18 Water Main Breaks Flood Hoboken, Pitting Mayor Against Water Company

HOBOKEN, N.J. — This city has been plagued by flooding for decades. A simple heavy rain used to fill low-lying streets with water, forcing drivers to move their cars to higher ground and residents to leave rubber boots next to their welcome mats outside most doors.

But this summer, a new water problem has caused the city streets to flood. And it bubbles up from the ground.

“We’ve had a rash of 17 water main breaks within a 64-day period, which I would characterize as an infrastructure crisis,” Mayor Ravinder Bhalla said Wednesday. A knock on the door interrupted his explanation of the multiple breaks, and an aide stepped into the room at the mayor’s office.

“Hudson and Observer,” he said.

The mayor repeated the words aloud, momentarily searching for a connection. “Wait, another one?”

The count since June was now 18. In fact, there has been a break every day for the past five days.

A major burst occurred Wednesday morning at Hudson Place and Hudson Street, flooding one of the busiest intersections in the city, forcing popular bars to close early and sending water cascading down into the busy Hoboken PATH station.

The chronic problem has pitted the mayor against SUEZ Water, the company that has managed Hoboken’s water since 1994.

Officials at SUEZ say the problem is the age of the system. Much of the water infrastructure in this square-mile city predates World War I.

According to Richard Henning, a spokesman for SUEZ, the problem in Hoboken is one that many cities and towns across the country have: a lack of attention, maintenance and investment for decades in the water system.

But Bhalla isn’t buying it. Instead, he pointed to the construction of a “chamber” in nearby Jersey City by SUEZ that houses two water meters that are designed to calibrate how much water the city is using.

The city of Hoboken filed a lawsuit against SUEZ that said the construction of the chamber was the main cause of the water main breaks and that SUEZ needed to turn over all of its internal documents related to Hoboken’s water infrastructure.

“This has now become a regional issue,” Bhalla said. He pointed to the proximity of Wednesday’s break to the PATH terminal. “That train station is the most important mass transit hub for the state and one of the most important mass transit hubs in the country.”

While water never made it on to the tracks, a couple of inches did flood the PATH station. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the PATH trains, brought sandbags to the station, and left them lined up “as a precautionary measure,” in case another break happens, according to Cheryl Albiez, a spokeswoman for the Port Authority.

The mayor also blamed the city’s contract with SUEZ, a 30-year contract that the company signed in 1994 that required little to no investment on the part of SUEZ into the Hoboken system. It wasn’t until the previous mayor, Dawn Zimmer, began investing in new water infrastructure that any major upgrades were made in the past few decades. Combined, Bhalla and Zimmer have made $17.2 million in investments in the water infrastructure.

Bhalla said that in September, when the City Council reconvenes, they will put their water contract out for a new round of bidding.

The water company said that it is not its job to invest in the system, based on the current contract, and denied that the water meter construction had any effect on Hoboken.

“Our contract calls for us to run the system,” said Richard Henning, a spokesman for SUEZ. “It does not call for us to make investments into the system.”

Around Hoboken, most residents were not affected by the break on Wednesday, but businesses were not so lucky. On Wednesday morning, Gary Berger, the owner and director of Hoboken Radiology, was taping pieces of paper saying “Hoboken Radiology is open” to an orange fence cordoning off the block where the main was being repaired.

“I am concerned about the patients coming in and being able to take care of our patients,” he said. “That’s a big issue.”

Some kept a sense of humor about it.

“What I recommend you do is you tent up here, put a tent up, stay till tomorrow and you’ll have another one break,” said Vito Petruzzella, who works at Premier Foot and Ankle Specialists.

By Wednesday afternoon, health inspectors had shut off the water on the entire block near the train station, keeping the bars closed.

“I make my living based off of tips, so if I can’t work, I can’t make money,” said Devon Dafonseca, a bartender at Texas Arizona. “It’s tough.”

Next door, another potential crisis was brewing. The Dunkin’ Donuts was open, yes, and chock full of doughnuts.

But it couldn’t make coffee.

“Nothing, nobody comes in,” said Shermi Patel, the manager who has worked there since 2005. “No coffee.”