Federal and state regulators have sued the Passaic Valley Water Commission over longstanding violations involving three uncovered drinking water reservoirs, while proposing a settlement that would give the utility until Oct. 1, 2054, to complete work bringing two of the facilities into compliance with federal rules.
The deadline is part of a 61-page consent decree filed Aug. 12 alongside a federal lawsuit accusing the commission of violating drinking water rules that took effect in 2009. Under the proposed agreement, the commission would pay a $132,500 civil penalty and have its ongoing replacement of Paterson's Stanley M. Levine Reservoir in service by May 27, 2027.
The three uncovered reservoirs are part of a system serving about 800,000 people in Passaic, Bergen, Essex, Hudson and Morris counties, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Newark.
Court records show the commission, New Jersey and the federal government negotiated the settlement before filing the lawsuit. The commission does not admit liability, and the agreement must go through a public comment period before it can be approved by a federal judge, records show.
If approved, the settlement would give the commission until May 1, 2028, to produce a plan for the New Street and Great Notch reservoirs in Woodland Park and related improvements needed to maintain water storage and pressure throughout the regional system. Those projects would have to be in service by October 2054, according to the agreement.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency, while the state Attorney General's Office acted on behalf of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, court records show. The complaint followed a July 2021 request by the DEP for joint federal enforcement.
Federal regulations adopted in 2006 required public water systems to stop storing treated drinking water in open reservoirs unless they covered the facilities or added another treatment step. Systems had until April 1, 2009, to complete the work or enter a state-approved compliance schedule, according to the lawsuit.
The commission treats raw surface water at its Little Falls plant before sending it to the Levine, New Street and Great Notch reservoirs. The water is considered finished by the time it reaches the reservoirs, and nothing treats it again before it enters the distribution system, federal and state attorneys said.
The covers are intended to protect against viruses, Giardia, Cryptosporidium and other contamination "from birds, animals, and other sources while the water sits in the reservoirs," according to the complaint.
The lawsuit says the open reservoirs have also limited the commission's response to lead contamination. A chemical commonly used to keep lead from leaching out of pipes could encourage microbial growth once the water reaches the reservoirs, federal and state attorneys said.
The complaint also cites past issues with the system, notably the New Street Reservoir's contamination after the remnants of Hurricane Ida struck North Jersey on Sept. 1, 2021. Floodwater entering the reservoir led to a boil-water advisory that affected about 230,000 people in Paterson, Passaic, Clifton and Woodland Park for 43 days, federal and state attorneys said.
By the time Ida struck, the commission had been operating under a state compliance order for more than 12 years, court records show.
The commission entered into the order with the DEP in March 2009 after it could not meet the federal deadline. It established a phased process for studying alternatives and preparing designs and was later amended three times, but never included a final compliance date for Great Notch, according to the complaint.
The most recent version, signed in 2019, required the commission to seek bids for the New Street project within 180 days of awarding a contract for Levine. A protest over the Levine contract held up that schedule until an appellate court ruled in the commission's favor in January 2025, the proposed settlement states.
The commission later sought more time for engineering studies and to consider completing the Great Notch project before New Street. The proposed settlement would grant that additional time, replacing the earlier timetable with deadlines enforceable in federal court.
The commission's consultants reached different conclusions about how to address the reservoirs.
For Levine and New Street, a feasibility study found that the only viable option was to take the reservoirs out of service, drain them in whole or in part and build enclosed concrete tanks in the emptied basins, according to the proposed settlement.
Great Notch presented another possibility because it sits beside Newark's Cedar Grove Reservoir. Between 2016 and 2019, the commission and Newark studied a shared treatment system that could allow both reservoirs to remain uncovered and undrained, the agreement states.
That option remains under consideration, although further study could result in Great Notch also being drained and replaced with concrete tanks.
Whichever option is chosen, the proposed agreement would require the commission to coordinate the construction schedule with Newark and other water systems that rely on its reservoirs to maintain adequate supply and pressure, according to the agreement.
Construction is already underway at Levine, where the commission awarded a nearly $42 million contract to J. Fletcher Creamer & Son in July 2024. After a bid protest, the contractor received notice to proceed on May 1, 2025, according to the consent decree.
While work moves ahead at Levine and the other projects are studied, the proposed settlement would require interim protections at the uncovered reservoirs, court records show.
Within 30 days after the agreement takes effect, the commission would have to submit a microbial action plan and a reservoir management plan to the DEP. The plans would address stormwater runoff, wildlife, water-quality monitoring, security and emergency response procedures, records show.
The commission would also have to notify customers about the violation and publish sampling results, construction schedules and explanations for delays.
The Justice Department is accepting public comments on the proposed agreement through Sept. 14.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Federal suit, deal focus on 3 uncovered North Jersey water reservoirs