It’s a problem that doesn’t discriminate -- it’s been detected all across the state, in rural, suburban, and urban areas. And now, more than 1.4 million people across the Garden State are getting their drinking water from systems that are dealing with high levels of lead.
At least 35 water systems in New Jersey have recently been found to have high levels of lead at the tap, NJ Advance Media found after a review of violations issued by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection between January 1, 2018 and January 31, 2019. The affected water systems vary greatly by size, ranging from major systems that serve hundreds of thousands of people in multiple towns to tiny systems that service just dozens of people in a single business.
The high lead levels are a problem, especially for children. Lead exposure is known to affect behavior and intelligence in developing babies, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There are no safe levels of lead, but the federal drinking water standard for the metal is 15 parts per billion. These water systems were issued violations because they had lead levels higher than that standard.
When a water system is found to have high lead levels, a number of steps must be taken to bring the system back into compliance with state regulations, according to NJDEP spokesman Larry Hajna. Those steps include increasing water monitoring and improvements to water treatment in the systems. Hajna said it may take several years for a water system to return to compliance.
New Jersey typically has about 25 water systems register high lead levels in a given year, according to Hajna, so the 35 water systems with violations between January 2018 and January 2019 is a little higher than expected.
