fbpx

Tropical Storm Irene said to be cause of bridge damage at NJAWC water treatment plant

New Jersey American Water Company and Monmouth County OEM are distributing water at three locations

New Jersey American Water and the Monmouth County OEM have established three water distribution locations where customers may go to receive bottled water. Those locations are:

Middletown High School North
63 Tindall Road, Middletown Township

Middletown High School South
900 Nut Swamp Road Middletown

Oceanport Fire House
Mertyl Ave and Monmouth Ave, Oceanport

The bottled water will be distributed until 11PM or until they run out.

UPDATE 8PM: MMM reader Tom Stokes just called in to report that 1 gallon of water per household is being distrubted at Middletown High School North, regardless of the size of the household. Proof of residency is required to get bottled water.

UPDATE 9:20: Tom Stokes reports the there is no more bottled water to be distributed at Middletown North. NJAWC is waiting for more bottled water to be delivered.  They will be at North throughout the night and all day tomorrow, according to Stokes.

xx

Click on the map for a full view of the area affected by the NJAWC water shutdown.

The bridge that collasped this afternoon as part of the “major infrastructure failure” at New Jersey American Water Company’s Swimming River water treatment plant sustained damage during Tropical Storm Irene last August.

Nearby residents are claiming that repairs were not done after Irene and that the bridge was bound to collapse.

Former Tinton Falls GOP Chairman Michael Laffey, an attorney who practices in Holmdel said, “NO work has been done to repair the bridge in the last year. This mess was completely avoidable and someone should be held accountable.”

Richard Barnes, NJAWC’s External Affairs Manager, told MMM that he had no information on the cause of the infrastructure failure.  “Right now we’re concentrating on restoring service to our customers.  We’ll have more information at a later time.”   Peter Eschbach, Director of Communications and External Affairs for NJAWC told a MMM reader who prefers not to be named that “small repairs to the wood” were performed on the bridge after Irene.

Middletown Mayor Tony Fiore told MMM that “this doesn’t look like a quick fix,” after he inspected the site of the infrastructure failure this afternoon.  “Irene appears to be the gift that keeps on giving.  We don’t know for sure that the storm caused today’s incident, but we remember pointing out the damage to NJAWC last summer and don’t recall repairs being made since.”

The Asbury Park Press pay site is reporting that there is another water main break in Neptune that has left 1600 residences without water.

More from my site

Posted: June 29th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Monmouth County | Tags: , , , , , | 5 Comments »

5 Comments on “Tropical Storm Irene said to be cause of bridge damage at NJAWC water treatment plant”

  1. Tom Stokes said at 10:39 pm on June 29th, 2012:

    Just got home…

    Please be careful when turning into HS North against oncoming traffic.

    It appears the Water Company will now be setting up their distribution point near the field at HS North.

    When I left, there was still no water delivered; we were being told within an “hour and a half” by Water Company personnel.

    They will be there all night tonight as well as tomorrow.

    The distribution was done solely by the Water Company; the Middletown Twp Office of Emergency Management had not been requested to assist (myself and Charles Rogers, the OEM Coordinator, did show up to provide whatever assistance we could.

    No police were there to provide traffic control.

    Tomorrow will be another day.

    Please follow precautions as urged by the Water Company; boil any drinking water you will use.

  2. Must be summer said at 11:25 pm on June 29th, 2012:

    Can’t we please just get through one summer without a utility crisis? What’s next, a power outage due to another maxed out transformer?? I don’t understand why these types of preventable ’emergencies’ keep happening.

    Never have I seen such poor utility management. This is not the norm, and should not be tolerated.

  3. Tom Stokes said at 8:13 am on June 30th, 2012:

    Just returned and they have set up water distribution near the field at HS North.

    Still only one (1) gallon of water per vehicle.

    They do have portable water tanks, I believe were brought in by the National Guard; they recommend you come with your own containers to have filled.

    There is a police presence and the flow of traffic is much better than last night.

  4. Pilgrim said at 11:34 am on June 30th, 2012:

    Must be summer,

    It is all about profit. NJ American Water is a for-profit company that is owned by investors who expect to get a return on their share of the company. Its a version of politicians first taxpayers last –investors first customers last.

    If there were concerns about the need for repairs to critical infrastructure, all local municipalities served by NJAW should have been monitoring what wasn’t being done.

  5. Charlie said at 3:10 pm on June 30th, 2012:

    I travel this route every day and have not seen a lick of work done since the hurricane. Planking and railings have been hanging off this bridge since then. If you look at the photos of the damage, you can see that the support structure under the pipes obviously failed since the breaks occurred at the connection points on the pipes and not in the middle. It is painfully obvious to anyone with half a brain that the flooding from the hurricane undermined or damaged the pilings, and that not a damned thing was done about it. I’m willing to bet that the pipes were only being supported by virtue of their own strength. Shareholders first, paying customer last. Just like JCP&L last year. First world prices for third world service.