Scott Fallon reports for the North Jersey Record
About 25 percent of the lead pipes in Bergen and Hudson County will be replaced this year under a plan unveiled Thursday by Suez water company to help reduce high lead levels found in water pouring from the taps of homes last year.
The $15 million project will remove 50,000 feet of lead pipes – the equivalent of 34 Empire State Buildings laid end to end – in more than a dozen towns and cities served by the Paramus-based division of the worldwide company.
“It was important to us to make sure that our customers in these homes know we are doing everything we can for them,” Mark McKoy, vice president and general manager, said in a statement.
In what it calls a “sweeping attack,” Suez will replace more than 9 miles of pipes beginning with eight towns that have the highest number of lead service lines – the pipes that connect the water main to the property line. They are:
Teaneck
Rutherford
Hackensack
Ridgefield Park
Bogota
North Bergen
Union City
West New York.
The announcement comes a month after officials in several towns complained that Suez was moving too slowly to replace its lead lines at the minimum-mandated rate of 7 percent a year.
Oradell Council President Tracy Schoenberg, who lead the fight to get Suez to increase its replacement efforts, said she was pleased with both the announcement and the choice of towns because they have some of the oldest and most widespread lead lines.
But Schoenberg said she wants to know what Suez’s plan is beyond 2019.
“It’s great that they’re doing 25 percent this year, but will they be able to keep up that pace in the next three years so they can get all of their lead out of the system,” she said. “It puts communities like mine on the back burner without any firm idea of when they’re going to start work here.”
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