limit for the amount of a substance that is permitted in drinking water systems.

Some states have moved to make their own levels for PFAS as they criticize the Environmental Protection Agency for moving too slowly. The EPA’s current health advisory is 70 ppt for PFOS and PFOA combined, and it is not enforceable.

For New Jersey residents, Monday’s proposal is a long-awaited response to a contamination crisis that has affected areas surrounding manufacturing facilities and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.

The regulation would put 39 public water systems over the limit for PFOA and 19 for PFOS, according to the state’s proposal, increasing the number of public wells considered contaminated and requiring new cleanup projects. Of those, 11 systems are already addressing PFOA contamination and four are working on PFOS.

“New Jersey is leading the way in addressing an issue of national importance by setting the first drinking water standards in the nation to protect the public from the health risks of these chemicals,” said DEP Commissioner Catherine R. McCabe. “We will continue to take strong actions to protect the health of our residents and the quality of our drinking water supplies.”

New Jersey’s is currently the lowest binding standard formally proposed, but whether the limits become the first or lowest in the nation depends on how quickly other states move. New York is “on target” to adopt limits of 10 ppt for each of the two chemicals, according to the state health department. Vermont has begun the formal process for limits at 20 ppt.

California already recommends drinking wells be shut off if above 14 ppt in PFOA or 13 ppt in PFOS, but the levels aren’t legally enforceable.

In Pennsylvania, towns in Bucks and Montgomery Counties have drinking water supplies tainted by PFAS, which are linked to health problems including cancer. Pennsylvania officials have said they will launch their own process for setting maximum contaminant levels for PFOS and PFOA, and will hire a toxicologist and other personnel to review research and conduct in-house testing, said Neil Shader, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

New Jersey’s standards were recommended by the state’s Drinking Water Quality Institute in 2017. The DEP accepted them, meaning it would move forward with creating the standards — but residents have waited for further action.

The process will still take months. The DEP will hold a public hearing next month and accept public comments until the end of May, and then must make a draft document before the new rules can be reviewed and adopted.

Thee rule, once enacted, would require public water systems to test quarterly for the contaminants. Private well testing would be required as part of real estate transactions and on rental properties.

New Jersey officials took action against companies last week for PFAS contamination, filing lawsuits over cleanup against DuPont, 3M, and Chemours, a DuPont spin-off company. The state also issued an order for those three companies as well as a fourth, Solvay, to pay for cleanup.

In September, New Jersey became the first state to create a binding standard for another type of perfluorinated compound, PFNA, setting a drinking water limit of 13 ppt. The state announced interim groundwater standards for PFOA and PFOS last month.

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