The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
photos courtesy of Ridgewood Village Manager Keith Kazmark
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Water on hosted an informative Open House on Monday October 16th. The team is committed to transparency, openness and easy access to information concerning our water service. Members of the public from all 4 municipalities serviced by Ridgewood Water came out, asking questions and getting some answers.
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood Nj, Ridgewood Water will host an Open House event will be at the Ridgewood Public Library at 125 North Maple Avenue from 6 to 8pm, October 16th. The first of two Open Houses the second will be on October 24th at the Midland Park Fire House Social Hall 45 Witte drive Midland Park from 6 to 8pm. Ridgewood Water will discuss the PFAS service charge, lead pipes and other pressing issues.
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, yesterday February 21st was the cut day to be notified if your water was being delivered to your residence via lead pipes. According to the NJDEP website, water systems in NJ are required to notify residents, non-paying consumers (e.g., a renter not responsible for the water bill), and any off-site owner of a property (e.g., landlord) when it is known they are served by a lead service line no later than February 21, 2022. Water systems will also be required to replace all lead service lines in their service area by 2031.
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Governor Phil Murphy today reaffirmed his commitment to address lead exposure in New Jersey and its harmful effects on public health and child development by signing a package of bills aimed protecting New Jersey’s families from lead poisoning. The legislation, which will require regular inspections for, and the remediation of, lead-based paint hazards in residential rental properties and require the inventory, replacement, and financing of lead service lines throughout the state within the next 10 years, will advance New Jersey as a national leader in lead poisoning prevention. In October 2019, Governor Murphy unveiled a comprehensive statewide plan to address lead exposure in New Jersey, in which exposure to lead-based paint and lead in drinking water were two key elements of the strategy.
Continue reading Governor Phil Murphy Moves to Get the Lead Out
BY RICHARD COWEN AND STEVE JANOSKI
STAFF WRITERS |
THE RECORD
Some parts of North Jersey are a lot like Flint, Mich.: old, industrial and poor, with many people living in houses built before World War II, drinking tap water that streams through pipes and fixtures made of lead.
Flint’s belated discovery of dangerously high levels of lead in tap water prompted a health emergency that has made national headlines. Lead in water has long been a problem in North Jersey and elsewhere, but aside from precautions utilities take to guard the water, they most often urge people to live with it by flushing their lines.
That may be changing. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering requiring the removal of lead service lines — the pipes that deliver drinking water leading into peoples’ homes. The lines are considered the main culprit in depositing lead sediment in the drinking glass.
Removing these old lead lines and replacing them with copper or plastic was one of the recommendations made by the National Drinking Water Advisory Council to the EPA in December. The council has also recommended expanding lead testing to include a broader cross-section of homes.
Now it’s up to the environmental agency, which is fashioning a new lead and copper rule, with an eye toward adoption by 2018.
Lynn Thorp, the national campaigns director for Clean Water Action, said removing service lines is expensive and complicated. But it’s the surest way to keep drinking water safe from lead, she said.
“If there’s no safe level of lead, and our efforts to control and monitor lead in the water will never be perfect, then there’s only one solution,” she said. “And that’s to get the lead out of contact with the drinking water.”
Flint plans to remove all 15,000 of its lead service lines, estimated to cost $55 million. But as a poor city, it needs to find a funding source and is looking for help from both Congress and the Michigan state legislature.
Service lines connect the home to the water main at the curb and generally are the homeowners’ responsibility. In structures that were built before 1940, these pipes were made of lead. Since then, these service lines have been made of copper or plastic, but in many older neighborhoods, the lead lines are still being used.
United Water, which serves much of Bergen County, estimates there are 9,500 lead service lines still in use, about 5 percent of the utility’s 202,000 customers.