Clutching a blue plastic pitcher and a several red plastic cups, Faith Link offered members of the Keystone Contamination Committee a drink of water that tests claim has no contamination. Link made the gesture at a council meeting two weeks ago. Link had filled the pitcher with water collected from a pool on the Keystone contamination site. Earlier this year, several residents complained to the state Department of Environmental Protection that a strange bubbling liquid was rising up from the ground on the site of the former Keystone Metal Finishing plant. A test by PMK Group showed the water was above acceptable drinking water standards as set by the DEP, officials said. An oddity of state and federal regulations shows that water requirements for below-ground contamination are much stricter than those for water found on the surface. In 1997, town officials learned that contamination near the plant had spread under the homes of some residents, but this information was not shared with homeowners until last year. Although PMK said the contaminated water near the building will not pose a danger to surrounding households, some residents don’t believe the claims. Gerald Perricone of PMK said a dry well on the Keystone property was been infected with a solvent at somewhere between eight and 20 feet underground. He said that it was most likely that the contamination was between 15 and 20 feet. The infected water, Perricone said, is contained in a water table that would only pose a problem if it were used for drinking, which it is not. He also said it does not interact with the water table nearer the surface. While the levels of contamination vary from place to place, it is a remarkably diluted level even at its worst, posing about six parts per billion, Perricone said. If it were drinking water, he said, the standard would be one part per billion. Both PMK Group employees and town officials declined the offer to sip from the pitcher, saying that the water may be free of the Keystone contamination, yet still not be acceptable to drink. “We don’t go drinking from every mud puddle in Secaucus,” said Mayor Dennis Elwell. But Link and Dawn McAdam, another resident of the Keystone area, claimed kids could. “I saw toy soldiers right where I got this water from,” Link said. “That means that kids do play there.” Both Link and McAdam insisted the town fence off the area around the puddle to keep kids from playing there, even if the water has been tested as safe. Councilman Michael Grecco, one of the two members of the town’s Keystone Committee, agreed to call up other council members in order to get approval to make the area inaccessible. This past Monday, a grate was installed over the bubbling water..