436 Nutley Households Affected By Drinking Water Advisory

NUTLEY, NJ — A small section of Nutley that receives drinking water from the City of Newark may have an elevated level of haloacetic acids in their water supply, according to a municipal advisory issued last week.

Nutley officials said that the issue – which is “not an emergency” – is due to the source water supplier, the Newark Water Department, and its disinfection process.

About 436 households in Nutley get their supply from the Newark Water Department. The affected area is located west of Ridge Road and Van Winkle Avenue and bordered by Glenview Road, the Nutley/Bloomfield boundary line and East Passaic Avenue (see below map).

“There is nothing you need to do,” Nutley officials said. “You do not need to boil your water or take other corrective actions. If a situation arises where the water is no longer safe to drink, you will be notified within 24 hours.”

“This is not an emergency,” Nutley officials stated. “If it had been an emergency, you would have been notified within 24 hours.”

People with severely compromised immune systems, those who have an infant, women who are pregnant, and elderly residents may be at increased risk and should seek advice from their health care providers about drinking the water, Nutley officials said.

“People who drink water containing haloacetic acids in excess of the MCL over many years may have an increased risk of getting cancer,” the Nutley municipal advisory states.

Read the full notice here.

Here’s what municipal officials said in their April 22 advisory:

“Our water system recently violated a drinking water standard. Although this incident was not an emergency, as our customers, you have a right to know what happened and what we are doing to correct this situation. We are required to monitor drinking water for the presence of contaminants including disinfection byproducts (DBPs) on a quarterly basis. The DBPs test results from the last monitoring period that ended on March 31, 2019 show that our system exceeds the standard, or maximum contaminant level (MCL) for haloacetic acids (HAA5)… The test results of HAA5 at location N-7 was 68.6 ppb and at location N-8 was 62.4 ppb. These values exceed the HAA5 MCL of 60 micrograms per liter (ug/L).”

Nutley officials added:

“This is an issue with our source water supplier, Newark Water Department and their disinfection process. When disinfectants are used in the treatment of drinking water, disinfectants react with naturally-occurring organic and inorganic matter present in water to form DBPs. Only a small section of Nutley receives its supply from the Newark Water Department. According to Newark Water Department’s recent public notices, it is anticipated that the problem will be resolved within 3 to 6 months.”

Nutley officials said that in the meanwhile, the township has performed hydrant flushing in the affected areas to introduce fresh water into the system.

For more information, contact Dominic Ferry, Licensed Water Operator at (973) 284-4984 or dferry@nutleynj.org.

Nutley town officials issued a similar advisory in February 2019.

• See related article: Nutley Issues Drinking Water Advisory On Haloacetic Acids
• See related article: Elevated Contaminant Levels Found In Belleville's Drinking Water

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