To the Editor:

As members of the Princeton Environmental Commission, we often hear questions from residents about the safety of our town’s drinking water. As a result, we invited Scott Baxter-Green, manager Water Quality & Environmental Compliance for New Jersey American Water, to our February public meeting. We are grateful to Mr. Baxter-Green for attending and wanted to pass along some of the information he shared with us to the community. Did you know that unless you have a well, the water that comes out of your tap has traveled all the way from Bridgewater, N.J., where the New Jersey American Water treatment plant is located? Their water sources include the Raritan River, the Millstone River and the D&R Canal.

New Jersey American Water provides an annual report on the quality of our water that you can find via this link: http://amwater.com/njaw/water-quality/water-quality-reports/raritan.

If you live in a home that was built before 1935 that may still contain lead piping, or in a home that was built before 1985 that has copper piping that may have lead solder, it would be wise to test your water for lead using a lab certified by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. We have put a link to a list of labs on the PEC web page: https://www.princetonnj.gov/boards-committees/environmental-commission. Dwellings with well water should test annually for coliform bacteria, nitrates, pH, sodium, chloride, fluoride, sulfate, iron, manganese, total dissolved solids, and hardness.

Princeton residents and homeowners can support clean and safe drinking water by restricting or eliminating harmful landscaping practices such as the use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers, and preventing household hazardous wastes like unused pharmaceuticals, oils, and lubricants from entering the waterways. Learn more and take action by joining The Watershed Institute’s River Friendly Resident Program or by taking the Great Healthy Yard Project Pledge.

Lastly, we invite you to participate in a stream clean up either with The Watershed Institute in Princeton on Saturday, April 6 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Grover Park (no registration necessary), or closer to the plant that treats our drinking water with Raritan Headwaters on April 13 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Register and select a location by visiting https://www.raritanheadwaters.org/stream-cleanup/.

Sophie Glovier (Chair)
Drakes Corner Road

Heidi Fichtenbaum (Vice-chair)
Carnahan Place

Tammy L. Sands (Commissioner)
Winant Road