DEP falsely cites TWW with violations, blames glitch
TRENTON >> Talk about fake news.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has erroneously cited Trenton Water Works with two violations of noncompliance earlier this month due to a “technical glitch.”
DEP slapped the capital city with Violation Nos. 2019-4100 and 2019-4099 on Tuesday, accusing TWW of dropping the ball in regards to E. coli collection.
But DEP later in the week had to retract and delete the violations, because the state regulators were wrong on the facts and the merits.
“Drinking Water Watch listed violations for not submitting the required number of bacteria samples. The problem was that the lab inadvertently dated a number of samples as having been taken in 2018, when in fact they were taken during 2019,” DEP spokesman Larry Hajna said Thursday via email. “The problem is being rectified and the notices referenced on Drinking Water Watch will be deleted. There was never an indication that the system exceeded the standards. This was purely a technical glitch.”
Trenton Water Works is a cityowned asset that provides drinking water to the capital city and parts of Ewing, Lawrence, Hamilton and Hopewell townships. The public water system in recent years has come under fire for accruing record levels of water quality violations stemming from staffing shortages and years of mismanagement.
New Mayor Reed Gusciora, who assumed office last July, has vowed to improve the operations and maintenance of TWW.
“Trenton Water Works is focused on maintaining high water quality, strengthening our operations, and improving our communications with the communities that we serve,” TWW spokesman Michael Walker said Thursday in a statement.
While DEP erroneously cited TWW on Tuesday, the state regulatory agency on Wednesday cited Trenton with another fresh Violation No. 2019-4101, which slams TWW for failing to comply with the one-year requirement to return to compliance for TTHM, a chemical disinfection byproduct that could cause severe health problems in rare cases.
The Gusciora administration in recent weeks suggested that future water quality notices of violation may be issued due to excessively high levels of TTHM contamination that existed in the water supply last August. But the administration says the water quality at present is safe.
“In the months since Mayor Gusciora’s inauguration, Trenton’s water has shown quick and incredible improvements in quality and safety. Major changes at Trenton Water Works has led to measurable and consistent drops in contaminant levels,” the mayor’s spokesperson wrote in a Feb. 19 news release that touted that “data consistently shows” Trenton’s water is “safe to drink.”