At last week’s Moorestown Council meeting, an ordinance introduction on abandoned properties and open space encroachment was tabled for the next meeting. Instead, a hot topic of the meeting was once again the condition of the water wells that were closed last year.
As of now, wells seven and nine are remaining closed until a treatment is identified. Also, the township has hired a new engineer and is thinking about hiring a scientist to evaluate the condition of all the town’s drinking water, according to township manager Scott Carew.
“We will open the wells when we have a treatment plan in place. We are working closely with the DEP. I assure you we are taking every precaution that is not only legally, but responsibly required of us,” Mayor Victoria Napolitano said.
Adam Procopio, a scientist and Moorestown resident, came before council to express his concerns with the two wells closed because of Trichloropropane (TCP 1,2,3) was found in the drinking water last October. He wanted to know if the wells would be turned on anytime soon and questioned some of the other levels found in the water that were publicly available on the Department of Environmental Protection’s website. He asked that the wells remain inactive until a treatment is found.
Members of council assured him the wells are remaining closed as they decide what the appropriate treatment would be. Township Attorney Anthony Drollas made a point to mention that they’ve been working on the wells and they closed them not because they were told to, but as a precaution.
“We’ve been working on this issue since last October. We are addressing any remediation issues associated with wells seven and nine. We’ve went over and above with an abundance of caution to shut down the wells, not because we were ordered to do so, but because DEP suggested it. We felt it was the right thing to do,” Drollas said.
Carew then spoke about the maximum contaminate level of the wells. He said the DEP told him that nothing in those wells exceeds the MCL and that there would technically be nothing legally wrong with turning the wells back on.
“I’ve been told by the DEP, and perhaps they are wrong, that there is not a single MCL that we exceed right now and that there is no legal impenitent from turning those wells back on,” Carew said.
Carew also said a new engineer is working on the wells right now along with the DEP to get the best recommendation on how the wells would be treated. He mentioned that the township is looking into hiring a scientist as well to review data from the wells and tell the township what he or she feels is best, based on his or her expert opinion.
Napolitano assured those present at the meeting that any new information on the wells would be told to the public as it came.
“As more details are available, they will be delivered to the public,” Napolitano said.
