Photo by Sean Quinn
South Orange’s Board of Trustees approved a 30-year contract with New Jersey American Water and residents’ rates will remain the same, $5.67 per 100 cubic feet of water.
SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The South Orange Board of Trustees approved a 30-year contract with New Jersey American Water at its meeting on Monday, Jan. 12, designating the company as the village’s water provider, effective Dec. 31, 2016.
The agreement, which allows South Orange to maintain ownership of its water system, calls for New Jersey American Water to deliver a daily amount of water requested by the village. According to Steven Rother, village counsel, the village has asked to purchase no less than 2 million gallons of water per day, but no more than 3.486 million gallons a day, which is the firm capacity the Department of Environmental Protection has mandated South Orange must have on hand. That range was requested after factoring in the amount of water provided by South Orange’s own well, Rother said.
In return, the contract dictates that New Jersey American Water will bill the village at a rate set by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. Rother said that rate has been determined to be $3.01 for every 1,000 gallons provided.
Residents, meanwhile, will continue to be billed for their water use by South Orange. And Rother said there is a good chance their current rate of charge will remain the same according to the new agreement. Residents currently pay $5.67 per 100 cubic feet of water, he said.
Overall, Rother said New Jersey American Water represented the most financially sensible choice of water companies with which the village could do business.
“There are all kinds of water companies around New Jersey, but if their mains are 50 miles away, there would be an exorbitant cost to run a connection to that source,” Rother told the News-Record in a phone interview on Friday, Jan. 16. “The closest source to South Orange was a main that New Jersey American had several blocks away in Maplewood, so it became the most economical place to go.”
Before New Jersey American Water can start supplying the village with water, it has to build all of the equipment necessary to connect South Orange with its Maplewood main, which runs along Sagamore, Mountain and Wyoming. According to New Jersey American Water External Affairs Manager Richard Barnes, that would include constructing 6,000 feet of a 16-inch water main, along with an above-ground booster station and a generator. Barnes said the cost of doing so amounts to approximately $6 million, but that is not a total residents should be concerned about spending — the contract mandates that New Jersey American Water pays for all its construction.
Another benefit of the New Jersey American Water deal for residents is the knowledge that the company, which serves about 2.5 million people throughout 17 counties, takes water quality seriously. Barnes said its Canoe Brook treatment plant in Short Hills, which will serve South Orange, was built in 2012 to comply with all of the Department of Environmental Protection’s latest regulations. He said it was also built above the floodplain, which will prevent any issues caused by flooding. Plus, he added that the plant takes advantage of solar power.
“So there are some state-of-the-art upgrades associated with the plant,” Barnes told the News-Record in a phone interview on Friday, Jan. 16.
The promise of safe water should certainly be good news to South Orange, which had been eager to find a new provider following the scandal surrounding its current supplier, the East Orange Water Commission. In 2013, two top East Orange Water Commission officials were indicted for ordering wells contaminated with tetrachloroethene, an industrial solvent commonly used in dry cleaning, to be turned off prior to monthly water testing. Assistant Executive Director William Mowell pleaded guilty to second-degree allegations against him in July and was sentenced to three years in state prison in December. Executive Director Harry Mansmann was also charged, but died soon after.
The village currently has a lawsuit in place against the East Orange Water Commission being overseen by a special master regarding water quality issues and financial allegations.
Rother said the water quality component of the case is “just about over,” with the East Orange Water Commission poised to enter into an administrative consent order with the Department of Environmental Protection to ensure it provides quality drinking water. Once that happens, he said the case will move into South Orange’s monetary claims, which include allegations that the East Orange Water Commission overcharged the village.
And in other legal matters, Rother said the village is right now working on a request for proposals for companies to operate its water system and handle consumer billing. Previously, the East Orange Water Commission fulfilled those duties in addition to providing the water, he said.
While the bidding process will soon commence, in the meantime, Rother said residents can take solace in the fact that the village has found a water supplier it can trust.
“New Jersey American has water that meets all of the DEP quality standards, and that is really what the residents want,” Rother said. “The residents want a water source that has predictably good water quality, and that is something that we are going to be getting from New Jersey American.”
