Discoloration, sediments an issue two years after complaints
NORTHFIELD — “We need clean water, we need clear water, we need fresh water,” Shepherd Drive resident Amy Hughes told representatives of New Jersey American Water Co. during a meeting before City Council on Jan. 22, 2019.
She and dozens of neighbors in the area are still waiting nearly two years later, but a project approved Dec. 2 by the Planning Board may clear up the situation.
After receiving multiple complaints, City Council arranged the 2019 meeting between residents in the area and officials with the utility to discuss problems with discolored water that some had been experiencing for several months — and others for as long as 10 years.
About 20 people showed up to discuss their problems with the utility, which reported receiving calls from at least 36 customers with problems. The area from where most of the complaints had originated is the section of Shepherd Drive from Route 9 to Wabash Avenue, but others in the surrounding area, including on Rosedale Avenue on the other side of the bike path, also reported experiencing problems.
Earlier this month, the utility received preliminary and final major site plan approval and conditional use approval to build a facility that will filter out excess iron and manganese in the water on its property at 47 Mill Road.
According to the application, New Jersey American Water (NJAW) plans upgrades and improvements to the Mill Road Well and Treatment Station.
The 1,200-square-foot treatment building and well house on the site will remain and a 6,820-square-foot treatment building with a chemical unloading area and spill containment features will be added at the 65,000-square-foot property on the corner of Wabash Avenue.
The project will involve access improvements along Mill Road to include a wider driveway apron. Barbed wire will be removed from part of 6-foot-high fence to make the facility more visually appealing, since it’s in a residential zone.
The minimum goals set forth include:
— production of stable, noncorrosive water that will comply with the lead and copper rule and minimize corrosion, precipitation and deposition within the system.
— production of water containing total iron and manganese levels below the secondary maximum contaminant levels of less than .5 mg/l for manganese and less than .3 mg for iron.
The design will treat the current well capacity of 1,390 gallons per minute and allow for the possible expansion of the facility to 2,140 gpm should a future well be needed.
Materials stored indoors on site will include sodium hypochlorite for disinfection, sodium hydroxide for ph adjustments and polyphosphate to sequester iron and manganese remaining in the distribution system as well as to inhibit corrosion in the distribution system.
One large tanker and one smaller flatbed truck are expected monthly.
Construction is expected to be complete by March 2023.
In his report, Planning Board engineer Matt Doran stated the design of the building conforms to the general character of the area and will not adversely affect the safe and comfortable enjoyment of property rights of the zone. Adequate and attractive fences and other safety devices will be provided as well as sufficient landscaping.
In 2019, David Forcinito, senior director of operations for New Jersey American Water, said the utility would solve the problem, which he described as discoloration that comes and goes.
Attempts to reach NJAW for this story were not successful.
“What everyone has been experiencing over the past year or so, I want to assure you that we are working on this problem and will continue to work on this problem until we get a resolution,” Forcinito said.
He said the discoloration is a buildup of iron and manganese in the water distribution pipes that falls out of solution and settles as sediment, explaining that disruptions such as system flushing and hard starts and stops in pressure can cause the issue.
Forcinito also said the source is not always obvious and that it is challenging to figure out how to pinpoint a cause. He characterized the issues as sporadic, affecting a couple of residents now and then and not an issue in which 100 customers are affected at once and never rising to the level in need of notification. He said the issue is spread out over time and location, saying there is “no rhyme or reason” for when and where it is going to take place.
Forcinito said the company was inspecting valves, adjusting flows from production facilities and using special equipment to flush and clean the water mains — a high-velocity process that he said stirs up sediment, leading to temporary discoloration.
He also said the utility was working with customers to alleviate their immediate problems, such as providing bottled water, offering bill credits and paying for plumbers to flush in-home systems.
Shepherd Drive resident Carmine Guidara, who had expressed frustration with the utility during the meeting in 2019, said Friday, Dec. 17, that he and his immediate neighbors continue to have problems.
“We still do have discoloration, the shower fixtures sort of deteriorate and things like that,” Guadara said. “There’s definitely an issue.”
He said he hopes the new facility fixes the problem.
“If they’re willing to invest that much, then obviously they are confident that it will work,” Guidara said.
He said steps taken by the utility in the past just masked the problem but did not remove the naturally occurring elements.
“Two years ago when we were there, they said manganese posed no health threat, that it’s just visually not appealing and they were adding things so that you couldn’t see it,” Guidara said. “This seems like they’re going to filter it out.”
Next door, Jim Shippen, a member of the Planning Board, agreed the problem still exists but said not as badly for him as for the Hughes or Guidara families.
“It’s oddly irregular,” he said, noting that two years ago the fresh water in his toilet was the color of “weak tea.” He said now “we don’t see it as much in our water” but if you pour a cup and let it sit, the sediment settles in the bottom.
Shippen said there is no state-set maximum for manganese level just a suggested level.
“It’s not a legally enforceable thing, but if you have customers with brown water, they’re not real happy,” he said.
He said NJAW sent plumbers around to flush people’s water heaters and what came out of his he described as “chocolate syrup pouring out of the hose into our utility tub.”
He says that occurs to some extent in all water heaters, which eventually fail due to corrosion.
“I don’t know if that was having that negative effect in there or not but it certainly was filthy when they rinsed it out,” Shippen said.
He said it’s evident the utility is aware there is still a problem.
“They went to all that trouble to get all those experts to design the system, design the building, go through all the hoops they had to go through to come to the board and get the variances and the waivers they needed to do what they needed to do. All we can do now is wait to see if that alleviates the problem,” Shippen said. “At the very least it’s promising. The only thing you can’t say is it will absolutely solve it.”
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
