Toxic tap water in Trenton: Lead, copper, and Legionella bacteria found in office tower

Tenants of a 14-story office tower in Trenton are drinking bottled water after recent tap water tests revealed excessive levels of lead, copper and the deadly bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease.
State officials say they have ordered the owners of 50 West State Street to investigate the source of the pathogen and the toxic metals. On Tuesday, technicians were scheduled to collect and test water samples throughout the 300,000-square-foot building, which houses state and federal offices as well as prominent law firms and lobbyists.
The state Treasury Department, in a Jan. 31 letter to the building’s owner, said earlier testing turned up levels of Legionella bacteria above regulatory limits on the first, 10th and 12th floors. The letter, signed by Georgette Bunch, the department’s chief health and safety officer, was obtained by the Jersey Vindicator.
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Bunch, who told building residents that sources of potable water would be temporarily shut off as of Feb. 1, referred questions to a department spokeswoman, who did not respond to emailed questions Monday.
The quality of drinking water in the state capital has come under intense scrutiny in recent years amid growing dysfunction at the city’s water utility. A state report released last week concluded that Trenton Water Works, the agency that serves more than 200,000 Mercer County residents, is headed for imminent collapse without comprehensive management changes and more than $600 million in neglected capital improvements.
In 2022, the state stepped in to oversee day-to-day operations at the utility’s Delaware River filtration plant and other facilities after a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak traced to substandard conditions at the city reservoir and the 633 miles of pipes maintained by Trenton Water Works.
Three Mercer County residents died in the outbreak of 11 cases between December 2021 and March 2023, according to the state Health Department. An earlier spate of cases in a Hamilton Township senior apartment complex was also linked to Trenton Water Works, officials reported.
In an interview Monday, Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora said the source of Legionella at 50 West State Street remains unknown, and there was no evidence so far to link it with the city’s troubled drinking water system. Gusciora said some offices in the building have been vacant for years and the tower has been poorly maintained, raising the possibility that bacteria developed over time in plumbing that had been neglected.
Gusciora said no traces of the bacteria have been found in water mains leading to the office tower or in other nearby downtown buildings.
“If water has been sitting stagnant in unoccupied spaces, that would be an obvious place for this kind of bacteria to grow,” Gusciora said.
Legionnaires’ disease is a form of pneumonia that can develop after inhaling microscopic droplets of infected water. Outbreaks have been linked to everything from swimming pools and commercial cooling systems to hot tubs, decorative fountains and hot water heaters.
Some 200 to 300 people in New Jersey are diagnosed with the illness every year, health officials say. In 2023, 20 of the 269 people who contracted Legionnaires’ disease died. The elderly and those with compromised immune systems are more susceptible, experts say.
In response to the recent outbreaks, Trenton Water Works has started installing more automatic flushing equipment to move standing water. Officials are also making plans to drain the city reservoir and replace it with covered tanks to restrict human pathogens that have been found in the city’s pipes and mains.
Despite those improvements, the recent state report on Trenton Water Works suggested that the utility be removed from the city’s control and placed under the direction of a regional agency dominated by suburban communities that now comprise a majority of its customers. Corruption and political infighting have stymied efforts to reform the agency, the report found.
A majority of Trenton’s City Council, however, is opposed to any governance change.
“We’ve made some progress to improve things, but there is a lot more to do,” said Gusciora, who favors a new regional agency. “Right now, it appears there are four solid ‘nos’ on the council to moving ahead.”
Trenton Water Works, which has been operated by the city since 1859, serves more than 217,000 people in Trenton and four nearby communities.
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Jeff Pillets is a freelance journalist whose stories have been featured by ProPublica, New Jersey Spotlight News, WNYC-New York Public Radio and The Record. He was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2008 for stories on waste and abuse in New Jersey state government. Contact jeffpillets AT icloud.com.