After announcing to the township that it would be expediting lead pipe replacement and testing, New Jersey American Water has sent mailers to every household in Maplewood.
If you haven’t received a flier by mail yet, read a copy below.
The township is pushing the information out via Instagram and the municipal website at maplewoodnj.gov. Residents should also have received emails and will receive followup postcards during the week of April 14 as in-person canvassing begins by NJAW and its partner Montana Construction.
In an Instagram post, the township asked residents to “Help us spread the news, Maplewood: this is NOT junk mail. It may be arriving this week via snail mail from New Jersey American Water (NJAW) to your mail box if NJAW is unsure of your pipes. The flier outlines two critical next steps that NJAW wants you and your neighbors to take advantage of now so NJAW can expedite their replacing of lead pipes throughout our town in 2025.”
Those two steps are: (1) scheduling appointments with Montana Construction at 201-232-7624 or (2) self-identifying the material of your homeowner-owned service line at this link.
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In March, Maplewood Township Administrator Patrick Wherry announced that New Jersey American Water wanted to replace 2,000 lead or galvanized pipes throughout Maplewood, beginning in April, and to conduct tests on 3,000 with unknown composition to determine if they, too, must be removed. The process will take through the end of the year and could extend into 2026.
Wherry noted that NJAW will bring in four crews to work in different parts of town simultaneously, working on one block at a time. Each crew comes with a significant amount of equipment — trucks, a backhoe, and an excavator — and the construction will require road closures. The more emergent work will be done on a separate contract from planned work done around Maplewood’s road-paving schedule.
“The benefit is that they could be done with all of this by the end of the year,” Wherry said in March, but the work could stretch out longer if more pipes turn out to contain lead, he said.
Also in March, Township Committee members asked for better communications around lead line replacement following complaints last year that residents in Hilton were not receiving sufficient information about the health risks associated with lead pipes — including for a period of time after replacement.
During the April 2 town hall meeting, NJAW representatives said that water throughout Maplewood is currently safe to drink as NJAW provides ongoing testing.
A public meeting was be held on April 2, 2025 and recorded. Watch it here:
