Water filter service in Lakewood, NJ

What is in the water in Lakewood

Lakewood is served by Lakewood Township Municipal Utilities Authority .

Source water: Twelve wells drawing on the Cohansey, Englishtown and Potomac Raritan Magothy aquifers, serving the eastern portion of the township across roughly 11 square miles, supplemented by water purchased from New Jersey American Water. The purchased side has changed: the 2018 report named Brick Township as the supplier, drawing on wells and the Metedeconk River. Three aquifers and a purchased supply in one small system means water chemistry differs measurably between neighbourhoods. Reported by Lakewood Township Municipal Utilities Authority for 2024.

Well water is treated at one of two plants, on New Hampshire Avenue and on Shorrock Street, before it enters the distribution system. Which plant serves your address determines what has already been removed before the water reaches the house, and it is the first thing to establish before paying for whole house treatment. The authority also reports that the purchased New Jersey American Water supply slightly exceeded the secondary recommended upper limit for iron. That is an aesthetic standard covering taste and staining rather than a health limit, but it is the usual explanation for rust coloured marks on fixtures and laundry, and it is addressed by an iron filter rather than by a carbon cartridge.

These figures describe the distribution system. Your own tap can differ, and for lead it very likely does.

We do not yet hold a sourced figure for every field on this page. Where something is missing it is left blank rather than estimated, because an unsourced number here would look like information.

Buildings and plumbing in Lakewood

Lakewood is the fastest growing municipality in New Jersey and now its fourth largest, rising from 135,123 residents in 2020 to 141,985 by mid 2024, having passed Elizabeth. The growth is driven by births rather than migration, and more than half the township is under 18 against a state figure near a fifth. Two things follow for water treatment. Most of the housing postdates the 1986 federal ban on lead solder and lead pipe, so the lead risk that dominates older New Jersey cities is comparatively small here and the money is better spent elsewhere. And household sizes are large, which means peak demand at a single tap is high: undersized equipment that would pass unnoticed in a two person house shows up here as pressure drop at the worst moment, so flow rate deserves more weight than it usually gets in sizing.

PFAS in Lakewood

The authority carried out fifth round Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule sampling during 2023 and 2024, covering 29 PFAS compounds plus lithium, and lists only the compounds actually detected. That programme is the reason recent figures exist for this system at all, since most of those compounds carry no routine monitoring requirement. Read the detected list in the current report before deciding whether reverse osmosis certified to NSF/ANSI 58 is warranted, because the answer here depends on which compounds appeared rather than on the state standard alone.

Source: Lakewood Township Municipal Utilities Authority, 2024. More on confirming and treating this on our PFAS page.

What this means in practice

• Chlorine and chloramine taste. Confirm with free and total chlorine test strip, plus the utility report for the disinfectant type.
• PFAS. Confirm with certified laboratory analysis using an epa-approved pfas method.

Filters that apply here

• PFAS reduction systems. Reverse osmosis or a certified activated carbon system aimed at per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.
• Under-sink carbon filters. A carbon block cartridge on the cold line under the sink.
• Reverse osmosis, tank. A membrane system under the sink that produces treated water to a dedicated tap and stores it in a small pressure tank.
• Whole-house filtration. A filter plumbed into the main line where water enters the building, so every tap, shower, and appliance downstream is fed treated water.
• Sediment filters. A mechanical filter that captures sand, silt, rust flakes, and other particles.

Installation in Lakewood

• Free water testing. Typically 45 to 60 minutes.
• Whole-house filter installation. Typically 3 to 5 hours.
• Under-sink reverse osmosis installation. Typically 2 to 4 hours.
• Repair, any brand. Typically 1 to 3 hours.

Renters, co-ops, and businesses

• Options for renters
• Co-ops and condos
• Offices and commercial sites

Nearby areas

• Toms River, NJ , Ocean County
• Brick, NJ , Ocean County
• Howell, NJ , Monmouth County
• Jackson, NJ , Ocean County
• Monroe, NJ , Middlesex County

Sources

• Lakewood Township Municipal Utilities Authority, 2024.
• United States Census Bureau, 2024.
• Population: US Census Bureau sub-county population estimates, Vintage 2024 (POPESTIMATE2024).