Any opinions expressed on this site are those represented by my small group of Ohlmeyer's, not my entire family, and not by all of the Ohlmeyer's in the world.
An article on NJ.com reported a list of Water systems in NJ where lead levels above those designated as safe by the CDCP were found.
These included systems in Lawrence Township, Hamilton Township(Mercer County), and Terhune Orchards. SRI International in West Windsor was also found to have higher than permitted levels of lead at a couple of unused faucets.
Now, a little context. To be clear, I'm not saying that this is an emergency, and also not saying it is nothing to worry about. The limit for what the CDCP considers safe is 15ppb(parts per billion) and the highest of those mentioned above was under 18ppb. Also, though not re-tested by the proper authorities since 2018, Terhune has reported lower levels since.
While the CDCP has set 15ppb as the goal, any of us that were growing up in the US since the 1960s were exposed to higher levels of lead than this. The lead in our soils and water systems didn't only come from lead lined pipes. Lead was introduced in to gasoline as an anti-knock agent back in the 1920's, and though scientists were presenting evidence that it was already causing illness in children by the 1930's, it was continually used for this function for over 60 years. By, at least 1965, the amount of lead in American blood was twice as much as it was in nature. The lead settled in soils, waterways, and reservoirs, and has been cycling through our ecosystem, slowly being dissipated since.
To summarize, while these reports of lead shouldn't really be extremely frightening you, it's best to avoid the water in these areas, especially for our kids, until followup tests show that the contamination has been resolved.
Oh, and one other place to watch out for. If you go to Bally's Casino in AC, don't drink the water. They were reported as having 438ppb lead in their water, nearly 30 times the level considered as safe. Bally's did claim that they "remediated" the problem in 2018, but haven't said how, and no independent tests have been done to confirm it.
-Matt