Amid Newark water crisis, luxury apartments are safe, mayor says

NEWARK — Amid the city's ongoing lead in drinking water crisis, a luxury high rise apartment complex remains among those not directly impacted, according to the latest tests conducted by the city.

The city of Newark has been making bottled water available to residents in thousands of homes after water from two houses tested positive for lead, above the federal threshold of 15 parts per billion.

Newark is made up of two water service areas, the Pequannock and the Wanaque.

Households serviced by the Pequannock water system are at risk of elevated levels of lead in their water, according to city officials.

Residents of the 37-story Eleven80 high rise apartment building on Raymond Boulevard were concerned that that their water was affected, after receiving warning letters from management, according to a NJ.com report.

But, a statement issued by the city Sunday said a federal district court judge concluded that “the corrosion control in the Wanaque service area is in fact functioning and effective.”

The building receives its water from the Wanaque service area, and also is not connected to the city's main water main by a lead service line.

Large buildings require pipes far larger than lead service lines, which are typically the diameter of a quarter, according to the city.

The Essex County Improvement Authority announced it will borrow $120 million on Newark’s behalf to speed up the city’s replacement of lead water service lines to around 18,000 residences, a group of elected officials announced today.

Newark already has replaced over 770 service lines since March, under a plan that originally was expected to take up to a decade to complete. Once test results threw into doubt the effectiveness of filters intended to be a temporary solution, the new goal is to have the work complete by early 2022.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ

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