PermitGranted

Morris County, New Jersey

Roxbury reports no lead service lines left to replace.

Its filing with the state records no lead, no galvanised lines requiring replacement and no connections of unrecorded material, against 3,215 confirmed not lead. That is a reading of the filing rather than a guarantee about the pipes, and it puts Roxbury in a different position from a town still working through unknowns.

What the law requires

P.L.2021 c.183 obliges every public community water system in New Jersey to inventory every service connection, notify the public about what it finds, and replace all lead service lines by 2031. Progress is reported to the state each year and posted publicly.

Roxbury's lead-line duty is split across more than one water system. Roxbury is served by more than one public community water system, at least one of which is the town's own. The c.183 duty is split, and which parcels fall to whom has to be resolved before anything is promised.

What a completed inventory still asks of Roxbury

Reporting nothing left to replace closes the search, not the obligation. The duty under c.183 is continuing: the inventory has to stay current as connections are replaced or added, the public notification requirement does not lapse, and any connection that turns up without a recorded material re-enters the process as an unknown.

The practical risk here is a records risk rather than a pipe risk. A filing that reports everything confirmed rests on the quality of the underlying records, and the places that gets tested are older streets, properties that changed hands before the records were digitised, and connections altered during work nobody logged.

So the useful question in Roxbury is not where the lead is. It is which confirmations rest on thin evidence, and that is answerable from construction year and plumbing permit history.

Where Roxbury stands

Roxbury is served by 5 public community water systems: 3 operated by the town (Roxbury Twp WD - Shore Hills, Roxbury Twp WD - Skyview, Roxbury Twp WD - Evergreen) and 2 regional suppliers (Mount Arlington Boro DPW Main, NJ American Water - Roxbury). The c.183 duty follows the system, not the municipal boundary, so Roxbury's own obligation is what its own systems reported in its 2024 filing.

Roxbury Twp WD - Shore Hills (PWID NJ1436003) reported 0 known lead service lines, 0 galvanised lines requiring replacement, 0 connections whose material was never recorded, 1,700 confirmed not lead, as of its 2024 submission. With no unknowns and no lead reported, this system's inventory is complete on its own account, which is a materially different position from a town still resolving unknowns.

Roxbury Twp WD - Skyview (PWID NJ1436004) reported 0 known lead service lines, 0 galvanised lines requiring replacement, 0 connections whose material was never recorded, 1,483 confirmed not lead, as of its 2024 submission. With no unknowns and no lead reported, this system's inventory is complete on its own account, which is a materially different position from a town still resolving unknowns.

Roxbury Twp WD - Evergreen (PWID NJ1436006) reported 0 known lead service lines, 0 galvanised lines requiring replacement, 0 connections whose material was never recorded, 32 confirmed not lead, as of its 2024 submission. With no unknowns and no lead reported, this system's inventory is complete on its own account, which is a materially different position from a town still resolving unknowns.

Mount Arlington Boro DPW Main (PWID NJ1426005) reported 0 known lead lines and 24 unknown-material connections in 2024 across its whole service area, which covers more than Roxbury. That figure is the system's, not the town's, and the share falling inside Roxbury has to be resolved parcel by parcel before anyone can put a number on it.

NJ American Water - Roxbury (PWID NJ1436002) reported 0 known lead lines and 3,147 unknown-material connections in 2024 across its whole service area, which covers more than Roxbury. That figure is the system's, not the town's, and the share falling inside Roxbury has to be resolved parcel by parcel before anyone can put a number on it.

  • Mount Arlington Boro DPW Main

    Lead service lines reported
    0
    Galvanised requiring replacement
    0
    Material UNKNOWN
    24
    Confirmed not lead
    438

    As filed with the state for 2024. The system's own address lookup

  • NJ American Water - Roxbury

    Lead service lines reported
    0
    Galvanised requiring replacement
    0
    Material UNKNOWN
    3,147
    Confirmed not lead
    849

    As filed with the state for 2024. The system's own address lookup

  • Roxbury Twp WD - Shore Hillsthe town's own

    Lead service lines reported
    0
    Galvanised requiring replacement
    0
    Material UNKNOWN
    0
    Confirmed not lead
    1,700

    As filed with the state for 2024. The system's own address lookup

  • Roxbury Twp WD - Skyviewthe town's own

    Lead service lines reported
    0
    Galvanised requiring replacement
    0
    Material UNKNOWN
    0
    Confirmed not lead
    1,483

    As filed with the state for 2024. The system's own address lookup

  • Roxbury Twp WD - Evergreenthe town's own

    Lead service lines reported
    0
    Galvanised requiring replacement
    0
    Material UNKNOWN
    0
    Confirmed not lead
    32

    As filed with the state for 2024. The system's own address lookup

What the state publishes, and what it does not

Published, free

NJDEP publishes how many connections each system reported as lead, galvanised, unknown and confirmed non-lead. Those are the numbers above. Systems over 3,300 people also have to put an address lookup on their own website.

Not published anywhere

Which of those unknowns to open first. The state publishes counts, not an order, and an address lookup answers one property at a time. Nobody publishes a ranked list, which is the thing a crew schedule is actually built from.

That gap is what we work in. We hold construction year for every parcel in New Jersey and the plumbing permit history behind it, so we can put a system's unknowns in order and show the evidence for each one. It is a ranking, not a diagnosis: it says where to look first, and it never claims a particular property has lead.

What the numbers here can and cannot tell you

Roxbury reports nothing left to identify, so there is no discovery cost to work out. What is worth costing here is keeping the inventory current, and evidencing the confirmations that rest on the thinnest records.

Funding, and what gates it

We have not confirmed this town's hazard mitigation plan yet.

Federal hazard-mitigation funding requires a current FEMA-approved plan. We match plans automatically by county and jurisdiction name, and this one did not resolve. It does not mean the plan is missing.

That is a gap in our record, not a finding about Roxbury.

Lead replacement is financed through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, with principal forgiveness available. The borrower is the water system, which is the town itself only where the town runs its own water. Which of those Roxbury is decides who applies.

What we have not measured in Roxbury yet

  • We have not baked Roxbury's impervious and runoff layers yet, so there is no number here. That is different from the number being zero.
  • We have not baked Roxbury's storm-drainage layer yet, so there is no number here. That is different from the number being zero.

How we know

  • FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer flood zones and base flood elevation
  • NJDEP MS4 outfalls the mapped storm-drainage network
  • OpenFEMA HMA subapplications what happened to grant applications like yours
  • FEMA Hazard Mitigation Plan Statuses the grant gate
  • NJDEP service line inventory what each water system reported to the state, by year

Built from published federal and state records. Informational only, and not engineering, legal or funding advice. Confirm anything that matters with your municipal engineer and your State Hazard Mitigation Officer.

The Roxbury read

A working session and a written read for Roxbury: your unknowns in a ranked order with the evidence per connection, what your system has already filed, the funding route that matches who owns the duty here, and the resident notice drafted from the same list. Paid engagement, scoped in the first call.

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Lead service lines in Morris County

Roxbury, NJ lead service lines: none left to replace 路 PermitGranted