Salem City's water system now runs through a brand-new $21.3 million filtration plant built to strip out PFAS, the so-called forever chemicals that had put the city out of compliance with state drinking water standards. New Jersey American Water and city officials marked the completion of the project this week, capping an 18-month buildout that began with a groundbreaking in spring 2025.
The new system uses granular activated carbon technology spread across six treatment vessels arranged in three separate trains, according to New Jersey American Water. It can treat up to 2 million gallons of water per day, serving not just the city of Salem but portions of Quinton, Elsinboro and Mannington townships. ROI-NJ reported that the project also folded in a new treatment building, a backwash equalization tank, and fire protection and security upgrades at the Salem Water Treatment Plant.
A Water System That Wasn't Meeting the Standard
The urgency behind the project traces back to problems New Jersey American Water inherited when it acquired Salem's water and wastewater systems in June 2024. At that point, the company says, the system was not meeting applicable drinking water regulations for PFAS. The company responded by fast-tracking design and construction of a permanent treatment solution while also tackling broader plant improvements, per the same amwater.com release.
That noncompliance had roots in a specific violation years earlier. The City of Salem Water System violated a New Jersey drinking water standard for PFNA in the third quarter of 2022, according to a company notice posted on amwater.com. In the meantime, New Jersey American Water installed and permitted temporary treatment for PFAS at Well No. 2, and by April 2025 told customers that the water being provided met state and federal water quality standards even as the permanent system was still under construction, the same notice states.
Officials Celebrate a Years-Long Fix
Mark McDonough, president of New Jersey American Water and senior vice president of American Water, said the project delivered on the company's commitment to Salem. “The company recognized the urgency of Salem's water-quality needs and the investment needed for a permanent solution,” McDonough said, according to the newsroom.amwater.com announcement. He added that investment in Salem's infrastructure, people and partnerships will continue.
Salem Mayor Jody Veler framed the completed project as the fulfillment of expectations set when the city sold its water system. Veler said the city entrusted an essential part of its community infrastructure to New Jersey American Water, and that the sale carried expectations of responsible stewardship, continued investment and a partner who understood Salem. The mayor called the company a strong community partner and said the new PFAS filtration system exemplified that partnership, adding that the investment helps residents gain confidence in their daily water.
More Than Just a Filter Upgrade
The project went well beyond PFAS removal. Crews improved source-water wells, treatment controls and monitoring systems, and replaced aging pumps, piping, membrane treatment units and chemical-feed equipment. Completed improvements also included upgrades to the Salem wastewater treatment plant and pump stations, customer-meter replacements, and rehabilitation of the city's water tank, along with broader facility modernization meant to improve operational efficiency, safety and security.
New Jersey American Water broke ground on the project in spring 2025, placed the new PFAS treatment into service in November 2025, and finished the treatment system's final housing facility in summer 2026. The company says it brought the new treatment online on an accelerated timeline given the circumstances.
A Bigger Investment Still to Come
New Jersey American Water says it has poured more than $28 million into Salem's water and wastewater infrastructure during its first two years of ownership, and plans to invest another $48 million over the next five years to further modernize the systems and strengthen service reliability. The company points to nearly two decades of experience researching emerging contaminants and designing groundwater and surface-water treatment systems, saying it has worked with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection on PFAS since 2007 and began implementing treatment to remove certain PFAS compounds as early as 2012.
New Jersey set a maximum contaminant level for PFNA at 13 parts per trillion in 2018, followed by limits on PFOA at 14 parts per trillion and PFOS at 13 parts per trillion in 2020, according to information published on amwater.com. Salem is not the only New Jersey water system to have run up against those limits — Burlington Township's Beverly Road Water Treatment Plant exceeded the state's 14 ng/L PFOA threshold in March 2021, according to T&M Associates, which designed that township's ion-exchange treatment system as a separate fix for the same class of contaminants.
