By Walter Elliott
NUTLEY – Some of the 130,000 water customers here, in five other “Local Talk” towns plus nine more towns in Essex, Passaic and Hudson counties may be getting their full use back after press time, if they have not had by now.
Those using water from the North Jersey Water District Commission, Newark Water Supply and/or the Passaic Valley Water Commission – depending on which utility and which town you are in – may be still asked to refrain from unessential use.
Montclair and Glen Ridge, as of press time, remain under their self-imposed 3 p.m. Oct. 8 water state of emergency. The “essential use only” edict has shut off water fountains in Montclair’s public libraries, ended lawn watering and prompted food service businesses to use bottled water.
Bloomfield had lifted its boil water advisory 5 p.m. Oct. 9 but advised its residents and businesses to conserve water until township-wide normal water pressure returns.
Newark Water and Sewer Utilities Director Kareem Adeem, on Oct. 7, had advised customers in its East Ward and the lower part of the South Ward that they may experience “low water pressure or no water” as the result of the NJWDC main break in Nutley.
Belleville Township, on Oct. 6, posted an advisory that some residents may “experience low water pressure or some discoloration” in the break’s wake. The township, on Oct. 11, announced its scheduled fire hydrant flushing in two neighborhood areas.
“Local Talk,” on Oct. 11, noticed that Nutley’s Bloomfield Avenue between Centre and Chestnut streets, remains closed by township police while NJWDC contractors J. Fletcher Creamer, of Hackensack, and Alves Trucking, of Newark, complete their repair work. NJTransit buses to or from Nutley and Clifton are among the detoured traffic.
Both Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller and NJWDC spokesman William J. Maer said, on Oct. 9, that the 72-inch diameter transmission main “had been sealed.” Flushing and disinfecting the lines, testing the water samples and bringing the lines up to full pressure, however said Spiller, would take “another 24 hours.”
Montclair, said its mayor, has gone as far as reaching out to Hackensack-based New Jersey American Water for interconnection and the Bergen County Office of Emergency Management to bring in water trucks to help the Montclair Fire Department’s firefighting Oct. 8.
Montclair and Glen Ridge, on one hand, had used its interconnection with PVWC to bypass the broken North Jersey Water main. Verona and Cedar Grove customers on the Passaic Valley line, on the other hand, noticed reduced water pressure and asked their utility to reduce Montclair and Glen Ridge’s volume.
The week of water woes were due to three main breaks, a day and two miles apart in Nutley and Bloomfield.
The NJWDC 72-inch diameter main break southeast of Nutley’s Bloomfield Avenue and Church Street received regional attention since leaking water first bubbled up late on Oct. 7.
This 100-year-old main is part of a trunk line that runs from the Wanaque Reservoir through Wayne, Clifton, Paterson, Passaic, Nutley, Montclair, Glen Ridge, Bloomfield and Belleville to Kearny, Jersey City and Bayonne. Newark, as an NJWDC member, also draws part of its water from this line.
Kearny, in an Oct. 8 statement, advised its residents of using “water from a different source” and of “fluctuating water pressure.”
Nutley’s water, OEM, police and fire units were on the scene until North Jersey utility workers and contractors’ arrival. Four Nutley squad cars remain at the scene Oct. 12 for traffic diversion.
Creamer workers and NJWDC inspectors would trace the leak’s start to a shutoff valve bolt that had rusted and blown open, causing thousands of gallons of water to erupt through the break and into nearby house backyards and apartment building basements.
Portable water pump generators and boarded up basement windows were still seen along Bloomfield Avenue’s east side dwellings between Church and Centre streets at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
Nutley officials, flooded basements aside, maintained that their water service remained unaffected from the break.
What happened in Nutley, however, could not stay in Nutley.
The North Jersey aqueduct shares a trench with a 48-in. Newark Water Supply main and a 42-in. Passaic Valley line of similar vintage. The NJWDC rupture nicked and broke the Newark line, which serves part of the South Ward and the bulk of the East Ward.
Nutley’s news overshadowed Bloomfield’s own Oct. 5 problem, beneath the latter’s part of Garrabrant Avenue.
Bloomfield Mayor Michael Venezia said, at 9 p.m. Oct. 6, that a 48-in. NSW line interconnection had broken the night before. While township workers and contractors corrected that break, Venezia issued a Bloomfield-wide boil water advisory due to low water pressure.
“When our water was switched over from the Newark Water Supply to North Jersey and Passaic Valley (our backup systems) at our Garrabrant Avenue interconnection, our water pressure dropped below 20 PSI (pounds per square inch),” said Venezia, “which, under state regulations, require us to be under the boil water advisory.”
Venezia, on Oct. 9, said that water pressure had improved to “consistently between 40 and 50 PSI. (Regular is 70 PSI.)” The pressure, on Oct. 10, reached 70 PSI between Belleville Avenue and Bloomfield’s southern border and 40-50 PSI between Belleville and Watchung Avenues – but “good but not full pressure” Watchung Avenue north to the Clifton border.
Water samples were taken that Sunday morning to NJ DEP for reading and testing.
Bloomfield Township Engineer and Fire Department personnel began flushing its hydrants once the advisory was lifted.
Spiller, on Oct. 10, said that he has called upon Gov. Phil Murphy (D-Rumson) to hire a North Jersey water infrastructure czar to oversee and coordinate needed reconstruction.
