New Jersey American Water to resume chloramines use at two plants

New Jersey American Water has announced that it will resume using chloramines in water treatment at its Raritan-Millstone and Canal Road water treatment plants from 21 April.

These plants cater to customers in Essex, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Morris, Somerset, and Union areas of the US state.

Under a yearly routine maintenance programme for its water distribution system, New Jersey American Water temporarily changed the water treatment process from a chloramine residual (a combined residual) to free chlorine residual in February.

For long, chloramines have been considered an effective way to disinfect water and adheres to all EPA and NJDEP drinking water standards. This method has been used by New Jersey American Water since the 1980s.

This treatment change applies to water customers in Irvington, Maplewood, Millburn, West Orange of Essex County; Flemington Borough, Raritan Township, Readington Township, and Tewksbury Township of Hunterdon County; Hopewell Township, Lawrence Township, Princeton Borough, Princeton Junction, Princeton Township, Trenton, and West Windsor Township of Mercer County.

The changes are also applicable to various places in Morris, Somerset, Union and Middlesex counties.

Last month, New Jersey American Water announced that it will continue planned infrastructure projects across its service areas to provide reliable water and wastewater services to its customers in line with Governor Murphy’s Executive Order amid coronavirus Covid-19.

Its parent company and leading water and wastewater utility company American Water made a contribution of $500,000 to the American Water Charitable Foundation (AWCF) to support coronavirus relief efforts this month.