Ridgewood Water is in the final stretch of a yearslong, state-ordered project to strip PFAS "forever chemicals" from the drinking water it supplies to Wyckoff, Ridgewood, Midland Park and Glen Rock. When the project is complete, the utility says, all regulated PFAS compounds in its treated water will be reduced to undetectable levels — a stricter standard than the EPA's drinking water limit of 4 parts per trillion. [7] But its own weekly update says the last of 12 planned treatment plants remains delayed, with no completion date before early 2027.

The utility entered what it calls a voluntary Administrative Consent Order with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection in May 2023 — though it carries a compliance schedule state regulators require the utility to follow — after the Ridgewood Village Council authorized the agreement under Resolution 23-166. [1][2] The order targets all 12 treatment facilities online by the end of 2026, consolidating what had been 31 separate plants into 12 centralized PFAS facilities. [2] That builds on years of earlier work: granular activated carbon filtration at the Carr facility in 2019, and a systemwide master plan completed in 2020 and approved by the Village Council in February 2021. [2]

Ridgewood Water's July 31 weekly update reported seven of the 12 facilities online, with four more on track by the end of 2026 — leaving one outstanding past the consent order's stated target. [3] That final facility, delayed by an NJDEP-required archaeological study, is now expected online in the first quarter of 2027; the update doesn't say which facility it is or why the study was required. [4] Elsewhere in the system, the utility's Ames treatment facility began a partial startup in June, drawing from two of its seven wells, with the rest expected online in the following weeks. [8]

The circumstances match a plant Wyckoff officials described two years ago. In June 2024, Township Committeeman Rudy Boonstra told the Wyckoff Environmental Commission that Ridgewood Water was building a PFAS treatment facility near Cedar Hill, and that the utility had gone door to door notifying nearby residents ahead of construction. [5] By December 2024, the commission was told part of the Cedar Hill site turned out to sit on an archaeological area, which would "temporarily delay the project" — a planned 1,000-square-foot, 34-foot-high treatment building to be screened with landscaping. [6] Ridgewood Water hasn't confirmed that Cedar Hill is the delayed facility, but the evidence points that way: the location, delay reason and timeline all match, and the utility's own construction-update page and its July 16, 2026 NJDEP-mandated quarterly notice both list "Cedar Hill" as an active facility still testing above the state's PFOA limit. [10][13]

That notice — required because the system has been out of compliance with a state health standard for over a year — shows what the delay means in practice. As of the second-quarter 2026 sampling period, 18 points of entry exceeded the state's 14 ppt limit for PFOA (running annual averages up to 36 ppt), and four exceeded the 13 ppt limit for PFOS. [13] The notice says people who drink water above those limits over time face increased health risks — for PFOA, effects on cholesterol, liver, kidney, immune and reproductive function, higher testicular and kidney cancer risk, and developmental effects for a fetus or infant; for PFOS, effects on the immune system, kidney, liver and endocrine system, and developmental effects as well. It advises pregnant women, infants, older adults and people with compromised immune systems to consult a healthcare provider or consider bottled water, and notes boiling does not remove PFOA or PFOS. [13] In the interim, Ridgewood Water says it prioritizes delivery from its lowest-concentration wells, monitors quarterly, and continues issuing this notice periodically as long as the violation continues. [2][13]

There's also a cost that shows up on residents' water bills: since 2021, Ridgewood Water has charged a fixed PFAS surcharge, billed by meter size, to help fund the treatment project — $37.07 per quarter as of mid-2026 for a standard residential 5/8-inch meter, rising to $40.78 for the year's third and fourth quarters. [11][14] That's separate from the utility's regular water-usage rate, which has also risen, from $5.70 per 1,000 gallons in early 2024 to $6.90 by late 2026. [14] Ridgewood Water says the surcharge could be reduced or offset later by grant funding or money it recovers from a lawsuit against PFAS manufacturers, seeking to hold them financially responsible for the cost. [11]

In the same weekly update, Ridgewood Water reported a new well in Wyckoff, the Marr Well, is now online. The name isn't likely to mean much on its own: Marr is one of two wells at what the utility calls the "Ravine/Marr Treatment Facility," which Ridgewood Water told Wyckoff's Board of Health in 2022 sits on Goffle Road, just to the left of the Speedway gas station — a project distinct from the still-delayed Cedar Hill facility, begun in 2023 and targeted for completion in 2024. [11][12] The well is capable of producing more than 500,000 gallons of water a day — about 15 million gallons a month — bringing the utility's total to 53 groundwater wells system-wide. [9]