U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-5th Dist.) joined with local leaders and water providers Monday to celebrate the groundbreaking of a new water treatment facility — Ridgewood Water’s Ravine Treatment Plant.
Ridgewood Water serves more than 62,000 residents across Ridgewood, Wyckoff, Midland Park and Glen Rock.
Working closely with the mayors and councilmembers, Gottheimer successfully clawed $2.8 million back from the federal government to invest in this project, which will provide clean water free of lead and PFAS, known as forever chemicals, to children and families in communities across northern New Jersey. This federal investment will help lower the tax burden on families.
Ridgewood Water has long been fighting back against polluters whose actions contaminated the surface and groundwater with forever chemicals. When it found evidence of forever chemicals in some of its 52 wells, it immediately took problematic wells offline. It installed temporary treatment technologies including filters and bought water from outside facilities to help keep residents safe. Purchasing outside water is more expensive and the new water treatment facility is a permanent solution to bring costs down.
Ridgewood Water’s new facility will provide 500 gallons of treated water into the system per minute, nearly a million gallons a day, and will bring some of the inactive wells back online.
Gottheimer also helped secure $1 billion for Jersey’s critical water infrastructure through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, which he helped craft and pass.
“This is about protecting our kids and our families,” Gottheimer said. “There is nothing partisan or political about this — it’s about fighting for what’s good for Jersey.
“We were able to claw $2.8 million in the tax dollars we sent to Washington back to Jersey, to help invest in this new facility, and lower the tax burden on families. Today is a perfect example as to why it’s so important that we work nonstop to claw federal investments back to Jersey and away from the Moocher States.”
