10/21/2025
Water Question of the Day:
Why hasn’t Hopewell Borough used the $2.3 million state grant to install treatment systems at our wells?
(long but worth it)
The answer comes down to timing, responsibility, and the full scope of our infrastructure challenges. The Borough secured that grant while already working closely with the NJDEP to address PFAS contamination in Well #4. Around that same time, we entered the WIPA process to explore selling the water system as one possible long-term solution.
No funds can be disbursed, nor can the Borough proceed with the project, until NJDEP has issued a grant agreement. In February of this year, the NJDEP advised that they were working on an “administering system to start the grant agreement…”, but so far, we have not received it. Given that the grant would be unnecessary if the system were sold to NJAW, it would make sense for the NJDEP to wait until after the referendum before issuing a grant agreement.
Additionally, under a 1992 presidential executive order, if a public entity uses federal grant money for infrastructure that it later sells to a private-sector entity, the grant must be repaid to the federal government on an amortized basis at the time of the sale. In other words, if the Borough used the $2.34 million to install treatment at the wells now but then sells our water system, we could owe the federal government roughly that same amount back. There is no guarantee that NJAW will want to continue operating our wells, given that the new treatment systems would be expensive to operate and the wells would add less than 0.2% to their existing local water production. If we can’t recoup the costs of the treatment systems from the proceeds of the sale, we will have spent millions, only to have to repay the federal government out of our own pockets.
And the wells are only part of the challenge. In addition to the federally funded treatment systems, we need an estimated $10.8 million in critical infrastructure replacements within the next 10 years (e.g., aging water mains, hydrants, valves, water storage tank, and lead service lines) for which we currently have no grants. Spending the federal grant money on water treatment now would not fix any of these other problems, but would risk adding repayment obligations that could harm our taxpayers.
In short, the fact that the NJDEP has not yet issued a grant agreement has benefited us by allowing us to follow a fiscally responsible path while we await the outcome of the referendum. It preserved our eligibility for federal assistance while protecting Hopewell residents from unnecessary financial exposure until the community decides the system’s future path.
