PARK RIDGE—Congressman Josh Gottheimer (D5) said he would try to “claw back” more than $16 million in federal funds for Park Ridge to help pay for upgraded water treatment filtration systems to remove so-called “forever chemicals” at nine of its 15 active drinking water wells.
Speaking June 2 at a press event at the Ridgewood Water Treatment facilities, Gottheimer said, “With bipartisan legislation I just helped pass and get signed into law, and the $1 billion for water infrastructure I helped secure for Jersey through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, we’re helping get lead and ‘forever chemicals’ out of our drinking water.”
He said, “I’m also working with other towns across the Fifth District, including Park Ridge, Mahwah, and Fair Lawn, to replicate this success and claw back even more of our own tax dollars to help improve their water treatment facilities.”
He added, “The more of our federal tax dollars that we get back to Northern New Jersey, the less our towns have to charge in local taxes — and I’m all about lowering taxes.”
Gottheimer will face the winner of the hotly contested four-candidate Republican primary election on June 7 in the Nov. 8 General Election.
Last fall, the Park Ridge Water Utility removed three wells from service when levels of PFOA — a man-made chemical found in non-stick cookware, stain-resistant carpeting and waterproof clothing — was detected above new state-mandated environmental standards.
Park Ridge was one of 34 municipal water systems statewide whose wells and groundwater were found to exceed new statewide standards for the “forever chemicals” that went into effect late in 2021 from the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Recently, Park Ridge appropriated more than $3 million in emergency bond funding to purchase granulated activated carbon filtration systems for the three wells removed from service last November.
In late April, at a press conference held in front of Park Ridge Water’s facilities, Gottheimer had estimated Park Ridge needed at least $8 million to upgrade its water filtration systems.
June 2, Gottheimer said in addition to the $16.4 million for Park Ridge, he would seek to acquire $35.6 million for Fair Lawn and $800,000 for Mahwah from the bipartisan Infrastructure bill.
Gottheimer was able to secure $2.8 million in federal infrastructure funds for filtration upgrades for Ridgewood Water, which serves over 60,000 customers in four towns, including Ridgewood, Midland Park, Wyckoff and Glen Rock.
Park Ridge Water serves approximately 5,000 customers in Park Ridge and Woodcliff Lake.
Gottheimer said he submitted three Community Directed Project requests for federal dollars for the three new water filtration projects. No timeline for receiving the funds was available.
Each of the three water systems requires water treatment system upgrades to remove the new class of PFAS chemicals from well water and groundwater recently detected under the new state standard.
Park Ridge Mayor Keith Misciagna said in a statement, “Park Ridge and Woodcliff Lake appreciate our Congressman’s efforts in bringing federal funds back to the Fifth District to protect our water supply. There is nothing more important than clean water for our children and we need federal support in order to achieve this goal. Thank you, Congressman Gottheimer.”
Misciagna, a Democrat, appeared at the news conference with Gottheimer, and other Democratic mayors and public officials.
In mid-November, three Park Ridge Water wells, numbers 12, 14 and 18, were found to contain elevated PFOA levels and were immediately taken offline. This occurred on Nov. 10, 2021 as soon as the elevated levels were discovered.
Like other water utilities statewide under a new statewide environmental rule for removing PFOA and PFAS, the Park Ridge Water Utility moved swiftly to address the contamination problem. Both PFOA and PFOS belong to a larger class of chemicals known as PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl substances.
These chemicals do not occur naturally; rather, they have dispersed into the environment from their use in non-stick cookware, carpeting, waterproofing treatments, packaging for food, and firefighting chemicals and foams.
PFOA is linked to kidney and liver cancer, high cholesterol, ulcerative cholitis, thyroid disease, and pregnancy-related hypertension.
Other chemicals in the PFAS family have been linked to health effects on the liver and immune system, infant developmental delays, and cancer risk.
The water utility issued a letter to customers on Dec. 21 to inform them that the three wells that had tested over state limits for PFOA were offline.
“The DEP [state Department of Environmental Protection] limits appear to have been established due to an abundance of caution and a concern about consumption of water over an entire lifetime,” said the Park Ridge Water notice.
To assure local customers, Woodcliff Lake Mayor Carlos Rendo posted that no water from any of the three wells testing above state PFOA limits went directly from the wells into homes.
The Dec. 21 letter noted that Park Ridge’s water utility had been monitoring concentrations of PFOA since 2020 and planning for the necessary treatment when concentrations of the contaminant “were trending towards the then-pending New Jersey Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL).”
The new state standard for PFOA (perfluorooctoanoic acid), which is part of a larger class of chemicals known as PFAS, which are associated with cancers and other illnesses, is 14 parts per trillion. It is 13 parts per trillion for PFOS.
The state says one part per trillion is “equivalent to one drop split among 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools,” the notice said. The new state standards for PFAS chemicals went into effect in April 2021.
The notice said, “Due to the recent DEP rules, many water utilities…will be required to install new treatment processes to eliminate these chemicals that are found in their source water.”