Passaic Valley Water Commission customers fed up with monthlong boil water advisory

Parts of northern New Jersey are still under a boil water advisory after nearly a month and a half.

News 12 Staff

Oct 7, 2021, 10:21 PM

Updated 1,102 days ago

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Parts of northern New Jersey are still under a boil water advisory after nearly a month and a half.
Officials with the Passaic Valley Water Commission say that the company is getting closer to flushing the system, which was contaminated by flooding from the remnants of Ida. But customers say that they are frustrated and ready for answers.
“Pretty much every day I boil a couple of huge pots of water and pour it into a variety of containers that we can use for washing our dishes,” says Tova Felder, of Clifton. “We use bottled and well water for drinking.”
Felder is one of more than 250,000 Passaic Valley Water Commission customers impacted by the advisory that was implemented after the Sept. 1 storm. The New Street Reservoir was contaminated with floodwater, impacting the drinking supply.
The commission has been flushing the reservoir and the system ever since, testing it regularly and giving out bottled water to customers. Officials say that they hope to have the system back to normal by late next week.
“We’ll continue to give you water as long as it’s not safe for you to drink. Please be patient. We appreciated most are being patient and we are doing everything we can. We are working 24-7 to resolve the issue,” says interim business administrator Louis Armodio.
With severe flooding like the flooding from Ida increasingly more common in New Jersey, some Passaic Valley Water Commission customers are wondering what the commission is doing now to help prevent the issue from happening again.
“We are going to look at short-term remediation plans. Long term is to capsulate these reservoirs,” Armodio says.
This plan could take years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars. But people like Felder say that they are ready to have tap water once again.
“I will be so happy when I can turn on the tap and use that water,” she says.
Passaic Valley Water Commission says it's already spent about $1.7 million to give customers bottled water. The company estimates that in the end, they will spend $3-5 million to fix the current contamination problems.
People in parts of Woodland Park, Paterson and Passaic are also impacted by the advisory.