The Consumer Confidence Report summarizes information regarding water sources used (i.e., rivers, lakes, reservoirs, or aquifers) any detected contaminants, compliance and educational information. The reports are made available to customers by July 1st of each year.
The Water Utility is operated as a subset of your municipal government. The Mayor and the Municipal Council serve as the Board of Directors for the Water Utility and in accordance with State Law, the Utility is able to share cooperatively with other municipal services to provide economies. The Utility is to operate on a self-sufficient basis which means revenues received from the sale of water to our more than 17,600 customers will cover the operating cost, debt service and required reserves. Because the Water Utility is a public purveyor of potable water, we must comply with the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) requirements. Those requirements delineate certain tests which must be performed and reported each year through a Consumer Confidence Report released to the general public.
Capital Expansion
To ensure adequate fire flow and water quality, each year capital improvements are added to the system. In 2007, a new pump and natural gas engine was installed to increase water flow and lower cost of operation. This will give residents a three-day supply of water in case of any disruption of service. We will continue replacing smaller, older water lines with new ductile iron. All of these programs are financed by the Utility through its rate structure which continues to be the lowest water rate based system in the Raritan Basin.
Water Source
East Brunswick is located in what is referred to as the Raritan River Water Basin, although our raw water does not originate within the Raritan River. East Brunswick receives its water from the New Jersey Water Supply Authority which operates the Spruce Run/Round Valley Reservoir System in Hunterdon County and the Delaware and Raritan Canal Systems. The headwaters for the Delaware and Raritan Canal System actually come from the Delaware River Basin. The Delaware River Basin is a 13,500 square mile watershed comprising portions of Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. The Delaware River and its tributaries provide the water supply needs for approximately 18,000,000 people including over half of New York City which is located outside the Delaware River Basin. The Delaware River Basin receives, on average, over 40 inches of rain per year and much of this water supply is held in reservoir storage in conjunction with a daily flow through the Delaware Raritan Canal. The flows of the tributaries and main stem of the Delaware River are regulated by the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), a Federal/Interstate Compact Agency with regulatory authority over water resources in the Basin. The water flows are guided by the framework of a 1961 Compact which was developed after a 1954 U.S. Supreme Court Decree. The Decree granted water allocations to various states and mandated certain releases from New York reservoirs to maintain flow targets in the Delaware River. The water which comes from upstate New York and the mountains of Pennsylvania flows through the many tributaries down the Delaware River and a portion of up to 100 million gallons a day, is transferred from the Delaware river through the D ∓ R Canal. It is at this point East Brunswick takes its water supply. More information about your water supply can be found in our annual report, Quality on Tap.
