NEW JERSEY — The City of Hoboken intends to sue utility PSE&G and a contractor over a crippling water main break that knocked out service for virtually the entire week, forcing a hospital evacuation and causing “substantial hardship” to the community.
Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla thanked residents for their patience in an email update on Friday, saying the city has sent notice to PSE&G that it intends to collect damages incurred as a result of the alleged “negligence apparent” of the utility company in carrying out underground construction work.
Bhalla said the Hoboken legal department has instructed the utility to retain all documents and evidence related to its construction work. He also said that PSE&G construction on the gas line improvements has been suspended until city engineers have reviewed the plans and deemed them appropriate, and additional safeguards have been put in place.
“To say that the past week has been challenging for our community is a gross understatement,” Bhalla’s email read. “I remain extremely disappointed that we were put in this situation to begin with, due to circumstances beyond our control, which caused our city substantial hardship. We intend to hold PSE&G accountable for their actions.”
The problem began around noon Monday when a PSE&G contractor accidentally struck the water main while working on an unrelated gas pipeline project.
Veolia, the company that provides Hoboken’s water, said the force of the rupture penetrated two mains or interconnections of pipes. The water was mainly restored overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, with Veolia saying the water was safe to drink, but then the state environmental department issued a boil water notice anyway.
That was also problematic, Bhalla said.
“My administration is also working to gather all relevant facts and information regarding Veolia, as we intend to simultaneously hold them accountable for their very clear failure to ask for a boil water notice in time, which also had a detrimental effect. on our residents,” I read Bhalla’s email. “This major shortcoming should not be confused with the tireless work of Veolia’s on-site crews, who did an admirable job working around the clock to isolate the broken water pipe as quickly as possible.”
“As we move forward, we will continue to work diligently to review any and all protocols with our utilities to help mitigate the chances of unnecessary infrastructure failures due to human error reoccurring,” he continued. .
Neither PSE&G nor Veolia could immediately be reached for updated comment on Friday afternoon.
Yolanda Vásquez with the details from New Jersey.
