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.
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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.