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That means customers in PVWC service areas should flush their taps any time the water lines haven’t been used for several hours. Bella said it’s a good idea to run faucets for 30 seconds every morning, and in the evening after work.
The lead advisory applies to all of Paterson, Passaic, Clifton and Prospect Park.
Lead advisories are triggered whenever tests of more than ten percent of the facilitiy’s treated wastewater goes over 15 parts per billion of lead.
According to Bella, this will be an ongoing problem until storage facilities for all the PVWC’s wastewater are covered. Three facilities, two in Paterson and one in Great Notch, are still open. Once those are enclosed, he said, phosphates can be added to prevent leaching. But phosphates can’t be used in open storage because when exposed to sun, they are a pollution source.
The utility has also swapped out nearly all water mains that contain lead supplying individual homes. While doing so, they have also offered homeowners the chance to have the company's contractor replace the portion of the line from curbline to house that belongs to them at a favorable price, and terms that allow them to pay PVWC back over time, from one to four years with no interest.
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