State warning of the onset of “system damage” of Trenton water utility – AOL

The waterwork in Trenton issued numerous restrictions on the use of water in January 2025, saying that ice in the Delaware River – where it attracted drinking water – had blocked the water rents. (Dana Difilippo | New Jersey Monitor)

In the summer of 1975, Trenton’s public water supply experienced so much damage that his reservoir dried and the residents had no water, forcing fire trucks to be stacked by miles to pump water from the suburbs and civil defense into a truck in water.

The system did not fully recover for eight months. In a 1976 report, civil servants of the environment blamed “human error, equipment failure and vulnerability of design” for causing the crisis.

Fifty years later, it has changed a little in Trenton Water Works, according to two new independent reports, the State Department of Environmental Protection issued on Monday.

The dysfunctional government, a “complacency culture”, and other recurrent challenges, have put usefulness in the “extremely high risk of systemic failure,” Sean Laturet Commissioner told reporters.

The utility, which serves 225,000 customers in the capital and its suburbs, must be removed from the only control of the city and reconfigured into a regional body, Latourette said.

“The system is still suffering from historical neglect and bad governance that exist before the current governor and mayoral administrations,” he said. “The only way to recover from this is by restructuring.”

The state Announced Supervision of Usefulness In October 2022, after violations, it was accumulated for years with the duration of 221 years of usefulness not to guarantee the safety of 33 million gallons of water, which it supplies daily to the residents of Trenton, Ewing, Hamilton, Hopwell and Lawrence.

Monday, Laturet urged legislators to authorize the statutes to create regional utility.

“Dep cannot provide stability support forever,” Laturet said. “This is not what this agency does. This is what we do here because we must guarantee the protection of public health. But it is not long -term sustainable. We have hundreds of water monitoring systems. “

The two reports Issued on Monday, which runs 320 pages of combined, documents any utility issues that the authors of the reports say is threatening public health and the accessibility of fees.

The utility that draws water from the Delaware River has a plan to improve the capital of $ 600 million, which will remove thousands of lead pipes, replace the water networks, build a new central pump station and replace an uncovered tank with decentralized tanks for decentralized tanks Storage.

But the utility program does not have the money, the technical know-how and the management capacity to download it, the reports say.

Instead, “no evidence”, city officials could improve the utility program so that it consistently meets the regulatory requirements without the supervision and assistance of the state, the report said.

The utility has repeatedly made titles in recent years for everything from Deadly outbreaks of Legionnaire’s disease yes worms in drinking water yes ice of a worker who diverge with fake drinking water samples For more than a year.

Latourette showed photos that emphasize systemic problems, including a “sludge blanket” over machines that remove water pollutants, leaks, spills, stagnant water in utility buildings and more.

“This is not what the water system should look like,” he said.

Conditions at Trenton Water Works (with the kind assistance of the Ministry of Environment in New Jersey) “src =” https://s.yimg.com/ny/Res/res/res/1.2/Z4hretbio0k2upvbuocf5g–/yxbwwwq9aglnagxhbmrlcjt3pteyndi7ad02njq-/htps:/. 866/1D2424216E889CD5D20D2833Aa5d4ca “class =” caas- img “/>

Latourette stressed employees do not want the usefulness to be sold or privatized, options that he called “non-starts”. Instead, he said, he must be restructured to give the suburbs that serves a place on the table, such as its structure of management or municipal utility body, special purpose or public-private partnership in municipal property.

Professionals “deeply survive in the water sector” must carry out their daily operations, he added.

“It should never happen that the water operator should ask the City Council whether they can buy enough chlorine to treat drinking water,” Laturet said.

Trenton Mayor Reed Gusiora has said that the move to regional government deserves serious attention, especially if it means that the suburbs will help share management costs, he said.

The problems of usefulness “have never been a problem of management. That was a resource problem, “he added.

“Here is the deal – 55% of customers live outside Trenton. So, should they have a bigger word in what is happening in Trenton Water Works? Absolutely, ”Gusiora said. “We are going through a $ 600 million -dollar improvement plan and is better if the price is clearly displaced to a regional body.”

Municipal officials in the suburbs served by the utility company have been watching the city for years as a role in the management of the utility program. Gusiora attributes the city’s refusal to share obligations to manage the Pride of Property so far.

“We have owned water work since 1804. We are the second oldest system in the country,” he said.

While Monday reports sound the same concerns that the state, gathered in its 1976 report on Trenton’s Water Crisis of 1975, Latourette warned against finger -directions.

“Making structural changes is really difficult,” Laturet said. “It’s easier to fix things when they break, unlike systematically to make sure they do not break first.”

Latourette said switching to a regional body is a process that can take years.

Gusiora and the mayors of the suburbs served by the waterwork in Trenton say they are already working on it.

They came out joint statement Monday welcomes restructuring.

“We, the mayors of the cities served by the TWW, said in a statement by Gusiora, Jeff Martin of Hamilton, Bert Steinman of Ewing, Patricia Hendricks Lawrence and Courtney Peters-Maning from Hopwa.

The mayors said they would spend the next six months in cooperation to create a regional body plan. The priorities in these negotiations include a lot of compensation for Trenton for usefulness; evaluation of any impact on customer tariffs and fees; and developing a public education campaign on the impact of the plan, the planned repairs and superstructures and the needs for hiring.

The mayors said they also wanted to “restore the faith and confidence of society” in Water Affairs in Trenton.

Latourette also tried to do it. He spent his media briefing on Monday, drinking from a glass of water.

“I probably drink about 12 glasses of water a day while in my office here – and yes, it comes from the water affairs in Trenton and no, I have zero concerns about it,” he said. “But this is just because my people are there and I know they keep it stable and that the water quality is in accordance with our drinking water standards in New Jersey, which are the strongest in the nation.”

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