Newark Moves to Arrest Water Crisis by Borrowing for New Pipes

(Bloomberg) -- Newark, New Jersey, seeking to address widespread concern about tainted drinking water, will raise $120 million to ensure that all of its 282,000 residents have lead-free pipes within the next 30 months.

The work will be financed with a debt issued through the Essex County Improvement Authority, which will drive down the cost to the city, Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo said at a press conference in Newark Monday.

The city some 10 miles west of Manhattan, which has drawn on the booming New York economy to chart an economic revival, has been distributing bottled water to thousands of households after signs that unacceptably high levels of lead is leaching into pipes. The need to replace the service lines became more urgent when officials recently learned that distributing water filters to residents couldn’t be relied upon to prevent the contamination.

Some 18,000 homes will get new lines connected to water mains over the next 24 to 30 months, the county executive said. Without the new financing, replacing the lines would have taken 10 years, he said. The city of Newark is obligated to pay the debt service on the financing, though DiVincenzo said he’ll seek state money to reimburse the city.

Governor Phil Murphy joined DiVincenzo for the announcement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Henry Goldman in New York at hgoldman@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Flynn McRoberts at fmcroberts1@bloomberg.net, William Selway, Elizabeth Campbell

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