Immediate Environmental Concern
Potable Well Template Letters
Whenever potable well testing has been conducted at a private
property during the remediation of a contaminated site, the person
responsible for conducting the remediation must ensure the property
owner, any occupants (i.e., tenants) and the local health officer
are notified of the results in writing. (The term “person
responsible for conducting the remediation” is defined as
any person who is required to remediate by order or regulation,
the owner or operator of certain industrial establishments and/or
regulated underground storage tanks, any person who discharges
or is any way responsible for the discharge of a hazardous substance,
or any other person/investigator who is remediating a site, and
applies to any entity, including but not limited to a private
or public corporation, company, estate, etc.) A Licensed Site
Remediation Professional (LSRP) or other authorized party may
send the letters on behalf of the person responsible for conducting
the remediation.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP)
has developed the following two template letters to notify property
owners, occupants and health officers of potable well sampling
results. The first template letter addresses testing of a potable
well that is not being treated to remove site-related contamination,
and the second template letter addresses testing of a potable
well where a Point-of-Entry Treatment (POET) system has been installed
to remove site-related contamination.
These template letters are intended to provide basic outlines
for the most common potable well testing scenarios and may need
to be modified to address specific situations. For example, if
an irrigation well was tested instead of a potable well, you should
replace “potable well” with “irrigation well”
in the text of the sampling results letter.
It is important to note that use of these template letters
is optional. If you choose to use your own cover letters and/or
tables, the information must be expressed in terms that are understandable
to the layperson. The cover letter should clearly summarize the
sampling results for the property owner/occupant and discuss the
next steps. If contamination is detected, the information conveyed
to the property owner/occupant must not minimize the urgency to
address the potable well contamination and should accurately describe
the source of the contamination.
If you have any questions about reporting potable well sampling
results to property owners/occupants, please contact NJDEP’s
Office of Community Relations at (800) 253-5647.
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