Newark is investing $23 million to upgrade an aging water treatment facility that was at the center of its lead contamination problem five years ago.

The long-awaited fixes to the Pequannock Water Treatment Plant aim to improve the way the city cleans its water and prevent the type of crisis that thrust Newark into the national spotlight in 2019 when it was forced to distribute bottled water to 14,000 households. The upgrades build on the city’s $190 million investment to replace more than 23,000 lead pipes outside of the facility, running under streets into people’s homes.

“You're going to have another process in place to make the water even purer,” said Kareem Adeem, Newark’s Director of Water and Sewer, after a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday. “Those efficiencies will help manage and run the plant better.”

The Pequannock plant in West Milford pumps water to more than 300,000 customers and opened in 1989. When lead levels first spiked in Newark in 2017, city officials traced the problem to a treatment failure at the facility. A process known as “corrosion control” — which prevented water from becoming too acidic and corroding old lead pipes — was no longer effective. Water pumping into people’s old homes was eating away at old lead pipes.

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