By Sunayana Prabhu
RED BANK – The borough’s underground lead pipelines will be replaced over a period of 10 years, Jaclyn Flor, president and CEO of ENGenuity Infrastructure, told the borough council at a meeting last month.
After discussions with the borough’s department of public works and finance committees, Flor presented a detailed PowerPoint for the council with identification and replacement procedures of all lead water pipes in the borough.
Flor explained that the borough had completed identification of lead water lines as required of all municipalities by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection last July.
“Our historically underserved communities know all too well the severe damage that lead exposure can inflict upon children and families,” said Gov. Phil Murphy in a press release from the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Murphy said his office will be working alongside federal and regional partners to eradicate “this grave public health threat once and for all.”
The primary source of lead in drinking water is from pipes, the EPA said in the statement. Exposure to lead can be harmful to human health even at low levels and can accumulate in the body over time. In children, low levels of exposure have been linked to damage to the central and peripheral nervous system, learning disabilities, shorter stature, impaired hearing, and impaired formation and function of blood cells.
Flor’s team scoured the borough’s historical records and compiled an inventory of known and unknown pipeline types in Red Bank using a Geographic Information System (GIS). GIS is a type of digital database system containing geographic data combined with software tools for managing, analyzing and visualizing that data.
Flor noted that the borough’s water department used GIS software to access drawings and sketches of any location on the borough’s map to show exactly where the service line is and identify in real time whether it is copper, lead or galvanized.
According to Flor, 366 homeowners were notified in August via certified letters that their properties had lead water lines. She notes there are still other locations in the borough that need to be investigated.
According to the PowerPoint presentation, “the Federal Lead and Copper Rule Revisions (LCRR) require all utilities to submit a LSLRP (Lead Service Line Replacement Plan) by October 16, 2024,” which will be similar to the New Jersey plan, she said, that requires notification to all property owners with lead, galvanized or unknown services.
“It is better to identify as quickly as possible where you have lead and where you don’t,” Flor said. The borough’s LSLRP aims to achieve 100% verification and service line replacements by July 2031. In order to achieve that, the borough needs to replace 10% of the service lines by July this year.
Flor gave the council a breakdown of the number of unknown pipelines and known pipeline types in the borough: There are 2,967 properties in the borough with unknown service lines, 366 with known lead service lines, and 358 that are not lead. There are also 600 additional lots which are being checked by the borough tax assessor to confirm that there is no water service present.
There will be costs associated with replacing these lines, but the borough hopes to mitigate them with feder- al programs. Although Red Bank didn’t meet the afford- ability criteria in its entirety to seek principal forgiveness through the EPA’s Infrastructure Bank (I-Bank), “pretty much the West Side of Red Bank, bound by the railroad tracks, Oakland Street and Maple Avenue,” belong to a census tract that meets I-Bank criteria for 50% principal forgiveness,” Flor said.
For an area to qualify for principal forgiveness the I-Bank requires 35% of households have a median income of $68,196 or less; 47.6% of the tract on the West Side meets that criterion.
Flor further added that the area was identified on the census tract as “most vulnerable” with the highest number of individuals over 65 years of age or under 18 and met other criteria for overburdened communities, including “low income, limited English proficiency as well as language barriers.”
Approximately 1,125 pipelines – including 125 known lead and 1,000 of unknown makeup – identified in the area of principal forgiveness will be replaced in the initial plan at an estimated cost of $2.4 million. The council unanimously voted for the introduction of an ordinance to issue a bond for the expenditure.
The cost to identify and replace all of the borough’s lead water lines with copper was estimated at $7 million.
The article originally appeared in the March 30 – April 5, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
