Passaic Valley cited for water quality violations after snag in lead, copper testing
The Passaic Valley Water Commission has revealed that it violated state drinking water standards last year because of errors made involving a system designed to prevent lead and copper contamination in pipes.
The commission earlier this month sent a notice about the violation to its 800,000 customers in Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris and Passaic counties. Almost all the problems happened at a pumping station that serves part of Prospect Park, the commission said.
The PVWC’s public notice said the violations occurred between July and December of 2021 and were “not an emergency.” The utility also warned customers about the health risks of consuming water with excessive lead or copper — such as kidney or liver damage — and advised them not to use their hot water tap for cooking, drinking or making baby formula.
Paterson Press asked the commission about the apparent contradiction between the strongly worded health warnings and the notice's assurances that there was no emergency.
“There may have been some confusion because the information we distributed did not exactly match the circumstances in this case,” said Joseph Getz, a PVWC spokesman.
Getz said the health warnings were included in the notice to the public at the suggestion of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. The violations involved the commission’s water testing system but not the water that was distributed to the public, he said.
“At no time did the public have any exposure,” Getz added. “It was a data error, not a water quality problem.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, the DEP hadn't responded to questions from a reporter about the violations.
The system provides water to Paterson, Clifton, Passaic, Prospect Park, Lodi, North Arlington and part of Woodland Park, as well as 22 wholesale customers in the region. One Paterson community leader expressed alarm about the timeliness of the public notice.
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“Ratepayers and all citizens have an absolute right to know when our drinking water may have a harmful effect, and so we need a better system to alert people to problems in real time,” said Robert Guarasci, director of the New Jersey Community Development Corporation.
Guarasci said warning people about using the water for baby formula “weeks or months after the fact is a public health concern, and we’ll have to work with our legislative delegation to change the protocol.”
The water commission said the problems occurred after the state set new standards in 2021 for systems that use corrosion control treatment on their pipes to stop lead and copper from dissolving into the water supply.
The commission said its laboratory found there were 54 days in 2021 from July 1 through Dec. 31 when it failed to meet water quality standards. That included 52 days when the Prospect Park Pump Station had problems with orthophosphate levels and two days when the Little Falls Water Treatment Plant had problems with pH levels. The state environmental agency alerted the PVWC about the violations on March 16, the commission said.
Getz said improper testing caused the violation. He said the water that was tested was stagnant and had not gone through corrosion control treatment.
“This resulted in the sample not providing an accurate representation of the actual water in distribution,” Getz said. “At no point were any violations detected in the distribution system sampling results.”
The commission has changed its water sampling protocols as a result of last year’s violations, Getz said. Its information management system now flags instances “in a timely manner” when standards are not being met, officials said.
But Getz noted that the old sampling procedures were still in use at the start of this year — before the DEP’s March notice about the violation — so another violation is likely for the first half of 2022.
The commission is owned the cities of Clifton, Passaic and Paterson. Clifton Mayor James Anzaldi and Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh did not respond to messages seeking comment for this story.
Passaic Mayor Hector Lora said the agency’s new executive director, James Mueller, is putting together a corrective action plan and summary of what happened. Mueller was hired for the $300,000 job last December.
“At no time was the water unsafe,” Lora said.
Prospect Park Mayor Mohamed Khairullah also did not respond to a phone message left by a reporter.
Joe Malinconico is editor of Paterson Press.
Email: editor@patersonpress.com
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Passaic Valley NJ cited for water quality violations on lead
