Barnegat Township pumps all six of its wells from the Kirkwood-Cohansey
Barnegat Township water comes from the Barnegat Township Utilities Department, whose report says "our six wells draw water from the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer." Capacity is 6.8 million gallons a day. Barnegat Light, on the island, is a separate system with a different aquifer.
Sources checked .
That single source makes this town's report worth reading closely, since private wells in the county can draw on the same aquifer. Read its lines on natural radioactivity first.
| Item | Reported | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Gross alpha | 5.8-16.3 pCi/L; table marks no violation | 2023 |
| Combined radium | 3.3-4.2 pCi/L | 2023 |
| Copper, 90th percentile | 0.09 ppm | 2025 |
| Lead, 90th percentile | 0.7 ppb | 2025 |
Barnegat 2026 annual report, PWSID NJ1533001, test year shown per line
How should you read the gross alpha line?
Read it as the report does: a range of test results with no violation marked. Our brief on annual reports explains how the range and the violation column fit together. If you want to know how the system judged it, the utilities department is the right office to ask.
Why does this matter for wells nearby?
A private well here gets no treatment plant and no annual report. The state's radium handout says radium may be elevated in parts of the Cohansey, Ocean County among them, and that acidity increases how much dissolves. Our story on radium and gross alpha covers the test and the fixes. The Pinelands Commission's 2021 town list marks Barnegat as holding land in the State Pinelands Area and in the wider National Reserve, and most of the wells the state sampled across the Pinelands read acidic.
Is Barnegat on sewer?
The Ocean County Utilities Authority names Barnegat as a customer, so some of it likely is. Check your address, because septic streets can sit inside a town with sewers. This brief shows how. Septic work needs a permit, so go to the board of health before anyone digs.
Who to ask
- Barnegat Township Utilities Department: your account, the annual report, and how it judged its gross alpha results.
- Ocean County Health Department: testing a Barnegat well, and septic plan review.
- Pinelands Commission: what its rules mean on your lot.
Read next for Barnegat
On a well
- A well must be tested before a sale can close
- Your well report has two kinds of limits, and they mean different things
- The aquifer under Ocean County is acidic, and copper plumbing feels it
- Blue-green marks in the tub usually mean copper is leaving the pipes
- Your pH reading picks between a calcite tank and a soda ash feed
- Radium comes with the aquifer, and a 48-hour test finds it
On town water
- Ocean County's water comes from many suppliers and several different aquifers
- When the utility's PFAS notice arrives, start with the limit it names
- Your water report is mostly one table, and it reads left to right
- The letter about your service line comes from a 2021 state law
- Go on town water and you still have a well to deal with
- Somewhere near the curb, the water line becomes yours
Septic & sewer
- On Ocean County sand, septic rules begin with distance from the well
- The board of health signs off on septic work, and owners report trouble
- Selling a house with a cesspool usually means the cesspool has to go
- Three years for a look, three to five for a pump, EPA says
- After a flood, leave the septic tank alone until the field drains
- Septic or sewer? The bill and the health department file can settle it
Raised houses
- Lifting a house moves the plumbing into the weather and the flood
- Those holes in the foundation wall are required, and must stay open
- A raised house puts its water lines out in the cold
- Where the water heater goes once the house goes up
- After the water drops, leave the switches and pilot lights alone
- How a house goes up, and what happens to its pipes
Lagoons & bay
Where this comes from
- Barnegat 2026 report - wells, aquifer, capacity, table figures.
- Pinelands Area Municipalities, August 24, 2021 - Barnegat's status.
- NJDEP radium handout, rev. April 2004 - radium in the Cohansey.
- NJDEP Procopio talk, 2015 - Pinelands well results.
- Ocean County Utilities Authority home page - customer list (archived copy).