Other New Jersey Towns Can Learn From Newark’s Lead Pipe Project

NEWARK, NJ — Sooner or later, every town and city in New Jersey will have to follow in Newark’s footsteps. And that’s a mixed blessing when it comes to replacing lead water pipes, advocates say.

Last week, Newark celebrated a huge milestone: the replacement of 23,000 lead service lines. The effort includes all known lines in the city, Mayor Ras Baraka said – an unprecedented pace for such a massive project.

Three years ago, Newark made national headlines when it confronted a lead water crisis. At one point, the lead levels at some points in the city's drinking water had risen to 47 parts per billion at some sites, more than three times the federal threshold. It prompted an outcry from residents – and a lawsuit from advocates.

Newark eventually traced some of the contamination back to lead-lined service pipes leading to thousands of local homes. The pipes, which connect local homes and businesses to the local water supply, can potentially leach contamination as water passes through them. A portion of the pipes were privately owned, complicating efforts to replace them.

To fight the contamination, Newark began the daunting task of replacing every such pipe in the city at no cost to residents, an effort that finally ended this month.

“Today, we are here to say we have replaced all known lead service lines, and we are confident in saying no city has replaced as many lines as fast with no charge to residents,” Baraka said.

Vice President Kamala Harris visited the city on Friday to tout the success of the program, calling it a “role model” for other municipalities looking to make the switch. Read More: Lead Pipes And Newark: Kamala Harris Returns To NJ To Praise City

Harris noted that the recently passed federal infrastructure package will make billions of dollars available for other large-scale projects to improve water safety. And that will be important as the replacement countdown for other towns and cities across New Jersey begins, advocates say.

In July 2021, Gov. Phil Murphy signed a package of laws that will require hundreds of community water systems in New Jersey to replace their own lead service lines within the next decade.

• See related article: New Jersey Is Replacing Its Lead Water Pipes – All Of Them
• See related article: Newark Isn't Only NJ City At Risk Of Lead Water, Map Shows

Some nearby towns in Essex County, including Montclair and Glen Ridge have already begun their own efforts to replace lead service pipes. But eventually, every water provider in New Jersey will have to get on board.

On Friday, Gov. Phil Murphy said that with funding from the federal infrastructure law, the state will “ensure safe drinking water flows to every New Jersey family.”

“I encourage others to look to New Jersey as a model for how major infrastructure projects can be done successfully,” Murphy said.

3 KEY LESSONS IN NEWARK

According to Newark officials, there are three important lessons the rest of the state can learn from their experience:

TAP PUBLIC FUNDING – “First, the state legislature allowed the City of Newark to use public money for the expressed private property improvement of replacing lead lines.”

GET ‘RIGHT OF ENTRY’ – “Second, the city’s municipal council passed an ordinance that gave the city the ‘right of entry’ to private property to replace lead lines. This was critical because nearly 80 percent of Newark residents rent and tracking down property owners for access to their property would have been time-consuming and costly.”

MAKE IT FREE – “Third, the city replaced these lines for free. Maintaining and repairing service lines are usually the responsibility of the homeowner and average replacement could cost anywhere from $5,000 to $6,500.”

Jersey Water Works said that nailing down financing was a key factor behind Newark’s success. As the group recently explained:

“In order for water utilities to most efficiently replace lead service lines, a significant number of customers must participate in the program. This allows the utility to take a block-by-block approach rather than a patchwork approach. Newark’s program initially required customers to pay a large fee to participate in the program, but once the city secured financing, it eliminated this fee and saw the number of participants increase dramatically.”

PAYING FOR IT ALL

While many environmental advocates have cheered the progress in Newark, some have noted that the pathway forward might not be so easy for other towns and cities.

“Unfortunately, the bipartisan infrastructure law won’t provide all of the funding we need,” said Chris Sturm, managing director of policy at New Jersey Future.

“We estimate that the funding gap for lead pipe replacement in New Jersey remains between $1.5 billion and $2 billion,” Sturm said. “It is critical that the state provide additional American Rescue Plan funds to help communities eradicate lead in drinking water and other infrastructure challenges. That’s why New Jersey Future is part of the new Clean Water, Healthy Families, Good Jobs campaign, which is seeking a state investment of $1.2 billion for water infrastructure.”

Debbie Mans, co-chair of Lead-Free NJ, said that while Newark’s effort shows how to structure a successful lead pipe program, not all community water systems – especially those serving low-income residents – will have the same access to funding.

• See related article: Essex County Helps Newark Nab $120M In Loans To Fight Water Crisis

“It is critical that state and federal funds are leveraged to help these fiscally distressed communities and put to bed the problem of lead in drinking water once and for all,” Mans said.

Jersey Water Works said the new state law will still allow utilities to charge customers fees to cover replacement of the customer-owned portion of the line.

“This approach has proven to be unfair to lower-income families, as well as expensive and inefficient in practice,” the group charged. “Utilities that do not have access to the type of financing available to Newark (such as its unique arrangement with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey) will need to use a combination of rate increases and NJ Water Bank financing with a principal forgiveness (grant) component.”

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

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