At the very end of August, I noticed cloudy water. My first thought was there must be some maintenance going on, so I checked NJ American Water’s “alert” web page and there were no alerts for Mt. Holly. There was something going on in Columbus, but nothing nearby. I took the aerator off the faucet. Nope, the water is still cloudy, so its not the aerator. Then I noticed it in the toilet immediately after the flush: there were enough bubbles to make the water temporarily cloudy and then leave a film of bubbles on the surface. I waited about 4 days and it was still in the water, so I called NJ American Water and the person who answered had a range of stories to tell, from “its normal” to there IS work going on that is not listed in the web page alerts, to its the change of weather.
I made a Facebook post showing the water and asking for people to chime in about the appearance of their water. I received 5 replies that the same thing was happening in other homes. I mapped the those locations as black points in the map below. One of them was in Eastampton.
With the water issue ongoing, I was convinced that NJ American Water did not take it seriously and that the NJDEP should receive a report. I filled out the “Water Quality Complaint Form” and after few days I received a call from a staffer who said that the Bureau of Safe Drinking water would investigate.
Then on September 19, 2025, the water suddenly cleared up. While this is a relief, I am still wondering what happened to the water quality served up to Mt. Holly during that 3 week period.
On September 22nd, I received an email from the NJDEP which says,
“The Bureau of Safe Drinking Water (Bureau) has received your customer complaint form that was submitted for your concerns with the bubbles within your drinking water and the taste. The Bureau has reached out to New Jersey American Water Mt. Holly on your behalf to ensure that your concerns are further investigated. Further correspondence will be provided upon receiving the investigation results from your water system.”
I am curious to see if the NJDEP gets answers like “it was the weather” or “its normal” from NJ American. The Reporter will follow up on this story when the NJDEP provides the promised correspondence.