Maple Shade Gets $1M to Replace Kings Highway Water Plant

Maple Shade will replace its aging Kings Highway water treatment plant after securing more than $1 million in federal funding, giving nearly 20,000 residents a cleaner, more reliable supply of drinking water.

The township received $1,092,000 in Community Project Funding, money that will go toward constructing a new, modern facility to replace a plant that has been operating for more than 50 years. The funding is part of $11.98 million that Congressman Donald Norcross secured across 15 Community Project Funding awards throughout New Jersey’s First Congressional District.

The Kings Highway plant’s problems have been piling up for years. The facility sits in a flood-prone area, a vulnerability that puts the entire water supply at risk during heavy rain events. Its contaminant-removal process has grown outdated and inefficient, producing large volumes of wastewater as a byproduct. And the plant has no reliable mechanism for addressing emerging contaminants like PFAS, the so-called forever chemicals that federal regulators have increasingly flagged as serious public health threats.

PFAS contamination has become one of the most pressing drinking water issues in New Jersey. The state has set some of the strictest PFAS limits in the country, and communities across New Jersey have struggled with the cost of upgrading infrastructure to meet those standards. For a township the size of Maple Shade, finding the capital to modernize a treatment facility without crushing taxpayers is no small challenge.

That is precisely why federal Community Project Funding matters. These awards allow municipalities to tackle expensive but necessary infrastructure upgrades without passing the entire bill to local ratepayers.

Mayor Heather Talarico said the funding allows the township to push forward on essential work while staying fiscally responsible. “This investment is critical to strengthening Maple Shade’s water infrastructure, improving system resiliency, enhancing fire protection capabilities and ensuring reliable, high-quality service for our residents and businesses,” Talarico said. “Support like this allows us to move forward with essential upgrades while remaining fiscally responsible to our taxpayers.”

Congressman Norcross framed the project in direct terms at a ceremony in Maple Shade. “Access to clean, safe drinking water is something every family depends on,” he said. “This investment of more than $1 million will help Maple Shade build a modern treatment plant that protects against flooding and removes emerging contaminants like PFAS.”

The new facility will strengthen system reliability, expand storage capacity, and improve the township’s ability to remove contaminants from the supply. Improved fire protection is also part of the equation. Better storage and distribution infrastructure strengthens water pressure and availability for firefighting, something that affects public safety well beyond the kitchen tap.

The Kings Highway plant replacement fits into a larger conversation happening across New Jersey about water infrastructure. Aging systems built in the mid-twentieth century were never designed to handle PFAS filtration, climate-driven flooding, or the water demands of modern communities. Replacing them is expensive, slow, and politically unglamorous. But the consequences of neglect, contaminated water, flooded treatment facilities, and service interruptions, fall hardest on ordinary residents who have no alternative.

For Maple Shade, a densely populated Burlington County township of roughly 19,000 people, the stakes are straightforward. The town’s two treatment plants serve nearly the entire residential and commercial population. A failure at Kings Highway would not be an abstract infrastructure problem. It would mean people could not safely drink the water coming out of their faucets.

The $11.98 million Norcross secured for the First Congressional District spans a range of community needs, but water projects like this one represent a direct, measurable benefit to public health. Federal funding for local water infrastructure has faced uncertainty in recent years as budget debates in Washington have put discretionary spending under pressure. The Maple Shade award signals that community project funding remains a viable tool for New Jersey municipalities trying to close the gap between what aging infrastructure demands and what local budgets can provide.

No construction timeline has been publicly announced for the new Kings Highway facility. Township officials have not yet detailed a project schedule or indicated when the replacement plant is expected to come online.