BOILING POINT
Yet another boil warning from Trenton Water Works has state DEP and residents angry >>
TRENTON » The capital city has once again failed to warn the public of a serious health threat.
So the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) had to do it for them.
A DEP spokesman said Monday afternoon that Trenton was required to issue a boil water advisory to its 250,000 customers “due to inadequate treatment according to a report from the NJ Department of Environmental Protection’s Water Resource Management.” A water conservation advisory was also ordered by DEP on Monday night.
“The plant shutdown operations at 5 a.m. on Jan 15 was due to elevated turbidities and inadequate disinfection of delivered water,” DEP spokesman Rob Geist said. “The advisory will be limited to water delivered directly from the treatment plant - gravity service area, includes downtown Trenton and portions of other affected municipalities. This includes small portions of Ewing and Hamilton Townships.”
The state said just after noon that the city had yet to issue an advisory on its website, meaning consumers could have been drinking contaminated water for over seven hours without any warning.
This is one of many problems that has surfaced with Trenton Water Works over the past year. The utility has recently been hammered with numerous DEP violations for its water treatment procedures and failure to notify the public of emergencies.
The city’s inability to run the water authority has gotten so severe that one official called Trenton’s inaction criminal.
Councilwoman Marge Caldwell-Wilson said the water at her home has reeked “very strongly” of chlorine for the last two days.
She avoided drinking it and complained to the water department which has gone unaddressed, she said, calling the city’s inaction “criminal.”
She said she is “getting ready” to call the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office with her concerns.
The councilwoman got about a dozen calls and emails from city residents over the latest boil water advisory.
“I’m very angry,” she said. “I want some answers. I’m afraid. I don’t want people getting sick. I’m in the dark like my constituents.”
Trenton Public Works Director Merkle Cherry, who oversees the Water Works, explained Monday afternoon that the notification delay was because of DEP approval, even though it didn’t appear that way.
“We’re working with DEP at this very moment to get final approval for any language that should be included as part of the advisory that had to go out to the public,” Cherry said. “The entire process is within the protocol and policy that we are supposed to follow from the state.”
Eventually, Trenton did put a notification on its website late Monday afternoon after receiving the scolding from the state. The advisory stated the rapid increase in water levels of the Delaware River caused turbidity issues.
“We had a string of days in recent that were all 20 degrees or below so ice formed on the river,” the city’s public works director said. “We also had a significant increase in the rise of the river and the elevation and the levels of the river flow in the last couple days. This morning, river rose about 7 feet within an hour or so. Because of the ice and the increase of the flow, turbidity levels were increased and when turbidity levels increase, we have to take steps to make sure that the water is being is treated properly.”
Despite the city’s explanations, Trenton Councilman George Muschal blasted the city for keeping the public in the dark.
“It’s the city’s job to notify the people,” Muschal told The Trentonian. “The robocalls should have been put out immediately. I don’t know what they’re doing. I have no idea what the city’s doing. It wasn’t the DEP’s responsibility. It was the city of Trenton’s responsibility. Are they asleep at the wheel? I’d like to know where the director is with all these waters crises going on? Who’s driving the ship? Don’t get on that boat.”
Last week, The Trentonian reported how the DEP slapped down the city in a letter, one of many addressed to Mayor Eric Jackson’s administration over the failures of the city’s water department.
Outgoing DEP commissioner Bob Martin, in a letter sent Friday, decried the city’s failure to correct operational shortcomings at Trenton Water Works and said it threatened the health and wellness of thousands of Mercer County residents.
“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,” Martin wrote in the strongly worded letter. “The Department of Environmental Protection has been exceedingly patient with the city. We have worked very hard to assist you in meeting your responsibility to TWW’s customers. We have given you every opportunity to comply with our appropriate requests for corrective action.”
Trenton Water Works under the Jackson administration has been cited for multiple violations over the last four years, including a recent snafu that caused the utility to deliver purple water tinged with an excess concentration of potassium permanganate and excessive levels of haloacetic acids.
Since Mayor Eric Jackson has assumed office in July 2014, the city has been hit with a whopping 16 water violations from DEP, with 12 of them coming in 2017 — it’s worst year ever on record. As a former Trenton public works director, Jackson used to be responsible for overseeing TWW’s operations.
Cherry claimed the city has “already addressed” the violations in the past. However, DEP has painted a different picture.
“The notices do not have anything to do with consumable water for the general public,” Cherry said. “I would say we are addressing the issues. Every notice we’ve received, we’ve addressed.”
In a hand-delivered notice Jan. 5, DEP said the city failed to comply with several state regulations over operations and maintenance of Trenton Water Works.
The city didn’t ensure that health and safety measures over operations and maintenance were followed, the DEP said.
In another key violation, “Trenton failed to properly staff TWW,” according to DEP’s notice of violation, which cites a September 2017 report that shows TWW had 68 vacancies constituting a 39 percent vacancy rate.
As of Jan. 5, TWW still had key vacancies involving the positions of chief pump operator, senior operators, regular operators, assistant operators, laboratory workers and water repair staff, according to DEP.
“As we each know,” Martin said to Jackson, “TWW’s numerous vacancies leave TWW with inadequate
leadership and technical expertise, which is reflected in its inability to fulfill its purpose and legal obligation to provide a reliable and safe water supply for its consumers and critical users, including office buildings, court houses, and emergency management facilities for the local, county, State and federal governments.”
The staffing issues at TWW have been ongoing at TWW for years.
“My tenure is a little over a year here,” Cherry said. “We put strategies in place to start addressing those. We understand that they need to be addressed but I can’t answer as to why they haven’t been addressed in the past.”
TWW also failed to develop an adequate emergency response plan and failed to have an adequate emergency response team, according to DEP’s notice of violation.
DEP ordered the city to take corrective action with urgency. Among the corrective actions, the city must hire or execute an emergency contract to provide staffing of all essential positions at TWW within 30 days and within 120 days must advertise and award a contract to a firm that would be charged with the long-term operations and maintenance of Trenton Water Works for a period of no less than 10 years.
“It couldn’t be done in the way that DEP requested because of the procurement laws,” Cherry said.
TWW’s violations are subject to penalties of up to $25,000 per day for each alleged offense, although the city may appeal or contest any of DEP’s allegations.
City Councilman Alex Bethea, who is running for mayor in the upcoming election, warned that the “administration has to step it up” or it risks a state takeover of the water works department.
Bethea is on board with whatever the DEP recommends.
“I think we have to do more investigation to see what the problems are,” he said. “If DEP steps in, I’m willing to follow the DEP’s lead.”
One Trenton Water Works employee told The Trentonian that the “administration is slacking on their work.”
The worker, who has been with the department for five years, asked for anonymity and was so fearful of retaliation he wouldn’t provide his name to a reporter.
“They’re not correcting problems that need to be corrected,” the worker said. “We’re behind on our equipment. We’re not getting the right equipment. The radios go on and off.”
Despite the repeated gaffes, Muschal said he is staunchly opposed to a state takeover of the department.
“This is ours,” Muschal said. “It’s our responsibility to make it right. Whoever is in there who doesn’t want to do their job should get dismissed.”
Citing information he’s
received first-hand from at least a handful of outraged Trenton Water Works employees, the councilman said workers feel they’re taking the hit for the administration, which they believe is purposely sabotaging the department.
One guy who spoke to the councilman was “out of [his] mind” about the problems, Muschal said.
The workers complained to Muschal of not being approved for overtime so they can work to fix the problems.
Yet the workers, Muschal said, claimed to him to have been on for “16 days straight, working 16 hours a day,” to try to correct the issues.
Muschal painted a picture of internal strife and a lack of accountability in the water department where workers are “petrified” to come forward publicly, which was confirmed by the employee who spoke to The Trentonian.
The councilman said water workers stressed to him they believe acting superintendent Sean Semple “is not the problem.”
“They’re trying to blame Semple on it all,” Muschal said, “and he’s doing the best he can.”
An automated answering machine at a number listed for Semple said, “We are currently unavailable to take your call.”
A woman who answered the phone on a second attempt said she’d pass along a message to Semple.
The workers, Muschal said, lay the blame more on Dilip Patel, the supervising engineer at the beleaguered water department.
The phone at Patel’s office rang unanswered when The Trentonian tried to reach him.
Muschal called out Patel directly indicating he would issue a Rice notice to Patel “if the council president [Zachary] Chester doesn’t.”
“We want answers why this water department is failing,” Muschal said. ““He’s the big cheese over there, and he’s missing in action. We should be calling in Mr. Patel. This man should be brought in to council to explain what’s going on. There’s turmoil there.”
Reached by phone Monday afternoon, Chester said he was not aware of the latest boil water advisory.
“I have to call the chief of staff,” Chester said, promising to call back after he reached the administration.
At the center of everything, the public has began to lose faith in TWW providing clean water to them. Customers have been posting pictures on their discolored water on social media.
One resident on Ferry Street showed his water was a dirty brown color on Monday morning.
“I’m a resident of Trenton and I consume the water also,” Cherry said. “If I thought that in any way we were producing water that would be harmful to the consumers of our water, then I would be the first one to make sure that everyone was aware of that.”