Lead in NJ water: Phil Murphy wants $500M bond question on 2020 ballot to remove lead pipes – NorthJersey.com

Voters will decide in November of 2020 whether to spend $500 million to remove lead drinking water pipes that have caused elevated levels of the toxic metal in some of the state’s largest water systems, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Thursday.

The $500 million is about 25% of the cost to remove all of the lead lines from New Jersey’s water systems.

The announcement comes as Jersey Water Works, a coalition of water utilities, engineers and environmental groups, released a 48-page report detailing steps to make the state’s water systems free of lead within 10 years. 

The recommendations include legislation that would force all water utilities to inventory and remove their lead lines, and suggests a state bond of $500 million to help cover 25% of the estimated $2 billion to remove all the lead lines.

It also recommends utilities remove customers’ lead lines, which usually costs $3,000 to $8,000, for free with the costs passed on to all ratepayers.

Lead has been a persistent problem in many of New Jersey’s water systems, especially those that serve older communities more likely to have lead service lines extending from a water main in the street into a home.

Attention to the issue increased this year when two of the largest drinking water systems in the state — Newark and Suez, which serves Bergen and Hudson Counties — found elevated levels in drinking water.  

Suez has embarked on a $20 million campaign this year to remove 25% of its lead lines after test results in the second half of 2018 showed lead levels at 18.3 parts per billion. A water system must take corrective action if a key reading is 15 parts per billion. 

Still, health organizations say that no lead should be in drinking water because it accumulates in the body over time, leading to a cornucopia of health problems — especially in children — including central and peripheral nervous system damage, learning disabilities, impaired hearing, and impaired formation and function of blood cells.

Essex County is spending $120 million to take lead pipes out of Newark’s water system, which has had levels in drinking water more than three times the federal standard.

More New Jersey news

Mystery: Where are lead lines in New Jersey’s water systems? No one knows for sure.

Lead in NJ water: Suez to remove 50,000 feet of lead pipes this year in Bergen, Hudson

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