A boil water advisory is now lifted in Lyndhurst following a 12-inch water main break on Tuesday (Jan. 19) in the Valley Brook and Ridge Road area of Lyndhurst.
The water main was fixed and the road reopened on Wednesday (Jan. 20) but the water advisory remained in place until lab tests came back, according to notices from Lyndhurst officials. Those tests came back on Thursday (Jan. 23) sometime after 1 p.m.
Read more: Boil Water Advisory in Lyndhurst
The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that there’s a water main break every two minutes somewhere across the country. Shannon Marquez, professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University School of Public Health in Manhattan, told PBS these issues are so common across the United States because of multiple reasons intersecting simultaneously:
- Aging infrastructure from years of neglect
- Under-financed systems
- Band-Aid decision making
- Lack of comprehensive rehabilitation
In combination with extreme weather events and climate change, “our water systems [are] in jeopardy,” she told John Yang, PBS News Weekend Anchor.