NJ American Water says new quality report is good news for users

Summarizing all sample results from the calendar year 2021, New Jersey American Water's latest Water Quality Reports show no violations among their 33 systems.

That is an obvious positive, said Matthew Csik, director of water quality and environmental compliance, but there is even more for the utility's 2.8 million customers to like.

"Despite all the challenges to groundwater and some of our surface waters in the state, the finished, treated water that we're delivering to customers on a day-to-day basis meets all federal and state water quality parameters," Csik said.

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All water systems must issue annual consumer confidence reports to users, according to Csik, but it is helpful if those evaluations go above and beyond the bare minimum of what is required.

"One of the things that we take great pride in is we have emerging contaminants of concern, things that people have heard of like PFAS, that is, generated through Teflon and fire preventive materials and firefighting foams," he said. "We all know that trust is hard-earned, but it's really easily lost if there's even a perception that a water provider is not being transparent."

Csik credited the New Jersey legislature with being very aggressive in enacting measures to replace aging and potentially hazardous infrastructure in many of its older cities.

That too is reflected in New Jersey American Water's reports, designed to provide reassurance to customers that their exposure to contaminants in drinking water is being mitigated whether or not their specific homes were tested.

"Not only, when we test for lead, do we test at the highest-risk locations in our systems, but now we're actually on a 10-year program to identify, replace, and renew all of those lead and galvanized services," Csik said.

Anyone concerned about the quality of their drinking water should read these annual reports and know what their utility is doing regardless of who that provider is, according to Csik.

And if you don't see something in the report, say something: New Jersey American Water customers can request a hard copy of this year's report for their area by calling 800-272-1325.

Patrick Lavery is a reporter and anchor for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at patrick.lavery@townsquaremedia.com

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