Water Distribution Continues; No Timeline for Repair

NJ American Water Co. (NJAWC) is distributing bottled water to residents of Maplewood, and will continue to do so from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. daily. Any resident wishing to receive two (2) one-gallon bottles of water can do so by going to the Maplewood Community Pool Parking Lot located at 187 Boyden Ave to receive their water. First come, first serve, while supplies last.

In addition, NON-DRINKABLE water is available at the Maplewood Pool. Residents can bring their own buckets or other containers to the Maplewood Pool Parking Lot  and fill them with non-drinkable water. This water can be used to flush toilets and allow residents to use their drinkable water for other purposes such as cooking and brushing their teeth. The non-drinkable water comes from a township well used to supply water to fill the pool. [Residents are advised to bring containers with tight-fitting lids.]

A resident who arrived early on Monday told Patch, "I went over almost immediately. There were 20 cars in front of me and they hadn't started distributing. They were not checking IDs, but I overheard someone explaining to three officers that 'When supplies run low we're going to have to start checking IDs.' "

Recorded messages from NJAWC give no date or time when residents can expect water service to resume. An online message from the water company, dated Aug. 29, reads:

We are working around the clock to restore service, but there are no easy answers

Many of you have asked when the water will be back on. We do understand your frustration, and wish there was an easy way to give you a simple answer. However, if the situation was as simple as a main break, or even two or three simultaneous main breaks, we could give you a reliable timeframe on when you could expect to have your water service back.

Hurricane Irene’s winds and flooding took out our power. Many of you can probably relate to that. Irene knocked out our Canoe Brook Water Treatment Plant in Short Hills (this is possibly yours if you are without water), has the Raritan Millstone Water Treatment Plant in Bridgewater (our largest, and until this morning totally surrounded by flood waters) just hanging on and using emergency power, and our Canal Road Water Treatment Plant in Somerset (Raritan Millstone’s sister facility) also on emergency power. Fast moving and deep flood waters covered much of our system. Several of our pipes run underneath bridges that were severely damaged. Many of our generators, pumps, interconnections, wells, etc. are just now surfacing as the flood waters recede. A significant amount of our wells, pumps and other assets are relying on back up power.

So, these issues, none of them insignificant, combined to keep us all working hard to reestablish water service to our customers. The hurricane winds and flooding also took out much of our monitoring and control systems, leaving us somewhat blind, system-wise. Until the water subsided today, we couldn’t get power company technicians into our surrounded plant to restore two 26,0000 volt power lines that had been destroyed by the storm. As we began systematically to investigate where and how much damage we sustained, we were able to often more quickly learn about problems based on your calls and posts. Our crews are out checking on all our mains, tanks, pumping stations, etc., and working to recover what is an important system to our communities and to you.

So, while it would be easy for us to tell that you should have water by tomorrow, it would honestly be a guess on our part, and only further frustrate you if it took longer.

Patch will update this story as more information becomes available.