The Newark Municipal Council on Dec. 18 adopted an ordinance to add filtration capacity at the Pequannock water treatment plant and authorized related expenses after extended public comment about water quality, lead service-line work and contractor oversight.

Residents and advocates raised multiple concerns: continuing reports of discolored or “dirty” tap water in some homes after lead-line work, allegations of faulty or fraudulent service-line replacements in prior contracts, and requests for more frequent public water-quality reporting and transparency on remediation work. Multiple speakers demanded immediate, publicly posted raw-data test results and questioned whether recent capital spending has fixed problems in all neighborhoods.

Administration reply: Kareem Adeem, director of the Department of Water and Sewer Utilities, said Newark publishes an annual water-quality report each June and that the department posts testing results and daily monitoring data via NJDEP portals. Adeem described multi-year investment in the city’s water infrastructure and said the administration has used federal and state grants and New Jersey Infrastructure Bank financing to replace lead service lines and invest in human capital at the utility. He told the council the additional filters are large, plant-scale units that will increase plant capacity and robustness.

Vote: Council roll call adopted the ordinance authorizing the filters; the administration said the supplemental filters are large-scale, engineered treatment units and that filter construction will proceed under professional oversight.

What to watch: Commenters pressed for a clearer public schedule of tests and an accounting of contractors involved in previous lead-service-line replacements; councilmembers asked for documents and for the department to post timely test results.

Ending: The department said it will continue testing and publishing results, and councilmembers requested future briefings so the public can track implementation milestones and contractor performance.