Governor Christie signed bipartisan legislation today sponsored by Assembly Republican Holly Schepisi that would prohibit health care facilities from discarding prescription medication into any public sewer or septic system.

“The safest way to make sure children aren’t at risk from pharmaceuticals in our drinking water is to stop dumping medicine into the water supply,” Schepisi, R-Bergen and Passaic, said. “Medical facilities can lead the way by disposing unused drugs.”

The new law, A-733, would prohibit medical facilities from putting unused prescription medication into drinking water.

The legislation is in response to a 2008 Associated Press report that found trace amounts of drugs in the drinking water for 24 major metropolitan areas and 41 million Americans, including North Jersey where the heart medicine and mood-stabilizing carbamazepine was found in the Passaic Valley Water Commission’s treatment plant.

“Prescription medicines serve a specific purpose and do not belong in our drinking water,” Schepisi said. “I thank Governor for signing this bipartisan legislation to ensure that our drinking water is as close as possible to what nature intended: two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen.”