Water utility plans to replace remaining lead pipes
Passaic Valley Water will spend as much as $5.5 million to replace the 800 remaining lead pipes in four towns.
The Passaic Valley Water Commission will spend as much as $5.5 million to replace the 800 remaining lead pipes in its system to help reduce high levels of the toxic metal in its drinking water, utility officials said Wednesday.
Commission officials also said they want to expand phosphate treatment to further cut lead levels in Paterson, Clifton, Passaic and Prospect Park by moving ahead with a controversial plan to replace open-air reservoirs in Woodland Park with storage tanks.
“The goal is to get our lead levels as close to zero as possible,” Joe Bella, the commission’s executive director, said in a conference call.
Lead has long been a problem in the Passaic Valley system, which serves almost 150,000 households.
The commission’s water leaves its treatment plant almost lead-free, but often becomes contaminated with the metal from century-old street pipes and home plumbing fixtures in an area of North Jersey with some of the oldest housing stock.
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Tests from July through December found 16 residences in Paterson, Clifton and Prospect Park with lead levels that exceeded the federal government’s action level of 15 parts per billion. The highest level was 85 parts per billion, found in a Clifton home.
Lead can cause a variety of serious health problems, especially in children, in whom it can stunt development.
To reduce high levels, the commission has spent decades replacing 35,000 lead pipes in what is one of the largest and oldest water systems in North Jersey.
Bella said Wednesday that the commission wants to speed up the process. It plans to hire an outside contractor within weeks to remove the remaining 800 lead pipes over the next two to three years. Paterson has the most lead lines, with 550, followed by Clifton with 101, Prospect Park with 83 and Passaic with 31.
Those pipes connect a water main to a residential curb. The project doesn’t include lead service lines on residential property, which are a homeowner’s responsibility. The commission offers no-interest loans to replace those pipes for $4,000.
The commission also released a map Wednesday that, Bella said, shows phosphate treatment has lowered lead levels in Clifton and Passaic. Phosphate coats the pipes and impedes lead from leaching into water.
Of the 16 homes whose water tested high for lead, there were only three in an area that was treated with the chemical. Paterson and Prospect Park’s water could not be treated and had 13 homes with high lead levels.
Bella said the commission can't add phosphates to its open-air Levine and New Street reservoirs on Garret Mountain because the chemical promotes algae growth when exposed to sunlight. They did add it to water flowing out of its Great Notch Reservoir, which serves Clifton, about 18 months ago.
Bella said the new data show that the $135 million plan to replace the reservoirs with storage tanks would reduce lead levels.
Opponents have said the commission is capitalizing on heightened fears about lead wrought by the public health crisis in Flint, Michigan, to drum up support for the reservoir tanks. For years the only reason given for the tank project was to deal with a chlorine-resistant bacterium called cryptosporidium and other potentially dangerous bacteria. Lead had not been mentioned as a reason for the project until last year.
"It’s like they're groping for any straw that will raise public support," said Gena Deroche, who lives on Garret Mountain and has fought against the tank plan. "Since lead is the hot public issue, they're going ahead with lead as their argument."
Bella said the commission plans to send letters detailing its findings to 147,000 households.