The Lakewood Township Municipal Utilities Authority (MUA) — the public agency that runs the township’s water and sewer systems, paid for by the rates its customers are charged rather than by property taxes — closed on $11,217,383 in 30-year financing for its water-treatment buildings and awarded a $65,407.50 emergency contract over dirty-water complaints on Hanover Way, according to the minutes of its July 7, 2026 regular meeting.
The chief financial officer’s report, given by Donald Sondak, states the authority “closed on our LT Funding” for its GAC buildings — treatment facilities named for granular activated carbon, the filtering material used to strip contaminants out of drinking water. The report lists $8,957,383 at 0% and $2,260,000 through the iBank, the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank, at 5%, for a total of $11,217,383 at an effective rate of 1.01% over 30 years. It then lists “$2M Emerging Contaminants Drinking Water Principal Forgiveness (Fund Loan).” The minutes do not state whether this amount is included in the $11,217,383 total.
According to the same report, two other costs are tied to that borrowing: $92,765 in iBank fees for the 2026 GAC buildings bond closing, and the fourth and final Ocean County Utilities Authority (OCUA) payments of $272,936.92 for 2024 and 2025 overage charges.
Because an MUA is funded by its ratepayers rather than by taxpayers, the $11,217,383 in 30-year debt sits on the bills of Lakewood’s water and sewer customers. The minutes do not state any effect on water or sewer rates.
In the executive director’s report, Justin Flancbaum said the authority would receive another $335,361.45 from a 3M settlement over PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a group of synthetic chemicals), bringing the total received from 3M to $1,505,991.73, with another $500,000 expected over seven years. He said the total received to date from all settlements — DuPont, Tyco, 3M and BASF — would reach $2,001,074.60 after this payment.
The board also adopted Resolution No. 26-50 authorizing a developer’s agreement for the 525 Oberlin Avenue warehouse addition, which the minutes say includes a $26,140.00 fair-share contribution toward sanitary-sewer capacity. On roll call, board member Anne Fish abstained and all other seated members voted “Yes.”
On the water-quality complaints, the engineer’s report states the authority has received intermittent dirty-water complaints on Hanover Way since March 2024, and that on July 1, 2026 the authority engineer issued a memo recommending an emergency contract with Hydrologics, Inc. to determine the causes. The board adopted Resolution No. 26-51 declaring an emergency and Resolution No. 26-52 awarding Hydrologics the $65,407.50 contract to perform Zero Discharge Flushing (ZDF) of Hanover Way and the surrounding area — high-velocity hydrant-to-hydrant flushing that traps the sediment so it can be tested, as Flancbaum described it. Both motions carried on roll call. The minutes do not report a cause for the dirty water. Flancbaum said the work was on the schedule for the end of August, pending the meeting.