Published in the Asbury Park Press
BY JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
Dover residents, officials angry
DOVER TOWNSHIP — Jo-Ann Barnett has had it with United Water Toms River.
Barnett, her husband and two children came home Monday evening to find that when they turned on a faucet they got only a drip.
Trying to contact United Water only increased Barnett's frustration. After listening to a busy signal for 40 minutes on the company's emergency line, she was disconnected before she had the chance to speak to an employee.
"I've been here for 16 years, and this has been a repeated problem," said Barnett, a former resident of the Silverton section who now lives near the intersection of Old Freehold Road and Bay Avenue. "It's to the point now that we can't even shower when we come in from the beach. Not for nothing, but we're paying this water bill, and if it were the electric company or the gas company, they wouldn't be able to get away with this."
The displeasure expressed by Barnett and other residents was amplified by township officials the day after water pressure problems in parts of Silverton and northwestern Dover led to the activation of the local emergency management system amid concerns about firefighting capability in the affected areas.
Parts of northwestern Dover, including Squire Village, sections of the Lake Ridge adult community and the Walden Woods development as well as sections of Pleasant Plains, saw water pressure drop to a trickle about 6:30 p.m. Monday.
There were also pressure problems in the Indian Hill Road area.
"I had no water," said Township Councilman Brian Kubiel of Kaitlyn Court, who was showering when the water in his house suddenly shut off. "When I woke up this (Tuesday) morning, the pressure was about 60 percent restored, tops."
No warning
Township officials said that United Water had given Dover no warning about the potential for drops in water pressure, and that company officials were difficult to reach once police began receiving calls about the loss of water service Monday evening.
"This is ridiculous," council President Gregory P. McGuckin said. "This is part of a continuing pattern with United Water. The biggest problem I have with this is they didn't tell us. They didn't warn us. They never called to tell us they were experiencing demand problems."
McGuckin commended the Fire Department for acting quickly to position tanker trucks at the Pleasant Plains and Silverton firehouses during the water outage.
Pleasant Plains Fire Chief Chris Aldrich said his fire company had a 7,500-gallon tanker truck available, and an additional tanker was brought in from the Manitou Park Fire Company in Berkeley.
"At no time was the public in danger," Aldrich said. "We had adequate fire protection due to us bringing in the other tanker."
United Water spokeswoman Deb Rizzi said the company is conducting a full investigation to determine what led to the low water pressure.
On Tuesday, Rizzi said the problem seemed to be caused by a combination of high water demand coupled with incorrect information the company had received that a certain well was operating.
"We had a combination, not only of the demand but, as we discovered today, that reading that the well was operating, when, in fact, it was not," Rizzi said.
Rizzi said United Water has activated an interconnection with New Jersey-American Water Co. that can provide up to 1 million gallons a day. Rizzi was unable to say how much water United's customers had used over the weekend.
Company officials have previously said that United could supply up to 25 million gallons a day. Rizzi said United will complete its review of the incident and present the findings to the township by Friday.
Lack of foresight seen
Dover officials, who have grown increasingly frustrated with United during the past year, were not pleased with the water company's explanations. They pointed out that demand is always high during Memorial Day weekend, when an influx of summer visitors adds thousands of people to the township.
There have been previous instances of low water pressure in northwestern Dover, including during a hot spell over Memorial Day weekend in 1991, when water pressure dropped to a trickle in parts of Pleasant Plains.
"With the holiday weekend, the drought we're in, and the expected high number of visitors that were coming down, it's just plain common sense that there is going to be high demand on water resources," Mayor Paul C. Brush said. "They're just not managing the company properly.
"They have an excuse for every one of their failings, and it just strengthens our case with the BPU (Board of Public Utilities) to revoke their franchise."
The township formally asked the state BPU in March to revoke United Water's franchise to operate here. Dover officials contend the company's negligence has threatened people's health and safety.
Brush, who is vacationing at his Florida home, said he has been in constant contact with McGuckin and other officials. Brush spoke to the council, Police Chief Michael G. Mastronardy, Township Engineer Robert Chankalian and attorney Mark Troncone via speaker phone during a closed session Tuesday night.
McGuckin said council members and the mayor are considering what their options are regarding the water company.
In early September, the state Department of Environmental Protection banned new connections to United's system because the company had exceeded its state water allocation in three of the past five years. The ban has stopped almost all new construction in Dover, South Toms River and the Holiday City and Silver Ridge sections of Berkeley.
Then in February, Dover officials learned that United Water had violated state law by failing to report seven instances of elevated radiation levels in its system that were discovered during testing conducted in 2005.
DEP levies fines
Earlier this month, the DEP fined two former United managers $5,000 each, saying they had purposely turned off a well in Berkeley last September so potentially elevated radiation levels in the well water would not be reported.
United also was fined $104,000 by the DEP for exceeding its allocation permit and $64,000 for failing to report the elevated radiation levels. Company officials have insisted that a new management team and new internal controls will prevent such problems in the future.
The DEP is expected to make a decision on United's application for an expanded allocation permit this summer.
But township officials said Tuesday that the company's communication and management still seem inadequate.
Councilman Maurice B. "Mo" Hill Jr., who represents Ward 3, where most of the water pressure problems happened, said he had no success when trying to contact United Water's emergency numbers Monday.
"I tried calling the two numbers but didn't get a response," Hill said. "My immediate concern was, No. 1, drinking water, and No. 2, what do we do if there is a fire? Had there been a fire, there could have been serious consequences."
Hill said township officials were first told by United that there had been a water main break, a report that proved false. He said they were then told that water pressure in at least two of the company's storage tanks had dropped precipitously, leading to the pressure problems.
"Look, we've got all this construction proposed out here, including affordable housing, and we can't even supply the people we have living here now," Hill said.
Published in the Asbury Park Press on 05/31/06
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