Residents of a Mill Street Condo appeared at Monday nights council meeting to discuss ongoing issues with what say are water safety issues.

The residents appeared before council during the public comment section of the meeting, with exhibits, a water analysis, water filters, and bottles of water, with a brown tinting.

The five residents of the luxury homes off the river said they have been having water issues for sometime now, going as far back as 2018. They expressed displeasure with the progress made by the Borough’s water company Aqua.

“The issue is that the water at the Mill Wharf Condominiums is known to be substandard,” said Brian Wade.

We’ve been trying to work with Aqua since last year and they had committed to flush the lines weekly, but they haven’t been doing that, the residents said.

Water filters from condo owners Mimi Olson’s home and were shown  and presented as a stark contrast to each other, as they sat there on the speakers podium.

“You’re supposed to only use two a year,” she said. “So far, we’re using four or five and they’re not cheap.”

The home owners said Aqua had come out in February to perform water testing and the group sent their own samples to private company specializing in water testing. The reports from both entities were provided to the borough, by the concerned citizens.

According to the residents the tests showed high concentrations of iron, copper, lead, which exceeds EPA guidelines and regulations  for safe water.

Wade acing as he lead spokesperson for the group said it was the groups understanding Aqua would be replacing two water lines in 2022 and they hoped the work would take place sooner, rather than later.

On Tuesday a Spokesperson for Essential Utilities which operates Aqua responded to a request for comment from the Lower Bucks Source and they said the following:

We’ve responded to all calls that have come in to date. In response, we have done the following:

• We have taken various samples from the main in the street and at residents homes. We dropped off bottles this morning to do additional sampling at residents homes and we also flushed and took samples today. Additional sampling has been offered to show a true representation of our water. The samples that were sent to the other lab were taken right after bypassing the filter, which could have affected the samples, and the samples were not taken following EPA protocol. We saw results with just elevated levels of iron and not elevations in copper or lead.
• We have done flushing. We’ve been doing weekly flushing for a few months now except for times when temperatures were below freezing. We flushed today with samples.
• We shared with residents that the work to replace the water main would be done by the end of the summer, but we were asked to move this up. We will be starting this asap and will be done by end of next week. As soon as this project is complete, we will sample again to make sure this issue is gone.

Council President Ralph DiGuiseppe  said he became aware of the water issue about two weeks ago when a resident called him to report brown water at the luxury town homes overlooking the Delaware River.

Aqua called us last week, letting us know they needed to clean a water main that runs from Mill and Cedar Streets to the top of the hill, he said.

“We told them to get the project started because we need to pave the parking lot” he said.

Aqua started work Monday on replacing two lines, that feed into the condos DiGuiseppe  said at the “top of the hill” on Mill St.

Will the work being done correct brown the water problem, I don’t know know,  he said rhetorically.

I don’ think they would be replacing a main if they didn’t think it would fix the issue, the council president said.

The group said a Aqua water specialist is coming out to meet with them to collect new water sample for additional  analysis, which the company confirmed.

The borough plans on speaking with Aqua officials for an update as the water main and line work begins. .

Borough officials noted Aqua is  a separate entity from the borough, but residents should contact manager Jim Dillion with any concerns.

Of note, Aqua last month was named one of America’s most responsible companies by Newsweek across four scales of measurement. 

“And, to be additionally helpful, we are delivering bottled water to the residents,” said the company spokesperson.

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