The state and the feds have teamed up to compel a North Jersey water system to cover three reservoirs that provide drinking water to nearly a million people.
The U.S. Department of Justice and the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office accuse the Passaic Valley Water Commission in a new federal lawsuit of violating the Safe Drinking Water Act by failing to properly protect and treat water from the Great Notch Reservoir, Levine Reservoir, and New Street Reservoir to ensure it’s free of pathogens and safe to consume.
The public water system serves about 800,000 people in Paterson, Clifton, Passaic, Prospect Park, Lodi, North Arlington, and Woodland Park, and 22 wholesale customers (municipalities and independent water companies) in Passaic, Bergen, Essex, Hudson, and Morris counties.
It treats water at the Little Falls Water Treatment Plant and distributes “finished” water that’s considered ready for human consumption to the three reservoirs downstream, according to the lawsuit. But because those reservoirs aren’t covered, stormwater runoff, animal waste, and other contaminants can taint them, the lawsuit charges.
The commission has failed to fully address the problem since at least early 2009, when it entered into a consent order with the state Department of Environmental Protection that established a phased schedule for compliance, the lawsuit says. But the reservoirs remain uncovered despite that and subsequent enforcement orders, it says.
That failure has led to periodic stormwater contamination and elevated lead levels, including a six-week water advisory stemming from Hurricane Ida flooding in 2021, the lawsuit says. It also leaves people who drink the water vulnerable to viruses and parasites including cryptosporidium and Giardia lamblia, which can cause diarrhea and other gut illnesses, the lawsuit says.
The feds and the state are seeking a judge’s order requiring the commission to cover the reservoirs or treat the water to ensure it complies with the Safe Drinking Water Act. They also want a judge to order the commission to notify the public of the problem, implement unspecified public health protections, and pay penalties for every day of noncompliance.
The commission did not respond to the New Jersey Monitor’s requests for comment.
Courtesy New Jersey Monitor