Water Treatment for Montgomery Township Homes, Public or Private Well

Step one in Montgomery: which supply is yours?

The township says roughly two out of three Montgomery homes take public water from New Jersey American Water, and about one in three draws from a private well. The answer changes almost everything about a treatment conversation, so settle it before reading anything else.

• You get a water bill from NJ American Water. You are on public water. The utility tests it and publishes an annual report.
• No water bill, and there is a pressure tank in the basement or utility room. You are on a well, and nobody tests it unless you do.
• Not sure, or you just bought the house. Closing paperwork for a well home includes a Private Well Testing Act report, and the township's utilities page is a good next stop.

Why do Montgomery wells get extra attention?

State health data covering 2002 to 2018 shows 36.8% of Montgomery private wells tested under the Act exceeded at least one primary drinking water standard. Somerset County as a whole came in at 22.4%, and the statewide figure was 14.5%.

That gap is the reason a Montgomery well owner should not lean on a ten-year-old result. Primary standards are the health-based ones, covering items such as coliform bacteria, nitrate, lead, arsenic, gross alpha, volatile organics and, since late 2021, three PFAS compounds. Somerset County samples also add uranium. The data doesn't say which parameter tripped each well, so the useful move is a fresh, full panel from a certified lab.

If you are on NJ American Water

NJ American Water's Raritan System report for 2025 lists PFOA up to 7 ppt and PFOS up to 6 ppt, both under New Jersey's limits of 14 and 13 ppt. The same report notes that surface water is treated with chloramines. Check your own bill or the utility's report finder to confirm which system serves your street, since we can't assume every Montgomery address is on Raritan.

For public water customers the questions are usually comfort questions. Chloramine taste, scale on fixtures, and a wish for lower PFAS than the current rules require are the common ones. Chloramine is harder to strip than chlorine, so a whole-house carbon filter for it should be a catalytic carbon type. A point-of-use reverse osmosis system is the usual answer for drinking water.

What does a Montgomery well treatment setup look like?

It depends on the lab report, but the sequence is fairly standard. Each piece is there to protect the one after it:

• Sediment screen or cartridge, so grit doesn't clog what follows.
• Neutralizer, if the pH is low enough to corrode copper.
• Iron, manganese or sulfur removal, if the report or the staining calls for it.
• Softener, only when hardness is high enough to be worth it.
• Targeted media for arsenic, uranium or PFAS, sized to the measured level.
• UV disinfection at the end when coliform has been a problem.

Sizing comes from the well, not the house

A specialist will want the pump's flow rate and the number of bathrooms. Undersized tanks pass untreated water at peak demand, and oversized ones can backwash poorly. The well water treatment page walks through the stages one at a time.

Do I need a township permit?

For the well itself, often yes. The Montgomery Township Health Department requires a permit to drill a new well or to alter or repair an existing one, so work on the casing, pump or well head goes through that office.

Treatment equipment is a separate matter. Hooking a filter or softener into the water line is plumbing under N.J.A.C. 13:32, which requires a licensed master plumber or plumbing contractor, and any plumbing permit is handled through the local construction office when one is required. The installer, not you, normally takes care of that.

How the free consultation runs for a Montgomery home

You fill out the short form with your ZIP and your water source. A local provider who does this work independently calls or emails you, asks what you have noticed and what results you already hold, and tells you whether a lab test should come first. When a certified lab test is needed, its fee is quoted up front. You leave with a plain recommendation, including the option of doing nothing if the numbers are fine.