Danger in New Jersey’s Drinking Water

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This presentation was based on a data from an occurrence survey conduced by the United States Geological Survey in New Jersey. The USGS wanted to measure the trace contamination of drinking water and compare that data between the various districts of New Jersey. The team headed out to the water treatment facility and measured the water that’s going in and the “cleaned” water that is released by the facility. Both waters were tested positive for the presence of pharmaceutical products (1/3 of the contamination in waste water), metabolites, detergents, plasticizers, flame retardants, fragrances, cosmetics, solvents, other drugs (OTC etc.) and trace elements of pesticides.

These contaminants survived not only the basic sewage treatment process but it also survived the advanced treatment procedures as well. The implications of the presence of these chemicals in the drinking water is not known as there are no studies done on the long term effects of such chemicals or possible biomagnifications of these chemical compounds through the aquatic life – and eventually leading the contaminated food source to humans. Of course the short term effects are negligible and hardly any effects since these compounds are in such low quantity in the drinking water. After the water was treated the presences of these chemicals were hard to detect and some of them were shown to be “not there” but in reality, it may have been simply the fact that we do not have the capability to measure them.

The easiest way to deal with this problem is to raise public awareness to proper disposal of drugs, chemicals, and items that may contaminate water. It is in the general public interest to make sure that they do not dispose things into the drinking water system as it only ends up in their own bodies.