Read the full article by Fred Aun (Tap into Roxbury)
“ROXBURY, NJ – The occupants of 40 homes in Ledgewood near the former Fenimore Landfill will soon be offered free tests of their wells to determine if the water is contaminated with a potentially carcinogenic chemical, according to officials.
The letters will come from the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), said Roxbury Mayor Jim Rilee on Tuesday. He said the action is based on the DEP’s recent discovery of per-and polyfluoroalkl substances (PFAS) in groundwater beneath the former dump.
Roxbury, in August, asked the state to test that groundwater to help determine if Fenimore is the source of PFAS chemicals being found in nearby private wells, particularly in the Nalron Drive part of Ledgewood about a half-mile east of the landfill.
At Tuesday’s meeting of the Roxbury Mayor and Council, Rilee said the DEP tested the groundwater beneath Fenimore in October.
‘Those tests came back, and they did show that those chemicals were, in fact, in Fenimore itself, which is not a stretch, per se,’ he said. ‘But because of that testing, they’ve now agreed to test individual homes and pay for it.’
The mayor said letters from the DEP to ’40 homes close to’ Fenimore will soon be sent. The letters will ask recipients to schedule appointments for free water tests.
‘Once the well water tests are done, if there are any chemicals … the DEP will immediately provide bottled water and will start installing the filter system that was mentioned,’ said the mayor.
That part of Roxbury is not served by municipal water lines, but Rilee suggested this could change. ‘If it looks like it’s going to become a bigger problem, they’ve also agreed to look at extending water lines into the area,’ he said.” …