Belleville Drinking Water: Advisories For Lead, Haloacetic Acids

BELLEVILLE, NJ — Belleville municipal officials issued two advisories on Monday regarding water contamination in the township.

One notice involved “elevated levels of lead in drinking water in some homes/buildings.” (Read the full advisory)

According to Belleville officials:

“The 90th percentile value for our water system is greater than the lead action level of 15 parts per billion (ppb). The action level is the concentration of a contaminant which, if exceeded, triggers treatment or other requirements which a water system must follow. This means BWD must ensure that water results from the locations sampled do not exceed this level in at least 90 percent of the sites sampled (90th percentile result).”

Belleville officials offered additional information about the issue:

“The BWD (BWD) has identified approximately 5,500 lead services throughout its service area, and, has updated its sampling plan to monitor high risk residences. The BWD purchases treated surface water from the City of Newark. Newark has recently changed the corrosion control treatment, which should, over time, reduce the lead dissolving from lead service lines into the drinking water. Newark’s previous method of corrosion control treatment has failed, and, is slowly being phased out. The BWD has increased its water quality parameter monitoring to evaluate the effects of the new corrosion control treatment. Moreover, the BWD is required to send a corrosion control treatment recommendation to the NJDEP. The BWD continues to sample for lead and copper at our interconnections with the City of Newark. In addition, the BWD is planning a lead service line replacement program in conjunction with future watermain relining projects. Finally, the BWD is continuing public education about lead in drinking water.”

Several Essex County communities – including Belleville – have been taking hard looks at the safety of their water supply after neighboring Newark's struggles with lead contamination in thousands of homes.

In Newark's case, the suspected culprit is privately owned service pipes that are potentially leaching lead into the water at nearly 18,000 homes. The city has embarked on a massive, multi-million-dollar effort to replace those pipes at no cost to local residents, a campaign that has gotten financial support from county, state and federal officials.

• See related article: Newark Isn't Only NJ City At Risk Of Lead Water, Map Shows

Newark officials have said the problem is confined to the Pequannock service area. The city sells water to other neighboring towns, including Belleville, Bloomfield and Nutley.

Belleville officials have previously said there are no restrictions on local residents in terms of drinking the tap water, and there is no reason to believe there are elevated levels of lead in the water the town receives from the Pequannock Reservoir.

Likewise, a recent round of testing at the district's eight schools showed no indication of lead – or other contaminants – in the drinking supply, officials said.

• See related article: No Lead In Drinking Water At Belleville Schools

Some people, including Mayor Michael Melham, have been quick to point out that Belleville shares a similar water infrastructure to Newark's, however.

The similarities include the cost of modernization. Replacing every lead service line in Belleville could cost up to $24 million, Melham previously said.

• See related article: Belleville Residents Drink 'Same Exact Water' As Newark, Mayor Says
• See related article: Belleville Monitors Its Own Water As Newark Deals With Lead Woes

HALOACETIC ACID

On Dec. 16, Belleville officials also issued a separate advisory regarding levels of haloacetic acids in the water supply. (Read the full notice)

Belleville officials stated:

“Our water system recently violated a drinking water standard. Even though this was not an emergency, as our customers, you have a right to know what happened and what we are doing to correct the situation. We routinely monitor for the presence of drinking water contaminants. Testing results from October 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019 show that our system exceeds the standard, or maximum contaminant level (MCL), for HAA5. The standard for HAA5 is 60 parts per billion. It is determined by averaging all samples collected at each sampling location for the last 12 months. The levels of HAA5 averaged at two of our system’s four locations for October 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019 were 63 and 62 parts per billion respectively.”

According to Belleville officials, there is nothing residents need to do. There is no need to boil water or take other corrective actions.

“If a situation arises where the water is no longer safe to drink, you will be notified within 24 hours,” officials stated.

Belleville officials said there are no short-term health risks associated with HAA5, five haloacetic acid compounds which form when disinfectants react with natural organic matter in the water.

“To have any long-term risks, a person would have to drink 64 ounces of water every day (8 – 8 oz. glasses) at the MCL for 70 years to have a one-in-a-million chance of having the possible adverse health effects related to disinfection byproduct (DBP),” officials said.

However, those who have severely compromised immune systems, infants, pregnant women or elderly residents may be at increased risk and should seek advice from their health care providers about drinking this water, officials added.

Here’s what is being done about the issue, officials said:

• “The Belleville Water Department does not treat our drinking water, it purchases treated water from the City of Newark”
• “The City of Newark has implemented a remedial treatment plan for the source water coming into Belleville to reduce DBP’s prior to entering our distribution system, and, said remedial treatment has significantly reduced the DBP levels this past quarter”
• “We are evaluating methods to reduce the levels of disinfection byproducts in our water distribution system”
• “The Belleville Water Department conducted hydrant flushing the water distribution system throughout 2019, and will continue in 2020”
• “The Belleville Water Department will be commencing a valve exercising program to make sure the valves are functioning properly or will be replaced”
• “The Belleville Water Department will take samples in February 2020”

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