the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, From April 2016 to March 2019, Ridgewood Water complied with health-based drinking water standards. Ridgewood Water services over 61,000 users in Ridgewood, Wyckoff, Midland Park, and Glen Rock.
However, a new study found drinking water is often less safe than what the federal government may deem legal.EWG’s drinking water quality report shows results of tests conducted by the water utility and provided to the Environmental Working Group by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, as well as information from the U.S. EPA Enforcement and Compliance History database (ECHO). For the latest quarter assessed by the U.S. EPA (January 2019 – March 2019), tap water provided by this water utility was in compliance with federal health-based drinking water standards.
EWG Health Guidelines fill the gap in outdated government standards. The federal government’s legal limits are not health-protective. The EPA has not set a new tap water standard in almost 20 years, and some standards are more than 40 years old.
EWG’s drinking water quality report detected 12 contaminants. According to EWG legal does not necessarily equal safe. Getting a passing grade from the federal government does not mean the water meets the latest health guidelines.
This includes chemicals detected in 2015-2017 for which annual utility averages exceeded an EWG-selected health guideline established by a federal or state public health authority; chemicals detected under the EPA’s Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 3) program in 2013 to 2015 (and subsequent testing when available), for which annual utility averages exceeded a health guideline established by a federal or state public health authority; radiological contaminants detected between 2012 and 2017.
Legal limits for contaminants in tap water have not been updated in almost 20 years. The best way to ensure clean tap water is to keep pollution out of source water in the first place.