Trenton Water Works in disarray, state ready to take them to court; why wait?

The Trenton Water Works continues to operate like a lovable cartoon character in a field of garden rakes. Every single step they take, they get smacked in the face.

Only difference? The TWW are not lovable. At this point, they are 100 percent Dick Dasterdly.

It is beyond time for the state to take official action; namely going to court to get the TWW to give up running the utility.

Hopefully that action will take place in the coming days.

In the last week alone a letter was sent out to all TWW customers, telling them a filter wasn’t working from September 25 to November 2 of last year which caused high levels of haloacetic acids to appear in the water. And what are “haloacetic acids?” They are not-good byproducts of chlorination of water that cause a host of health problems if ingested long-term.

Next up? Yet another stronglyworded letter from the state Department of Environmental Protection, again demanding the city hire a private firm to run the TWW, something that was supposed to be done by November 30. In the letter, outgoing DEP chief Bob Martin wrote, “The City’s inability or unwillingness to act with the urgency the current situation requires potentially puts at risk the health of the 225,000 people TWW serves in the City of Trenton and in Ewing, Hamilton, Lawrence and Hopewell townships.”

Then on Monday, as the Delaware ice crept over the banks, a boil water advisory was issued for parts of Trenton, Hamilton, and Ewing. Only problem? The TWW didn’t make the advisory public until some seven hours after it was put into place. The plant shut down at 5 a.m. due to not being able to properly clean the water coming in, but it was the DEP — and then the governments of Hamilton and Ewing — that alerted the public first, second, and third.

These are only the latest disasters in what’s become a decade-long folly at the TWW, a folly that has only ramped up in recent months with the discovery — thanks to resident Kevin Moriarty’s work on his blog “And Another Thing” — that the state has been demanding the city hire an outside company to take over operations of the plant, and that the city is moving at sloth-like speed to get it done. Like a drugged-out sloth. A sloth who is overdoing it with the Xanax.

So now what?

“There is legal action that is locked and loaded,” said DEP spokesman Rob Geist. “However, in the waning days of this administration, it was felt it should be left in the hands of the incoming administration to make that choice.”

So with that, here’s a quick note to our new governor Phil Murphy and our presumed new DEP chief Catherine McCabe: DO SOMETHING.

“There’s always an opportunity for the city to come around and do the things they’ve been promising to do for the better part of six months,” Geist said. “But we’ve been dealing with this since 2014 and these troubles have gone on for more than a decade. They’re simply understaffed, won’t hire the right people, can’t get emergency contracts done, can’t get full-time contracts done. This isn’t a situation of not having time; this is a situation of not being willing to move forward for whatever reason.”

The city’s response? From Michael Walker, the mayor’s spokesman, last week: “We continue to advance our comprehensive plan to bolster operations at the Trenton Water Works, and we continue to advise the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, our local government neighbors, and other stakeholders regarding the status of this critical work.”

While this might be true, it’s way too little, way too late.

It’s like me asking my 8-year-old son to stop pestering my 7-year-old daughter with his Nerf guns. I’ll ask, and ask again, and ask again, and ask again, and then it’s too late. The Nerf guns get taken away for a week. He could’ve just stopped and kept his Nerf guns, but he refused — or didn’t move quick enough — and now the punishment comes.

The state has asked, and asked again, and asked again, and asked again for the city to take care of business in regard to the Trenton Water Works. The city has not taken care of business. It’s time for the punishment, which in this case is taking the city to court and to getting a judge to force the city into giving up control of the TWW.

Safe, clean drinking water doesn’t seem like such a big ask. Time to demand it.