THIRD WORLD USA

186,000 New Jerseyans are about to find out they have lead drinking water pipes

Scott Fallon, NorthJersey.com
Thu, February 17, 2022, 2:41 PM·3 min read

More than 180,000 residents across New Jersey will be notified by Tuesday that drinking water is coming into their homes through a lead pipe, state officials said Thursday.

The properties with known lead service lines are scattered in hundreds of water systems throughout the state, but they tend to be in older communities where lead was often used before its toxic properties were fully known.

Water utilities are required to send notification via certified mail by Feb. 22 as part of a bill package signed into law last year by Gov. Phil Murphy that also forces providers to replace all lead pipes that stretch from water mains into a home within the next decade.


"There is no safe level of lead in drinking water or elsewhere," Shawn LaTourette, the state environmental commissioner, said Thursday. "We have to eliminate it where we find it, period."

The Department of Environmental Protection held briefings with some municipal officials and members of the press on Thursday to get the word out because the agency suspects that many homeowners and tenants will be learning for the first time that they have lead water lines.

Suez utility workers replacing an old lead service line, seen at right, with new copper line, coiled at left. Service lines connect water mains with homes and businesses.

Children exposed to lead can develop lifelong health problems, such as learning disabilities and neurological disorders.

The letters may generate an onslaught of questions and concerns to water utilities, town officials and the DEP or even to runs on bottled water.

"We hope not to see that kind of panic, but it's a possibility," LaTourette said.

DEP officials are directing homeowners to its webpage on lead abatement: nj.gov/dep/lead.

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The latest round of data submitted by water providers to state officials showed that at least 186,830 lead lines still exist in New Jersey. A map provided by the DEP shows the lead lines concentrated in the eastern portion of New Jersey from the New York border down through much of the Jersey Shore. Other areas include central New Jersey from Edison to Trenton, as well as some South Jersey towns near Philadelphia.

Providers still don't know the makeup of 1 million water lines, some of which are more than a century old. Poor records — sometimes even no records — on the composition of decades-old pipes have hampered efforts to identify areas with the greatest concentration of lead and which customers are most at risk from a metal that can cause harm even at low levels.

The American Water Works Association, an industry group, estimates there are 350,000 lead service lines in New Jersey. Removing all that lead could cost $2.3 billion, state officials have said.

Utilities from Suez to the Passaic Valley Water Commission have spent recent years replacing thousands of lead pipes after tests showed elevated levels. Last week, Newark officials celebrated the removal of 24,000 lead lines in less than three years after elevated levels drew national attention.

Some utilities are offering free water testing to residents, but they are not required to do so.

Utilities must eventually replace the entire service line into the home. Government-owned utilities can recoup the costs by billing individual homeowners or raising rates on everyone. Private companies such as Suez can only raise rates across its system to pay for the project.

Lead may also be in plumbing fixtures throughout a home, such as older faucets. The homeowner is responsible for replacing them.

Scott Fallon has covered the COVID-19 pandemic since its onset in March 2020. 
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ drinking water: 180K residents to learn of lead pipes