CARRYING OUT OUR ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITMENT

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New Jersey American Water provides clean, safe, reliable water and wastewater services for approximately 2.9 million people in over 190 communities in 18 counties. Our operations are driven by our commitment to responsibility, safety and environmental stewardship — from source to tap and back again.

We know that our role as the state’s largest and leading water service provider comes with a special responsibility to safeguard our natural resources. The investments we make across our service areas help ensure that our service continues to meet state and federal standards. Each year, we also take important steps beyond upgrading our infrastructure to invest in the communities we serve, supporting sourcewater protection and conservation initiatives, as well as innovative sustainability efforts that support our environment for decades to come.

Learn more about the many ways we take our responsibility as stewards seriously:

New Jersey American Water is helping to protect the environment in the communities we serve and supporting the efforts of local organizations who share in our vision.

Source Water Protection Program: Collaborative efforts to protect sources of water used as drinking water supplies are an important part of maintaining high quality water, and we are working to further these efforts in the communities we serve. Read more about our source water protection planning, monitoring, and community outreach.

Water & The Environment Grant Program: Offers funding for innovative, community-based environmental projects that improve, restore or protect the watersheds, surface water and groundwater supplies in our local communities. Learn more about our grant program or explore previous news coverage below to learn more.

Community Involvement: Our community involvement draws on the unique talents of our employees as well as the resources of our business. Through community giving, in-kind donations, and volunteering, we demonstrate our commitment to programs that help protect our environment. Learn more about these programs.

Community Partnerships: As a company, we work with a number of community-based partners throughout our service areas to positively impact the overall quality of life where our employees and neighbors live and work. We are proud members and supporters of many environmental organizations in the state including (but not limited to):

New Jersey American Water makes significant investments as part of our commitment to being responsible environmental stewards:

Sustainability Goals: New Jersey American Water works to help meet the following key sustainability goals established by American Water:

  • Reduce absolute scope 1 and 2 emissions by 50% by 2035 from a 2020 baseline. Achieve net zero absolute scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2050.
  • By 2035, meet customer needs while saving 15% in water delivered per customer compared to a 2015 baseline.
  • By 2030, increase water system resiliency to respond to more extreme events by increasing Utility Resilience Index (URI) weighted average by 10% from 2020 baseline.
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Technology & Innovation: New Jersey American Water continues to invest in industry-leading research and development to enhance our services and meet sustainability goals. This includes investing in areas such as:

    • Renewable Energy: With solar installations at four of our surface water treatment facilities and two of our groundwater treatment facilities, we produce approximately 20 million kWh of solar energy annually (weather dependent), reducing our CO2 emissions by approximately 7,000 to 9,000 metric tons annually. Learn more about how we’re investing in our solar portfolio.
    • Reducing Water Loss: New Jersey American Water leverages innovative technologies to detect and fix leaks before they become large breaks. Based on five years of data, we estimate that the leak detection technology we’ve deployed has allowed us to prevent approximately 6.4 billion gallons of water from being treated, pumped and then leaked out into the environment each day. Learn more about the Water Loss Management Program.

Meeting and Surpassing Regulatory Standards: Our team consists of the industry’s leading researchers, scientists, water quality specialists and plant operators, all committed to delivering high-quality water service to your tap. Learn more about our commitment to water quality.

See How We’re Doing in Your Community: Every year, New Jersey American Water produces a Water Quality Report to notify customers on how our water quality stacks up against established federal and state drinking water standards, including data from water quality testing conducted for each community’s water system. Visit our Water Quality Reports page and enter your zip code to see your report.

Investing in our Infrastructure: New Jersey American Water spends approximately $500 million annually on water and wastewater system improvements at its treatment facilities, in its distribution systems, in technology advancements and more. These investments help to improve water quality, service reliability and fire protection for the communities we serve. Learn more about our 2023 investment programs.

Helping to Conserve Water: Every Drop Counts
New Jersey American Water is dedicated to helping our customers understand what they can do to conserve water to ensure it’s available for future generations. Learn how you can be water wise and check out these helpful tips in our water conservation infographic.

Leak Detection Program
Even the smallest leak can lead to the loss of thousands of gallons of water – and increase your water bill! The faster you can detect a leak, the faster it can be fixed, saving you water and money. Learn how you can identify leaks early and prevent unnecessary water loss.

Watershed Protection
We all live in a watershed. What we all do to the land makes a difference in the quality of water in our rivers and streams. Because of this, and because our work brings us into daily contact with local water resources and watersheds, we spend a lot of our time and efforts protecting our water resources. Learn more about protecting our natural resources.

Lead Service Line Replacement Program
In 2021, the state of New Jersey enacted a law that requires all water providers to share with customers the material of the utility-owned and customer-owned service lines that lead to their property, notify customers with service lines that are lead or galvanized steel, and replace them by 2031. Learn more about our critical lead service line replacement efforts.

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS)
PFAS are manufactured chemicals historically used in many household products including nonstick cookware (e.g., Teflon™), stain repellants (e.g., Scotchgard™), and waterproofing (e.g., GORE-TEX™). They are or were also used in industrial applications such as in firefighting foams and electronics production.

On April 10, 2024, the U.S. EPA announced its final drinking water regulations for six PFAS, and also established health advisories for PFOA, PFOS, PFBS, and HFPO-DA. New Jersey American Water is well positioned to stay at the forefront of PFAS regulatory and monitoring strategies, building on our proactive capital planning, engineering upgrades and advanced water quality treatment capabilities, and we will be prepared to meet these new guidelines. Read more about PFAS and your water here.

Water Learning Center
Our Water Learning Center provides in depth information about how water makes its way to your tap as well as helpful tips to protect our water supply.

Water Quality FAQs
From time to time, our customers have questions related to their water service. Visit our FAQ page for some of the most frequently asked water quality questions and answers.

Water Quality Reports
We take great pride in what we do and hold ourselves to high standards in delivering safe, reliable drinking water service to our customers. We provide Water Quality Reports — also called Consumer Confidence Reports — to our customers annually. See your Water Quality Report here.