Water utility is cited for 132 pages of violations for 20 years, NJ Consultant detects – nj.com

New Jersey’s capital city has long had a problematic history.

This week, how many disturbing things have come to Water Works Trenton have acquired new attention after two new independent reports, which are combined for more than 300 pages, have been released by the state.

The latest analysis, discovered here and here, emphasizes that between 2001 (when electronic records first became available) and March 2024, the Water Works Trenton filtration plant was cited for 132 -page violations.

Violations, which represent more than 400 individual quotes, were collected by the Ministry of Environment’s online database online.

“Concern is an utility program with consistent questions,” said Nicole Farenfeld, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Rutgers, “NJ Advance Media told independent reports.

“The monitoring agency tracking shows that in 2022, 27% of the US public water systems violated at least one drinking water standard,” added Fahrenfeld, comparing the findings in New Jersey and national ones.

Trenton Water Works serves 217,000 people in the capital, Hamilton, Ewing, Lawrence and Hopwell.

These municipalities have agreed to a new NJDEP recommendation to study state and legislative actions, which would organize a water utility program, which will be managed by Mercer County, all five service cities and/or other stakeholders.

So far, Trenton employees have made operational and management decisions. And in addition to policy, the funds available were remarkable obstacles to the usefulness of water.

Trenton water violations were marked for both decades included:

• Failed to account for the concentrations of several regulated pollutants at least 16 times between 2009 and 2024.
• Failed to provide customer confident reports and DEP by July 1 each year (between 2011 and 2014, as well as 2016 and 2021))
• Failure to follow the procedures tied to secondary restrictions on delivery vehicles, plus unregistered persons “established for filling the buried storage tanks” in 2014.
• Failed to maintain detectable residual concentration of disinfectants in the distribution system for at least one sampling period each year in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
• Introducing a hazardous substance into an regulated underground storage tank that is not properly registered (and was known or suspected of running) in 2019.
• Failure to comply with the equipment, including three years without inspections for a 2000 gallon diesel tank, in 2019.
• Multiple disorders of inability to provide “adequate training specific to the work” of employees
• Failures between 2017 and 2023, related to monitoring and reporting of lead and copper rules, fail to maintain optimal water quality parameters

With regard to the results of the leading findings, Farenfeld of Rutgers said that directly linking disorders to health results was difficult without more information.

“Concentrations, duration, whether users use filters for use that remove lead, etc., will affect their exposures,” Fahrenfeld said. “And, of course, there are other exposures that we may need to lead – paints in older homes, soil soils, consumer products – to take into account.”

The Engineering Consultant, the H2M Associates, based on Parsippany-Troy Hills, noted in its report that the “majority” of water violations in Trenton have been considered.

However, the H2M Associates said that “however, there are obvious results of incorrect work of the critical assets of treatment and the necessary reporting, compliance and training of staff necessary for satisfactory management of their assets for treatment and distribution.”

Asked about the list of violations, Michael Walker, a Trenton Water Works spokesman, directed NJ Advance Media on Tuesday on Tuesday, published by cities served by the utility program.

The mayors in these cities “have agreed to work together in the coming weeks and months to plan the future management of our critical water infrastructure, to organize a municipal authority authority working with qualified talent and are equipped to capture the significant resources needed for Ensuring safe, reliable, high quality water services and fire suppression in our communities in the area of ​​service for next generations, “Walker said.

NJDEP Commissioner Sean Laturet said that on Monday, the state’s participation in TWW was intended to improve operations and service. But how the usefulness is expected to move forward, to change.

“We will continue to provide support for stability,” Laturet said, citing a department that undertakes an operational “Supervision” of Water Affairs in Trenton in 2022. “DEP cannot provide support for stability forever. This is not what this agency does. This is what we do here because it is mandatory to guarantee the protection of public health, but it is not sustainable in the long run. “