Elizabeth, New Jersey, is the fourth-largest city in the state, home to roughly 137,000 people. It’s also located in one of the most industrially concentrated areas in the United States — the New Jersey chemical corridor that runs along the Arthur Kill, Newark Bay, and the New Jersey Turnpike.
Refineries, chemical plants, port facilities, and waste sites surround the city. The contamination from over a century of heavy industry doesn’t stop at property lines, and it has direct implications for the water residents drink and the ground beneath their homes.
The Chemical Corridor
Elizabeth and the surrounding Union County/Essex County area host some of the densest industrial activity on the East Coast:
- Chemical manufacturing — Companies including BASF, Merck, and numerous smaller operations have manufactured chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and specialty products in the area for decades.
- Petroleum refining — The Phillips 66 Bayway Refinery (formerly Exxon) sits on the Elizabeth/Linden border, processing hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil daily.
- Port operations — The Port of Elizabeth is one of the busiest container ports in the nation, with associated fuel storage, truck traffic, and industrial support operations.
- Waste handling — Multiple former and active waste disposal sites in the area accepted industrial and municipal waste.
This concentration of industry has left its mark on every environmental medium — air, soil, groundwater, and surface water.
Superfund and Contaminated Sites
Elizabeth and its immediate surroundings contain multiple sites on the EPA’s National Priorities List:
- Chemical Control Corporation — A former chemical waste storage facility on the Elizabeth waterfront that caught fire in 1980, sending a toxic plume over the city. The site contained tens of thousands of drums of hazardous waste. Cleanup and monitoring have been ongoing for decades.
- Standard Chlorine Chemical Company — Located in neighboring Kearny but part of the regional contamination picture. Manufactured chlorinated chemicals for decades, leaving soil and groundwater contaminated with chlorinated VOCs.
- Diamond Head Oil Refinery — Contaminated soil and groundwater with petroleum compounds on the Elizabeth waterfront.
Beyond Superfund sites, New Jersey’s Site Remediation Program oversees hundreds of additional contaminated properties in Union County, ranging from former gas stations and dry cleaners to manufacturing facilities and illegal dump sites.
Current Drinking Water Quality
Elizabeth receives its water from the Elizabethtown Water Company (a subsidiary of American Water), which draws from the Raritan River system and treats it at the Raritan-Millstone Water Treatment Plant in Bridgewater, about 30 miles west of the city.
The distance between the treatment plant and the industrial corridor is good news — the source water comes from a different watershed than the one surrounding Elizabeth. The treatment plant uses conventional plus advanced treatment processes.
Water quality highlights:
- The system meets all EPA primary drinking water standards.
- PFAS — New Jersey has been a national leader on PFAS regulation. The state set MCLs of 14 ppt for PFOA, 13 ppt for PFOS, and 13 ppt for PFNA — among the strictest in the country, established before the federal standards. Elizabethtown Water has been testing and reporting PFAS levels for years.
- Disinfection byproducts — Present at detectable levels within EPA limits.
- 1,2,3-Trichloropropane (1,2,3-TCP) — New Jersey set an MCL for this industrial solvent, which has been found in some NJ water systems. The Raritan watershed’s proximity to agricultural and industrial land makes this contaminant worth monitoring.
- Lead and copper — The system monitors under the Lead and Copper Rule, and Elizabeth’s older housing stock means lead at the tap is a significant concern.
Lead: Elizabeth’s Housing Challenge
Elizabeth’s housing stock tells the story. Much of the city was built in the late 1800s and early 1900s during the industrial boom. Thousands of homes predate the 1986 ban on lead in plumbing materials.
Lead service lines — the pipes connecting water mains in the street to individual homes — are common in older neighborhoods. New Jersey passed a law in 2021 requiring water utilities to replace all lead service lines statewide, with American Water committing to an accelerated replacement schedule.
Until your lead service line is replaced (if you have one), the risk of lead leaching into your drinking water is real. This is especially concerning for:
- Children under 6, who are most vulnerable to lead’s neurodevelopmental effects.
- Pregnant women.
- Anyone in an older home who hasn’t verified their service line material.
Environmental Justice in Elizabeth
Elizabeth is a designated environmental justice community under New Jersey law. The city is predominantly minority (roughly 70% Hispanic/Latino) with a median household income below the state average.
Environmental justice communities bear disproportionate environmental burdens. In Elizabeth’s case, that means:
- Living adjacent to major industrial facilities and transportation corridors.
- Higher exposure to air pollution from refineries, port operations, and truck traffic.
- Greater likelihood of living in older housing with lead hazards.
- More contaminated sites in the immediate vicinity.
New Jersey’s environmental justice law, enacted in 2020, requires facilities seeking new permits or permit renewals to evaluate the cumulative environmental and public health impacts on overburdened communities. This law is among the strongest in the nation, but its impact on water quality specifically depends on continued enforcement and implementation.
What Residents Can Do
- Find out if you have a lead service line. Contact American Water/Elizabethtown Water for information about your service line material and the replacement schedule.
- Test for lead at the tap. Don’t wait for the utility to get to your home. Contact the Union County Health Department or American Water for testing options.
- Use a certified water filter for lead. NSF/ANSI 53 certified filters reduce lead effectively. Pitcher filters are the most affordable option.
- Run cold water before drinking if it’s been sitting in pipes for several hours.
- Review PFAS data in your annual water quality report. New Jersey requires utilities to report PFAS levels that other states don’t yet track.
- For broader protection, consider a reverse osmosis system certified to NSF/ANSI 58, which removes PFAS, lead, VOCs, and most other contaminants.
The Bottom Line
Elizabeth’s treated water comes from a relatively clean source watershed, and the utility meets regulatory standards. But the distribution system — specifically the lead service lines in older neighborhoods — represents a direct contamination pathway that treatment can’t fix. Only pipe replacement solves that problem.
The broader environmental picture — Superfund sites, industrial air emissions, contaminated brownfields — makes Elizabeth a place where paying attention to what’s in your water isn’t paranoia. It’s informed citizenship.
If you’re concerned about your water quality, a certified water treatment professional can test your water and advise on solutions tailored to your specific situation.
Sources: EPA Superfund Site Profiles (Chemical Control Corp), New Jersey DEP Site Remediation Program, American Water/Elizabethtown Water Consumer Confidence Reports, New Jersey PFAS MCLs, NJ Lead Service Line Replacement Law (2021), NJ Environmental Justice Law (2020), Union County Health Department.