Trenton lead pipe replacement program under scrutiny after contractor charged in Newark scheme

A federal criminal investigation into Newark’s lead pipe replacement program has spilled into Trenton, where a similar multimillion-dollar project to replace 32,000 lead lines is underway in the state capital, The Jersey Vindicator has learned.

Crews from Trenton’s water utility and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) are now reexamining thousands of valves and lead service lines that were reportedly replaced by the same contractor recently charged with fraud for falsifying lead replacement work in Newark.

Michael Walker, a spokesman for the Trenton Water Works, said in a late November interview that the city agency was recently contacted by law enforcement officials reviewing lead line replacement work done by JAS Group Enterprise Inc.

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The West Windsor-based firm made national headlines in October when federal prosecutors charged company officials in an elaborate scheme involving Newark’s $10.2 million lead pipe project. At dozens of sites, JAS Group workers—at the direction of company Chief Executive Michael Sawyer—allegedly left lead pipes in the ground but reported they had been removed.

Trenton Water Works has provided information to investigators about JAS Group’s work to replace 1,300 lead and galvanized steel service lines under a $7.9 million contract awarded by the Trenton City Council in 2021, spokesman Michael Walker said. The agency is also working with the state to “audit” photos and periodic reports the company submitted to verify its work, he said.

The water utility, assisted by the NJDEP, must now inspect service lines JAS Group claimed to have replaced at homes and businesses.

“This is going to take weeks, maybe months,” Walker said, declining to say whether the city received any subpoenas from federal prosecutors. “All I can say is that we were contacted by law enforcement entities looking into work performed by JAS. For more information, call the U.S. Attorney’s Office.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark declined to comment. “It’s our policy to neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation,” said Matt Riley, a spokesman for the office.

However, according to a document made available to The Jersey Vindicator, a JAS employee who worked on lead line replacements for the contractor in both Newark and Trenton reported that he was aware of at least two instances in Trenton where lead lines that should have been replaced were deliberately left in the ground at the urging of supervisors.

Sean Semple, the director of Trenton Water Works, was unavailable for an interview in recent weeks. Walker said Semple was on vacation. Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora, who approved the JAS Group contract, and several members of the City Council did not return calls and messages seeking comment.

Vincent Grassi, a spokesman for the NJDEP, confirmed in a written statement that the department is working with Trenton to audit JAS Group’s lead line work.

Longstanding problems

Trenton’s 224-year-old water works, like many urban water agencies, faces chronic financial and manpower challenges as it works to distribute 28 million gallons of drinking water daily through more than 650 miles of pipes and mains to more than 217,000 users in Trenton and four nearby Mercer County communities.

In the past decade alone, the water plant has been forced to shut down 40 times due to treatment failures and other issues that have occasionally exposed customers to human pathogens and toxic chemicals.

Last week, Trenton Water Works revealed another failure: Between October 2022 and the end of 2023, a rogue employee falsified required testing data for pH, iron, manganese, and contaminants such as coliform and E. coli, according to a Nov. 27 letter sent to water users.

The employee was placed on leave and later fired after an NJDEP investigation determined that the majority of samples recorded by the worker were false.

In 2022, state environmental regulators issued Trenton Water Works a 15-page unilateral administrative order detailing dozens of violations of state and federal safe drinking water laws dating back to 1976.

Addressing those mandates, completing the lead pipe project, and making other long-needed capital improvements will cost $1 billion over the next 15 years, according to the agency. The funding will have to come partly from ratepayers. Trenton Water officials estimate the lead pipe project alone will cost $250 million. Just two years ago, a press release from the water utility and Mayor Reed Gusciora put the cost at $200 million and predicted the project would be completed by 2028.

The replacement project has been funded so far through state and federal sources, including $15 billion earmarked for lead pipe remediation under the bipartisan infrastructure law. Trenton Water officials say the agency is seeking additional state funds to help complete the job.

As the water works looks for more funding, officials now warn it is at risk of missing a 2031 state deadline to replace all lead pipes in the water system, which also serves Hamilton, Hopewell, Ewing, and Lawrence townships. City officials are considering requesting an extension from the state Department of Environmental Protection, which is allowed under the 2021 state law mandating the statewide program, a NJDEP spokesman said.

An official pipe inventory provided by the utility shows that, as of July 30, nearly 42,000 pipes in Trenton Water’s distribution system still needed to be replaced or identified as potential lead lines. The data indicates there are approximately 16,200 lead or galvanized steel pipes in use, with an additional 26,500 classified as “lead status unknown.”

Trenton would become the first community to request an extension, state officials said.

Until city officials, including Mayor Gusciora, the City Council, and the director of Trenton Water Works, address allegations of fraud involving JAS Group, residents will be left waiting for answers about how the company was selected and how it operated.

From developer to contractor

A review of the company’s history shows that JAS Group has primarily operated not on public works projects but on developing affordable housing projects across New Jersey, often with the aid of state financing and paid lobbyists in Trenton.

Sawyer, the JAS founder and chief executive, trumpeted the firm’s development experience in social media posts that are still online.

“Michael Sawyer has accumulated more than 20 years of successful real estate development projects,” his LinkedIn page states. “Following a career in investment, Mr. Sawyer founded JAS Group Enterprise Inc. with a focus on creating value in the New Jersey real estate market. Through his expertise, transparency, and preparation, he establishes credibility and effective working relationships with local planning boards.”

Under Sawyer, JAS Group pursued real estate ventures such as The Trail at Princeton Pike, a 190-unit mix of market-rate houses and affordable apartments approved by Lawrence Township in 2020.

Another of the company’s affordable housing projects, the Oasis at Greate Bay in Somers Point, is slated to begin construction by the end of the year, with JAS Group serving as both the developer and general contractor. In September, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA) approved an $11.5 million tax credit to cover 60% of the project’s cost.

Economic Development Authority staff members who reviewed and recommended JAS Group’s tax credit application reported that the company is family-owned and certified as a minority-owned business. The certification, provided by the state of New Jersey, is intended to give such firms a leg up to win government-financed contracts.

Virginia Flood, a spokeswoman for the EDA, said the tax award to JAS Group is now “under review.” She noted that no credits for the project have been issued yet.

JAS Group did not respond to multiple calls and messages left at its West Windsor office. A woman who answered the phone said she would forward a detailed message to Sawyer. Michael A. Schwartz, listed as Sawyer’s attorney in the Newark case, did not respond to an email and phone message left at his Philadelphia office this week.

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JAS Trenton contract

Sawyer and Latronia Sanders, a second JAS Group employee from Roselle who supervised Newark lead remediation workers, were arrested Oct. 3. The two face up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines on federal conspiracy and wire fraud charges. Neither has entered a plea yet.

On the day of their arrest, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said the two intentionally left lead pipes in the ground in Newark.

“By causing misleading photographs and verification forms to be submitted, Sawyer and Sanders concealed that they intentionally did not replace lead pipes and defrauded Newark by collecting payment for work they did not properly perform,” Sellinger said. “Today, we begin the process of holding them accountable.”

State records show that last year, JAS Group paid $30,000 to Trenton-based lobbying firm CLB Partners to influence government officials on development-related work. CLB is led by a former executive director of the New Jersey General Assembly and another lobbyist who was a lead staffer for state Sen. Nicholas J. Sacco, the mayor of North Bergen in Hudson County.

JAS Group was the low bidder for Trenton’s lead pipe replacement contract, beating out eight other companies reviewed by the city council. Bid documents posted on the city’s website do not include information about the bidders’ contracting experience. Walker said he recalled no concerns about the company’s qualifications. He cited JAS Group’s work on Newark’s lead project and its low bid as the deciding factors in Trenton.

“We just don’t hire people off the street,” Walker said. “There’s a public contracting process that they have to follow. They did, and they won the bid. Newark was very happy with their work.”

Health crisis hurts children the most

For years, Trenton residents have been exposed to some of the highest levels of toxic lead in New Jersey—in their drinking water, in their schools and playgrounds, and even in the soil in their backyards.

A report issued by the state health department found that while efforts to remove lead from the environment have reduced exposure levels, children in Trenton still have high amounts of the toxic metal in their bodies. Trenton is among the five New Jersey cities with the highest blood lead levels in children, the report said.

Isles Inc., a nonprofit community development group in Trenton, said state data shows about 50% of children in city schools have blood lead levels that could affect their learning and behavior. Many of these children live in some of the state’s poorest Latino and Black neighborhoods.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed placing an entire section of East Trenton, once a hub for the clay pottery industry, on its Superfund cleanup list.

Shereyl Snider, a community organizer with the nonprofit East Trenton Collaborative, said obstacles to safely removing lead from the water and soil will only deepen an ongoing health crisis.

“You know, I eat, sleep, and drink lead. It’s on my mind when I go to bed. It’s on my mind when I wake up,” Snider said in a recent interview. “Low-income, poor, Black, and brown communities—they don’t even know what’s hitting them. We’re way past time to remove this scourge.”

Trenton is not the only New Jersey town grappling with the cost and complexity of reverse-engineering an underground network of lead pipes that has been in place for more than a century in some areas.

As of last year, an estimated 350,000 lead service lines were still running under city streets, curbs, and sidewalks across the state.

Researchers say many water systems are still working to create basic inventories mapping lead plumbing lines entering homes and businesses, with much of the unfinished work concentrated in low-income urban areas, including Trenton, Union, Essex, Passaic, and Hudson counties.

“There is a direct relationship between older housing and the prevalence of lead service lines and lead plumbing,” said Deandrah Cameron, who heads the drinking water task force for New Jersey Future, a nonprofit public policy group.

The staggering costs involved, Cameron said, come as local water systems are also being pressed to address emerging threats such as PFAS, the so-called “forever chemicals” found in consumer goods.

Erik D. Olson, who directs drinking water protection programs for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said Trenton officials and governments at all levels must do a better job of informing residents about the risks. Some local officials and water utilities, Olson added, have withheld critical information from the public.

Government officials “need to avoid the false reassurances about the safety of tap water that have been offered in a mistaken and paternalistic belief that the public cannot handle the truth about the threats posed by their tap water,” Olson said.