Boro forced to re-evaluate options on water plants

By vincent todaro
Staff Writer

By vincent todaro
Staff Writer

SPOTSWOOD — The borough’s attempt to rehabilitate its two water tanks has been thwarted, and a major change in the operation of the utility could be at hand.

At its July 14 meeting, the Borough Council rejected the latest set of bids for work on the water plants on George Street and Daniel Road. It’s the second time the borough received bids that were far above the estimated cost of the work.

Both plants need repairs, but officials do not want to continue to raise residents’ water bills. Over the past couple of years, water bills have gone up by about 50 percent, Councilman Curtis Stollen said.

As a result, Mayor Barry Zagnit said the borough is exploring a number of options other than rehabilitating both plants. The most logical alternative may be to have work done on just the George Street plant, and to use the Daniel Road plant primarily for backup purposes.

"If we use Daniel as a backup, we’d pump primarily out of George," Zagnit said. "We’d have to do a complete rehabilitation of George."

The plant is capable of pumping more water than it does at present, he said, and for years was the borough’s only plant. The pumps are meant to run around the clock, and work best when run continuously, he said.

"They develop problems when you turn them on and off," he said.

Even while using both plants, the borough needs to purchase about 165,000 gallons of water daily from East Brunswick, Zagnit said.

"We can’t buy exclusively from our wells because of saltwater intrusion," he said, explaining that the more freshwater that gets pumped, the more ocean saltwater gets into the aquifers. The state, therefore, has limits on how much water can be taken from aquifers.

Another way around the high bid problems may be to get out of the water pumping business.

"The question is: Do we continue to pump the lion’s share of our water, or do we get out of the water production business and just purchase the water? We need to look at this from a dollar and cents view," Zagnit said.

He said the borough already has an in­terconnect with East Brunswick because it buys water from the neighboring township. That means Spotswood would not have to run infrastructure to another source.

"I don’t think there’s a problem with East Brunswick serving us. It’s more of a financial concern for us," he said.

Spotswood would need East Brunswick to guarantee a constant water supply, and would likely also need a second intercon­nect, in case the first stops working.

However, the issue of water quality would then arise. Zagnit said Spotswood gets its water from deep wells that produce a good-tasting water. Water from East Brunswick has a different taste and smell, he said, and residents have noticed the dif­ference.

"If we get out of the business," Zagnit said, "it would take residents a while to get used to the different water."

"We have much better water than the East Brunswick surface water now," Stollen said. "The question is how much will we pay for it."

Stollen said another option is to just fix the immediate problems at the George Street plant, which needs less work than is required at the Daniel Road plant.

Zagnit said the needed rehabilitations include repairs on the wells and pumps, as well as the chemical injection system used to purify the water.

"Everything in the plants essentially is old and antiquated," he said. "It needs to be modernized and brought up to date. We want the plants to run another 20 years without another huge capital expense."

Borough Business Administrator Jacqueline Ascione is working with engi­neers to examine the options and come up with cost estimates, the mayor said. The study could be ready for the Aug. 4 council meeting. If not, it will be completed by the first meeting in September.

The employees will make a recommen­dation to the council, which will then have the final say on what path to choose.