Ringwood aims to make Wanaque Reservoir scenery, not supply

RINGWOOD — A reservoir system that serves millions of state residents is becoming more scenery than supply for locals.

In the past decade, the borough’s water utility has reduced its annual 150 million gallon-purchase of water from the Wanaque Reservoir to about 8 million gallons, records show. The transition has not been spurred by concerns over surface water flow from the nearby Ringwood Mines Superfund site but fiscal savings representing $500,000 for 2017, said Scott Heck, borough manager.

“[In 2007] we spent $325,000 and I said, ‘This is crazy. We can’t keep spending this kind of money on water,’ because what does that do, that drives the rates,” Heck said. “Since 2004, we have had a 144-percent increase in what they charge us.”

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Similar to many of its neighborhoods, Ringwood surrounds vast stretches of surface water. Yet, its residents are primarily served by underground wells. The majority of its homes and businesses, 3,251 properties, are hooked into the borough-run utility. Comprising four wells and three tanks, the system lies in the eastern half of Ringwood, on one side of the 6.6-mile-long Wanaque Reservoir. The community known as Stonetown, on the other side of town, relies on individual private wells.

Much of the borough system was purchased from the former Skyline Lakes Water Company roughly 50 years ago, records show. The rest came from the former Windbeam water company, which 40 years ago was struggling to supply an expanded residential base around Cupsaw and Erskine Lakes resulting from Ringwood’s last and perhaps final growth spurt.

Due to the system’s age, maintenance is an ongoing battle, said Heck, who is also the borough water superintendent. In addition to a $950,000 million annual operating budget, the utility is paying around $570,000 on debt service this year, records show.

Recent projects rehabilitated wells to increase yield, identified leaks to improve delivery, and regulated well pumps to boost energy efficiency, Heck said. Those projects have helped reduce the system's reliance on the reservoir, allowing more investment of water fees into upgrades designed to further improve efficiency, safety, and reliability, Heck said.

Reservoir water is brought into the system through a contract with the Passaic Valley Water Commission when tanks, pumps, and lines are low on flow or out of service. The borough nearly tripled its use of reservoir water last year, buying 21.8 million gallons, records show. Most of the water was needed to compensate for tank rehabilitation projects, Heck said.

Ultimately, officials said the aim is to make the borough's water system self-sufficient.

"It helps that we're a not-for-profit," Heck said. "We're not trying to make money. We're trying just to charge our users for what it costs to run the system."

A 4.5-percent water rate increase earlier this year was the utility's first since 2014. Of the $2.8-million subsequently borrowed, the borough spent $755,000 rehabilitating the water tank in Upper Ringwood in 2015 and $1.44 million on the Skyline Drive tank last winter. Nearly $285,000 from the Skyline project was spent on temporary water service, records show.

For 2018, borough officials are considering further infrastructure upgrades including improvements to the computer control and monitoring system. As it stands, the system tests pH and chlorine every two minutes to protect the water from collecting bacteria or lead on its way to the faucet. The system received its last violations in 2014, due to improper chlorine monitoring, records show.