The Endlessly Running Sump Pump and other Tales: A 25 Hewitt Story
October 3, 2026
West Amwell Township
By Mike Spille
We've documented extensively the failures of the silt fences at 25 Hewitt Road over the past several months, but there is a flip side to those fences as well: what happens if they partially work and hold the water back for an extended period of time?
We have a partial answer at a neighboring property at 19 Hewitt Road, the Dupuis' residence.
Figure 1 below shows the relative locations of 25 Hewitt Road, 19 Hewitt Road, and also shows the direction towards Hewitt Park.
Figure 1 - Tax map showing 25 Hewitt and 19 Hewitt Road
25 Hewitt is shaded in red, 19 Hewitt in Green.
We've overlayed the tax map with points of interest and snapshots taken on Thursday and Friday of this week (9/1/2026 and 9/2/2026) in Figure 2.
Figure 2 - Snapshots of perimeter of 25 Hewitt Road this week
These snapshot locations are numbered, with #1 in the upper right hand corner of the diagram, and then moving counter clockwise to 2, 3, 4, and finally 5.
Before we get into the location details, its worthwhile to review the rainfall stats for the period we are looking at. The Raindrop app includes a gauge for nearby Lambertville NJ that has proen to be very accurate for tracking 25 Hewitt Road rainfall. The view for the last week of September and first two days of October is shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3 - Rainfall for Last week of September and Oct 1 and 2.
September 27th was the tail end of the No'reaster, the worst rain occured at 6am when .30" fell. Figure 4 shows the rain gauge for the entire day.
Figure 4 - Rain fall for Sunday, Sept. 27th
September 28th saw a small amount of rain as well, .25" in total. We show that in Figure 5.
Figure 5 - Rain fall for Monday, Sept. 28th.
We are showing these rain gauge totals to show that we had moderate rain fall for Sunday, a very small amount of rainfall on Monday, and then was completely dry for the rest of the week. This leads us to Thursday, and the pictures and videos at Location 1.
Location 1 - Behind 19 Hewitt Road
Location1 points to the literal lake that has formed behind 19 Hewitt Road behind the silt fences. Figure 6 shows the super-silt fence at that location.
Figure 6 - pooled water behind 19 Hewitt Road, 4 days after the storm on Oct 1, 2026
What's critical here is when this picture was taken. It was taken on Thursday, after we had several completely dry and sunny days. The water has been standing there ever since the storm on Sunday and very light rain on Monday.
This is a video of the same location at the same time.
Figure 7 shows the same spot as seen from the North Eastern corner of the property perimter.
Figure 7 - Standing water behind 19 Hewitt seen from North East corner of property, 4 days after the storm on Oct 1 2026
We are highlighting this because of the impacts on 19 Hewitt Road. The Dupuis house on that property is several feet lower in elevation from these lakes and silt fences. As the silt fences are trapping the water, that same water appears to be seeping into the water table and traveling along the bedrock to the Dupuis' house.
The result? John Dupuis has reported that his sump pump in the basement has been running non-stop for days. Four Days after the Nor'easter had passed, the Dupuis pump was still going. A plumber verified that this was going to keep happening as long as there was standing water in the 25 Hewitt silt-fence lake.
This is a very real and scary impact of the flawed silt fence design at 25 Hewitt Road. The Dupuis' now face the potential for several days of flooding days after any rain event occurs. If they lose power or the pump burns out, their basement will likely flood. Generators can help, until of course they can't.
We have had no communication from the 25 Hewitt Road owner, his engineer or lawyer about how the proposed catch basins will remedy or fix this issue. Digging catch basins in the locations proposed may actually make the Dupuis' sump pump and potential flooding situation even worse.
Promised notice of a future meeting by West Amwell Twonship has also never come to Hewitt Road residents.
Location 2 - South Western Corner
As shown in our map in Figure 2, the Dupuis' never ending pump is not the only tale to tell. Moving counter clockwise on that map, we arrive at location 2, the south-western corner of the property. Figure 8 shows the deplorable state of the silt fences at that location.
Figure 8 - Collapsed silt fences at south western corner of property, taken Oct 1, 2026
This section of silt fence has been collapsing since at least August 22nd, 2026, when we last video'd it. This depsite the claims of the 25 Hewitt Road engineer that he had inspected all silt fences after all storms, with a strong implication that they were all in good repair and functioning per spec.
In fact, as the photo shows above, the mud and hay bales are overwhelming and flattening the super silt fgence, and the outer regular silt fence is completely ripped down in spots. This is the area that drains into Hewitt Park and Swan Creek.
Location 3 - South Eastern Corner
Location 3 shows the state of the drainage ditch at the southern portion of the property along Hewitt Road. This photo in Figure 9 was taken 1 day after the rest, on October 2nd, 2026.
Figure 9 - Southern corner of property along Hewitt Road, taken Oct 2nd, 2026
The trench that the owner of 25 Hewitt has gouged in the township right of way is still there. Only about half of the heavy gravel he poured in is stil present. The rest has been swept into the culvert pipe, locationed where the orange cone can be seen in the picture in the top right. The large rocks the property owner placed in front of the wooden fence have fallen several inches as they are repeatedly undermined by water flowing around, under and even through the silt fences.
Repeated messages to the Township and Mayor Deal to fix the drainage ditch and return it to its previous state have been ignored. Meanwhile, every storm eats away more of the ditch and inches closer to the Hewitt Road asphalt.
Location 4 - Dying Trees Along Hewitt Road
Near the approach to the remaining driveway in the middle of the property, the owner planted a number of decorative pine trees.
Figure 10 shows the pine trees dying, their needles turning brown and falling off. Two of the trees have almost no green needles left.
Figure 10 - Dying pine trees along Hewitt Road
Figure 11 - Another Dying Pine Tree Along 25 Hewitt, Oct 3, 2026
These trees were planted only a few months ago by the owner, in a fit of optimistic landscaping while the property was otherwise falling apart and flooding the neighborhood.
Other larger long-time trees on the property are also showing signs of dying, and not from the emerald ash borer.
Location 5 - Standing water in township right of way
This brings us to the last location, the north eastern corner of the property along Hewitt Road. Figure 12 tells the tale.
Figure 12 - Standing water at North Eastern corner of property, taken Oct 1, 2026
Another photo was taken just a few minutes ago today showing the state of the exact northern corner in figure 13.
Figure 13 - Standing water and gravel in damaged drainage ditch, Oct 3, 2026
In figure 13 you can see more of the heavy gravel dumped into the drainage ditch by the 25 Hewitt Road property owner, the water still standing 6 days after the Nor'easter, and the gravel heavily covered in sediment.
Five locations along the property, five different stories, but one unifying theme: when people ignore laws and permits and their neighbor's rights, bad things happen.
Some reminders of how we ended up here:
Despite what his lawyer has said, the 25 Hewitt Road owner appears to be out of compliance with every agency we have contacted. The silt fences are not being maintained, the township right of way was ruined and never fixed, and property owners such as the Dupuis are not being made whole or even cared about.
The Hunterdon County Soil Conservation District's mandate never took flooding into account with their plans, just sediment and erosion control. Local residents are paying the price for HCSCD's ignorance and arrogance.
Swan creek continues to be contaminated with foreign soil and runoff from 25 Hewitt's failed silt fences in the south western corner of the property.
West Amwell DPW and Mayor Deal are no where to be found. Not even the smallest attempt has been made to fix the drainage ditches, to help neighbors, to address overwhelmed culvert pipes under driveways, or to do anything at all.
The West Amwell Township attorney in August 2026 promised swift action and that property owners would be made whole. All those promises were like farts in a hurricane.
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