On Election Day in Salem.

Water is on the ballot.

Voters will decide if the city's water and wastewater utility will be sold off to New Jersey American Water, a publicly traded company.

We can bring solutions and that people can finally have clean, safe, reliable and affordable water.

Raised rates.

Loss of local jobs.

Loss of control over the water systems.

A state law allows municipalities to sell off their water utilities without public input if they meet certain conditions.

According to New Jersey.

Salem meets them, and Salem tried an emergency sale.

Local activists stopped it by getting enough signatures within 45 days to put this issue on the ballot.

Why would they be doing this?

Why would they want to, like, not include the community?

Salem's water has been tested and found to have high levels of PFAS or Forever chemicals.

Local leaders say they can't afford to upgrade the city's water infrastructure and they've struggled to collect revenue that people owe them.

They've openly admitted that they only collect 68% of the rates that are owed to them.

So they're not collecting all the money due.

They have not been doing that for over three years.

One lady at the corner of my street.

She's in her eighties.

Her son has an apartment in the same building and he's blind.

They have no water and no sanitation now.

There's only two ways to collect them.

You can shut off someone's water or you can sell the line attack sale and then turn the water back on.

And then when the city did that, there were complaining because we shut off people's water.

Mayor Jody Veler has made her thoughts on the matter pretty clear.

I don't see any benefit to keeping this system.

New Jersey American Water's offer includes $50 million over ten years to improve the city's water infrastructure and $18 million upfront.

Mayor Veler says that would go a long way to addressing Salem's problems.

Youth crime.

Address the abandoned housing issues.

You know, for a for a poor city, that revenue would be a really big deal.

With the challenges that many systems face, including a city like Salem.

You know, those investments are needed.

The advantage that New Jersey American has is that we utilize the entire footprint of our customers to spread the cost.

New Jersey American Water serves 190 communities around the Garden State.

A large customer base spreads around any unexpected costs that come up, which some say is a bad thing.

SALEM People will pay.

For the next transition.

I mean, the next transaction, the next acquisition, they'll pay for the acquisition after that.

Peggy Gallos leads the Association of Environmental Authorities, a trade association for government owned utilities.

She says Salem could have avoided all this if they applied for low interest loans from the state or money from the bipartisan infrastructure law.

Veler disagrees.

They're selling at a time when there's more money available than there's been for decades.

Grants are slow in coming, and yes, we could chip away at a piece at a time.

But grants do not pay debt.

And right now, the debt payment alone is $640,000 a year.

Then you have to add on the operational expenses, which come to another 500 and change.

Veler adds that if the sale is rejected, the city will have to raise water rates 68% to break even.

New Jersey American Water says if the vote is approved, rates will stay the same for the first and second year, with 3% raises to come in years three, four and five.

Activists are still worried about what could happen in the future or if rates jump before the sale is finalized.

In Salem, I'm Ted Goldberg.

NJ Spotlight News.