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In 2025, Jersey Water Works members advocated for the addition of a PFAS and Emerging Contaminants Committee to the collaborative's working committees. To understand the significance of this initiative, first we must understand what PFAS is. According to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, “Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are a large family of thousands of manmade chemicals that have been used in industrial and commercial applications for over 70 years.” PFAS—often referred to as “forever chemicals”— “repel water and oil and are resistant to heat and chemical reactions. Products that may contain PFAS include stain-resistant coatings for upholstery and carpets, water-resistant breathable clothing, greaseproof food packaging, and certain fire-fighting foams (aqueous film-forming foams used for extinguishing petroleum-based fires).”

Until the establishment of the 2017 Water Quality Accountability Act (WQAA), New Jersey’s public community drinking water systems with over 500 service connections were entirely responsible for setting their own infrastructure standards. Due to a lack of transparency in how systems were managed, there was growing concern about aging infrastructure and the quality of drinking water. The WQAA was a major step in requiring water purveyors to improve safety, reliability, and administrative oversight of water infrastructure, thereby serving as a way to hold drinking water systems accountable. In 2021, amendments made to the law provided the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) with the tools to enforce it. The Jersey Water Works Asset Management and Finance Committee (JWW-AMF), along with its predecessor, the Best Practices Committee, played a key role in providing recommendations that informed the WQAA legislation and its subsequent amendments. These included legislative testimonies by multiple JWW members, collaborating with the American Water Works Association New Jersey section Infrastructure Management Committee to submit recommendations on Asset Management Key Performance Indicators, and public comments on WQAA rules and regulations, elevating important perspectives.

Access to clean water is a human right, but for thousands of families in New Jersey, the rising cost of water and sewer bills turns this essential service into a financial burden. Part One of the Water Affordability Series, "The Challenge," laid out the harsh reality of this issue, from water shut-offs to tax liens. This installment, "The Opportunity," is about action. It identifies the gaps in current assistance programs and explores the collaborative actions and policy changes needed to create long-term affordability programs necessary for a sustainable and equitable water system. New Jersey Future, with member of Jersey Water Works, aims to garner public support and advocate for such policy change with the goal of ensuring that every resident has access to clean, affordable water and the opportunity to thrive.

Water is a vital piece of community infrastructure. Water affordability and infrastructure challenges are connected. We need to invest in water infrastructure to maintain it, but we also need to fund those investments in ways that ensure people can afford to pay their water bills. As water advocates, we must embrace multifaceted solutions to tackle the water affordability problem from various angles. An estimated one-fifth of all New Jersey households face challenges affording their water and sewer bills. Unaffordable water bills threaten savings, wealth building, and access to water since water debt can lead to shut-offs and tax lien sales along with compounding interest and penalties that make it harder to pay off the debt. Permanent solutions in this area can have far-reaching benefits. These include strengthening the tenuous hold on building savings and retaining wealth at the household level, ensuring access to basic needs such as clean drinking water and healthful sewerage and stormwater service at the community level, and supporting sustained progress of existing projects targeting lead service line removal and combined sewer overflow at the utility level, which are vital community infrastructure and have long term health and economic benefits.

Jersey Water Works (JWW), a collaborative of over 600 individuals and organizations dedicated to transforming New Jersey’s aging water infrastructure, is hosting its 2025 annual conference Dec. 11 at The College of New Jersey, 2000 Pennington Road, Brower Student Center, in Ewing. The event will bring together over 200 water experts, local officials and community leaders.

This year’s theme, “Our Commitment to Future Generations,” focuses on strengthening and scaling the work already underway to address New Jersey’s most urgent water challenges, including lead service line replacement, combined sewer overflows (CSOs), PFAS contamination, water affordability and climate resilience.

The conference provides a critical platform to advance sustainable, cost-effective solutions and celebrate more than a decade of progress in championing a holistic “one water” approach — integrating drinking water, wastewater and stormwater management.