Middlesex County, New Jersey (CBSNewYork)-Water quality in parts of Middlesex County, New Jersey is worrying.

Elevated levels of potentially harmful chemicals have been detected.

As Vanessa Murdock of CBS2 reports, a pollutant flows through some tap water—perfluorooctanoic acid—or PFOA for short.

"It's unbelievable," one person said.

"Perfluorooctanoic acid was detected in samples from our processing facility in South Plainfield," Middlesex Water Company reported to South Plainfield, Clark, Edison, Methusen, Woodbridge and Carteret. Wrote in a letter from important customers affected.

About two weeks ago, a resident of South Plainfield received this letter.

"The first letter in the mail is a bit like,'Oh, do we have to, for example, can we even use this kind of water for bathing?'" the residents said.

Murdoch found him in conversations with Susan Bitterman of Edison and Meryl Schoen-Noble of South Plainfield about drinking fountains. After learning about PFOA in the water, they all felt that they needed one.

"It sounds like the healthiest choice, buy it," Schoen-Noble said.

"It's horrible, they haven't taken any measures to adapt to what we are going through," Bittman said.

CBS2 contacted Middlesex Water Company. A spokesperson shared that the company "is actively developing a temporary solution" and added that "we are building a factory to comply with the new regulations."

Middlesex Water Company wants its customers to know that the water quality has not changed and the regulations have not changed. New Jersey’s DEP has established a new concentration limit-40 parts per trillion reduced to 14. This is similar to a drop of food coloring in 18 million gallons of water.

"These standards are developed to protect human health," said Chris Gobler, director of the Center for Clean Water Technology at Stony Brook University.

Gobler said it is worth noting that in the neighboring Empire State of New Jersey, the standard is now 10 and the reasoning is based on science.

"If your water supply is higher than this standard, and the water you drink every day and you are exposed to it every day, you know that this can cause harm," Gobler said.

PFOA has historically been used in household products such as fire-fighting foam and non-stick pans. It is a permanent chemical substance that has accumulated over time. Gobler said that long-term exposure can cause cancer, thyroid, liver and immune system problems. Young people and people with weakened immune systems are most at risk.

Gobler urges people to use granular activated carbon water filters to protect themselves.

Bottled water is also an option to avoid PFOA.

US water customers in Clark, Edison, and South Plainfield in New Jersey are not affected.