Belleville Will Distribute Limited Amount Of Free Water Filters

BELLEVILLE, NJ — Some Belleville residents will soon be able to get free water filters via the township, officials announced Monday.

Mayor Michael Melham announced that Belleville has secured funding to purchase a limited amount of water filters for residents. While the township is under no federal or state mandate to distribute filters, they will be provided to residents based on priority “strictly out of an abundance of caution,” he said.

According to Melham, the exact amount of the funding hasn’t been determined yet, but the hope is it will be enough to purchase filters for those deemed “most vulnerable” to potential lead exposure.

“We are asking our seniors, those who are ill or otherwise disabled, families with children under 6 and women who are pregnant or nursing to sign up for the filters at www.FiltersForBelleville.org,” Melham said. “The township will make providing these residents free water filters a priority.”

Once the funding amount is set, it should only take about a week or two to have the filters delivered and distributed, Melham said.

He added:

“Rather than acquire the filters that attach to faucets, which are prone to installation problems, the township is securing pouring pitcher filters with multiple replacement cartridges. Since residents of Silver Lake are a part of the City of Newark’s water infrastructure, and billed directly by Newark, they have already been receiving water filters provided by the City of Newark’s Water Utility.”

“We are already seeing progress with Newark’s new water treatment method, and believe within the next four to six months, the small traces of lead currently leaching in from residential service lines will be non-detectable,” Melham said.

People who live in a house with a lead residential service line should run their cold tap water for about two to three minutes first thing in the morning to flush out their lines.

Send local news tips and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com

Don’t forget to visit the Patch Belleville-Nutley Facebook page. Learn more about posting announcements or events to your local Patch site. Sign up for Patch email newsletters.