Ridgewood Water says DEP Fine is a result of Residents who ignore Water Restrictions
July 2,2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, A spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, said Ridgewood Water Company exceeded its water allocation by 60.1 million gallons.
The company was quick to point out that Ridgewood Water Company was fined because too many residents disregard water conservation rules and fail to pay attention to the summer water restrictions imposed by the Village.
Frank Moritz told the Ridgewood News ,”We put in watering restricting and we put them in every year, “It’s voluntary and we did it in 2010 but the sprinklers go on and keep going on.”
There was no mention of the fact that water restrictions have become a permanent part of summer vacation in the Village for the last 10 years , or any speculation on the water use of the BOE or Valley Hospital . It has been alleged that the BOE has been know from time to time to time to leave sprinklers on whether willfully or just by mistake ignoring the watering bans.
Ridgewood Water services over 20,000 households in Glen Rock, Wyckoff, Midland Park and Ridgewood and is currently embroiled in a rate lawsuit brought on by Glen Rock, Midland Park and Wyckoff customers who allege the the Villages own bad fiances have been covered up by over sized commingled rate increases at Ridgewood Water.
According the the Ridgewood News Moritz and Ridgewood Water have been negotiating with the state Department of Environmental Protection to reduce the $38,000 fine, which the DEP hit the company with for using 60.1 million gallons more than they were allowed in 2010.
Critics of Ridgewood Water like to point out the antiquated pumping infrastructure caused by the lack on investment over the last 20 years and heavy federal ,state and local regulation make the utility more of an albatross and an asset to the Village .
How does this make any sense?
Each year when the water restrictions are put in place we are told it is because RW does not have the pumping capacity to provide that much water. Year after drenching year we are told there is plenty of water, it is not a matter of supply but delivery.
NOW they tell us that we are using too much water?
As usual with RW, we don’t know what the REAL story is.
My neighbor runs her sprinkler system all the time, rain or shine. He lawn doesn’t look any better than mine, and I let nature do the work.
Your lawn isn’t that important. If it dries up, so what.
It is time to privatize this or make into a public-private partnership, and let the other towns it serves have a stake in owning it (if they want to) as well as in sharing in all of the costs of running it if they become co-owners. There’s a lot of murk in Ridgewood Water, it sure does seem, and it’s been going on for ages, getting murkier all the time.
I bet that either United Water or Aqua America would have great interest in something like that. United currently charges much more than Rwd Water per m/gallons, but so does HHK for that matter. I don’t know Aqua’s current rates in the NJ markets it serves, but I think they are less than United’s.
Point is that it’s time to make the water utility fully supported only by its customers – the ratepayers – and nothing else. Village finances, bonding, and many other things should not be so intertwined with Rwd Water, since fact is the utility has always served many customers outside of the Village anyway.
If other towns it serves want to own a stake, they can put up the money and do so under such an arrangement. If not, they could continue to be just customers -but of a new entity that is fully financed, administered etc etc on its own – based totally on its ratepayers, just like many other utilities work.
Aren’t we already doing pub/priv partnership on wastewater? So why not on the water utility?
Ridgewood Water is great, management not so much……If it were run correctly it would be a wonder asset to Ridgewood and the other towns it serves. Right now too many upper management taking too much money that should go into the water structure, not their pockets.
“the state Department of Environmental Protection to reduce the $38,000 fine, which the DEP hit the company with for using 60.1 million gallons more than they were allowed in 2010.”
ALLOWED ??
WTF DOES THAT MEAN?