“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-DEP commissioner Bob Martin wrote in a Jan. 12 letter to Trenton Mayor Eric Jackson, obtained by the Post through a public records request.
Other municipalities had to step in to fill the information gap.
Even when they had learned of the advisory, the municipal governments within TWW’s service area could only report what TWW and DEP had told them, directing residents’ questions to TWW.
When contacted by the Post at 2 p.m. on Jan. 15, a Trenton Water Works employee could not say which parts of the TWW service area were affected by the notice.
For years, the chief complaint of the mayors in TWW’s service area had been lack of communication and clarity from TWW.
The officials discussed the issues TWW had faced in 2017, along with the city’s plans to staff the treatment plant, to follow DEP recommendations and to hire a water management firm to help operate Trenton Water Works.
“TWW has operated according to state and federal standards, supplying water to its customers that either meets or exceeds federal standards,” Jackson said in the statement.
“There have been some temporary operational issues, but the water quality and the public’s health was never in danger.” But Martin’s Jan. 12 letter to Trenton said the city had agreed to award an emergency management contract by Nov. 30, 2017, and nearly two months after missing that deadline, its draft contract remains “unacceptably incomplete and does not meet even the minimum requirements to keep TWW operational.” And even though Jackson cited TWW’s cooperation with the DEP, the state agency has had serious concerns about Trenton Water Works and the city’s ability to act in good faith.
Trenton city council has waived residency requirements for Trenton Water Works employees, and has hired a consultant to fill positions at TWW.
State Sen. Linda Greenstein and Assemblymen Daniel Benson and Wayne DeAngelo, who represent Hamilton, sent a letter to McCabe and Board of Public Utilities President Joseph Fiordaliso requesting a meeting regarding Trenton Water Works and to seek solutions to the “ongoing, growing problems to ensure the health and safety of our constituents.” Greenstein last year led a joint Drinking Water Task Force unrelated to TWW, and has moved Trenton’s water issues to the top of her 2018 priorities.