About Jersey Water Works

Jersey Water Works is a collaborative effort of many diverse organizations and individuals who embrace the common purpose of transforming New Jersey’s inadequate water infrastructure by investing in sustainable, cost-effective solutions that provide communities with clean water and waterways; healthier, safer neighborhoods; local jobs; flood and climate resilience; and economic growth. New Jersey Future serves as a backbone organization for the JWW collaborative. Interested in helping to transform New Jersey's water infrastructure? You can join JWW here.

About Jersey WaterCheck

Overview

Water and wastewater infrastructure are essential to the health and wellbeing of our communities. Jersey WaterCheck, an initiative of Jersey Water Works, brings together information on water and wastewater systems from multiple sources in one easy-to-use website. This online resource connects New Jerseyans to New Jersey water systems and helps to depict the story of New Jersey’s water. Jersey WaterCheck is an online measurement system that strategically monitors key facets of improving water infrastructure in New Jersey.

Frequently Asked Questions about Jersey WaterCheck

Jersey WaterCheck is for You

  • Utilities can demonstrate progress, showcase public health commitment to their communities, and facilitate learning best practices with peers.
  • Consumers will better understand local water and sewer systems, the role they play in community public health, and ways to become a water advocate.
  • All of us can better identify, address, and discuss our state’s significant water infrastructure needs.

History

Jersey Water Check was created by Jersey Water Works (JWW), a collaborative effort of many diverse organizations and individuals who embrace the common goal of transforming New Jersey’s inadequate water infrastructure by investing in sustainable, cost-effective solutions that provide communities with clean water and waterways; healthier, safer neighborhoods; local jobs; flood and climate resilience; and economic growth. New Jersey Future serves as a backbone organization for the JWW collaborative. Interested in helping to transform New Jersey's water infrastructure? Join JWW today!

Jersey Water Works first conceived of the idea of a data dashboard in 2016, as the collaborative worked to identify how to create a call to action for water infrastructure stakeholders. By supporting continuous learning and informing strategic interventions, Jersey WaterCheck will accelerate the improvement of water infrastructure across the state.

Collaboration

Jersey WaterCheck was created by a collaborative process that included input from a data advisory committee, a utility coalition, utility associations, consumer focus group, and Jersey Water Works committee members. Jersey Water Works backbone staff at New Jersey Future managed the project with the support of consultants.

The JWW data advisory committee provided ongoing guidance to this project since its inception based on their varied perspectives. Founding members of this committee include:

  • G. Christian Andreasen, Jr., P.E., Middlesex Water Company
  • Monique Girona, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
  • Wynnie-Fred Victor Hinds, Newark Environmental Commission, Clean Water Action
  • Sarah Neiderer, Moonshot Missions
  • Daniel J. Van Abs Ph.D., PP/FAICP, Rutgers University, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences
  • Kevin Whitney, Atlantic County Utilities Authority

In 2021, the Data Advisory Committee was expanded to include more members. Learn more about the current data advisory committee members here.

Consultant Raftelis provided industry expertise and helped create the dashboard. Consultant Glenn Barnes, Water Finance Assistance provided expertise in water finance and dashboard metrics.

A coalition of select utility members played a vital role in user testing and providing feedback on metric descriptions during the dashboard creation.

To ensure the dashboard reflected the needs of different stakeholders, the Data Advisory Committee and project team consulted with JWW working committees and utility associations and conducted a consumer focus group to capture consumer insights.

Jersey WaterCheck would not have happened without the utilities and local governments that provided survey data.

Jersey WaterCheck is made possible by generous financial support from Spring Point Partners, LLC.

Understanding How the Water Sector is Organized

The water sector in New Jersey is large and complex. This document can provide you some background context on how the sector is organized overall, as well as explanations of key water sector terms and context for types of water systems included in Jersey WaterCheck’s data.

Understanding Jersey WaterCheck Information

Jersey WaterCheck has a range of metrics that enable users to better understand their drinking water and wastewater systems. Each metric has a description that explains the information being shown and things to keep in mind when reading it.

From the home page of Jersey WaterCheck, you can go to Jersey Water Works Shared Goals, as well as the Benchmark Hub page. Metrics in both these pages are categorized according to Jersey Water Works goals and subgoals.

From the home page of Jersey WaterCheck, you can learn more about an individual system using the System Finder. On a particular system page, metrics are displayed on cards that are organized based on “Communication Categories,” which were created specifically for this dashboard.

You can learn more about terms used in Jersey WaterCheck here. You can learn more details about the metrics here and you can get a more detailed background about the data sources and methodology for each metric here.

  • Learn more about Jersey WaterCheck terms.
  • Learn more about Jersey WaterCheck metrics.
  • Learn more about Jersey WaterCheck data sources and methodology.

Data Sources

Jersey WaterCheck is based on several types of data, including:

  • Publicly available data provided by government agencies, such as New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and Delaware River Basin Commission.
  • Self-reported survey data from utilities and municipalities.
  • Data gathered from utility websites, and a statewide public opinion survey.

Every effort was made to ensure that the information displayed is based on data provided by the data sources. All utilities whose information is shown on Jersey WaterCheck were provided an opportunity to review their information. Jersey Water Works and New Jersey Future assume no liability for inaccurate data, use, or misuse of information contained in this dashboard.