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A Water Leak Ran for Months in Edison. Now There's Talk of a Lawsuit.
Victoria Park residents say Edison's water utility has failed them for years, and the township says the community's own leaks aren't its responsibility.
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Chris Howell | August 28, 2026
Edison’s council meeting opened unusually on Wednesday, with a formal presentation on where the township’s water pipes stop and a private community’s begin.
The subject was Victoria Park, a private residential development off Brunswick Avenue and Ethel Road. Residents from within it, several from Hanna Road, filled the chamber to hear it.
Water and Sewer Utility Director Stephen Bloyd laid out the township’s position. Edison is responsible for its water mains and the pipe up to a valve called the curb stop. Everything past that belongs to the private development.
“These HOAs, these condos, apartment complexes, all private, is not the Edison Water Utility’s obligation,” Bloyd said.
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Township Attorney David Minchello read the relevant ordinance into the record. Water lines between the main and the curb stop are the utility’s responsibility, he said. A curb stop is an underground water shut-off valve located near the street or sidewalk that controls the entire water supply to a property. Beyond that point, repair falls to the property owner.
Council Vice President Robert Kentos pressed further. Edison residents were under drought watering restrictions this summer, he said, limited to watering lawns every other day, while a leak in Victoria Park has run for six to eight months.
Water Supervisor Roger Frieda said the township has sent emergency crews to make repairs at Victoria Park twice already, but has not been reimbursed for either job.
Coyle cut off further discussion of billing specifically.
“We’re not going to discuss that in case there’s a lawsuit,” he said.
Sridhar Krishnamoorthy, of Hanna Road, said he has been raising the underlying dispute with the township since 2023. His argument was more specific than a general disagreement over where a curb stop sits.
Victoria Park is not a condominium, he told the council. Each home is individually owned, and the private roads running through it are shared under an easement among three separate communities. His homeowners association, he said, handles only surface-level upkeep, lawn care, and snow removal, never the underground pipes.
“Everywhere you can see it is marked as Edison Township sewer, Edison Township waterline,” Krishnamoorthy said. “Everything is there physically.”
He said he could produce documentation, including 1984 bylaws, a township audit report, and records of township asphalt repairs there in 1994.
Coyle pressed him for clarification during the exchange, asking directly who owns the roads. Krishnamoorthy said Victoria Park’s portion is shared with two neighboring communities, Chesterfield and Oxford Arms, each under different arrangements. He was eventually cut off for time.
Later in the meeting, Aksid Patel, also of Hanna Road, raised a separate concern. He said Victoria Park’s fire hydrants have not been flushed or serviced since the township took over water service, a maintenance step he considers important for fire response.
For decades, Edison’s water system was privately operated by New Jersey American Water. Voters approved a referendum in September 2019 to bring the system under municipal control, and the township formally took over operations on January 1, 2020.
None of the residents who spoke Wednesday disputed that a curb-stop boundary is standard utility practice. New Jersey American Water, Edison’s former provider, uses nearly identical language in its own customer materials. What Krishnamoorthy and others disputed was where, specifically, that boundary falls within Victoria Park, and who is responsible for a leak the township itself says has gone unrepaired for months.
Editor’s note: The Central Jerseyan is free to read and supported by advertising. If you value this kind of local reporting and want to help sustain it, you can become a citizen supporter on Patreon. Your contribution helps fund continued coverage of local government, schools, and community issues.
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