Top New Jersey environmental official warns of ‘substantial and imminent threat’ at Trenton Water Works

Shawn LaTourette, the commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, compared the Trenton water crisis to Flint, Michigan and Jackson, Mississippi in an interview with The Jersey Vindicator.

The state’s top environmental official pulled a surprise inspection at Trenton’s troubled water works last month. He came away “deeply troubled” and says he will increase scrutiny on the 225-year-old utility as it heads into an uncertain future.

“The Trenton Water Works status quo is dangerously unacceptable,” Shawn LaTourette, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, wrote in a sharply worded letter to Trenton’s mayor and council, dated July 29. “A new path for the utility is an absolute necessity.”

In his six-page letter, LaTourette accused the city of “backsliding” on promises to improve Trenton Water Works and said he found “a resurgent and growing resistance to engage in a transparent and collaborative manner with DEP.”

LaTourette, in a separate interview Thursday with The Jersey Vindicator, said the Trenton water system remains the worst in New Jersey and continues to function solely with the technical support of the state and the financial backing of taxpayers. During a 3.5-hour visit in June to the utility’s water treatment plant, LaTourette said, he witnessed “appalling conditions” that represent a substantial and imminent threat to public health.

A series of photos LaTourette shared showed what he said was alarming evidence of neglect, including corroded and broken equipment and electrical cords running through puddles of water, all under a sagging and leaky roof. He cited decades of mismanagement at the utility and ongoing failure to meet state and federal clean water standards.

“We’re talking about Flint, Michigan. We’re talking Jackson, Mississippi,” he said, referring to cities that have both endured notorious public water crises. “This facility has been kept going with duct tape and bubble gum. The state stood over Trenton’s shoulder for two years and spent millions trying to help … Now the city’s leadership has to stand up and do the right thing.”

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LaTourette is asking city officials to embrace a plan that places control of the water works in the hands of a regional authority comprised of Trenton and four surrounding Mercer County communities served by the utility. He urged the council to approve a study of the plan at its next public meeting Aug. 5.

“We’re talking about Flint, Michigan. We’re talking Jackson, Mississippi,” he said, referring to cities that have both endured notorious public water crises. “This facility has been kept going with duct tape and bubble gum. The state stood over Trenton’s shoulder for two years and spent millions trying to help … Now the city’s leadership has to stand up and do the right thing.”

Shawn LaTourette, Commissioner of the new jersey department of environmental protection

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Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora, who was elected to office vowing to reform the water works, was clearly stung by LaTourette’s surprise visit. He said the commissioner’s criticisms ignored substantial progress toward reform and his own support for a regionalization study.

LaTourette’s actions, he said, signaled the start of a coercion campaign to strip Trenton Water from its historic owners, the 90,000 residents of New Jersey’s capital city.

“Here’s my response to the claims made by Commissioner LaTourette: Bullshit,” Gusciora said in an interview with The Jersey Vindicator. “He shouldn’t be bullying the people of Trenton.”

Gusciora claimed the DEP itself, which has overseen operations at the utility since 2022, bears responsibility for some of the continuing management and technical problems besetting Trenton Water. He said a $9 million water intake system installed by the state two years ago failed on its first use and remains unreliable. The state’s promise to recruit and hire hard-to-find plant managers, he said, also remains unfulfilled.

The mayor pointed out that Trenton Water, with the state’s knowledge and approval, continues to sell millions of gallons of treated water to public and private water companies outside Trenton, including the city of Bordentown.

“If our process here is so inadequate and dangerous, why are they condoning us selling water to other communities?” Gusciora asked.

Gusciora said he continues to support a regionalization study, but it must include an assessment of how much surrounding towns would compensate the city, which has invested billions in Trenton Water since it first began operation in the early 19th century.

“What we cannot support … is being strong-armed into a predetermined outcome, namely, regionalization, without proper due diligence, public engagement and accountability,” he said. “A study of regionalization? Absolutely. But a forced transfer of Trenton’s water assets and authority without guarantees or meaningful local input? That’s not governance — that’s coercion.”

LaTourette, an environmental lawyer who has headed the DEP since 2021, said neither the state nor regional water users want to strip Trenton of its water utility. But he said suburban communities like Hamilton now make up more than half of its customers, and they deserve to have some say in how Trenton Water Works is managed.

“No one is talking about privatization. We want to preserve the asset for them, not take it away,” he said.

LaTourette bristled at Gusciora’s claims of coercion.

“I’m not trying to bully the people of Trenton,” LaTourette said. “I’m heartbroken for the people of Trenton. I’m heartbroken because they deserve to have good clean water, and their political leaders don’t have the courage to give it to them.”

LaTourette said Gusciora was right about one thing — the state’s inability to find qualified plant technicians and managers willing to work at Trenton Water Works.

“We went to many companies and talked to many people, and no one even put a bid in,” he said. “That’s because they know how bad it is.”

Trenton Water Works provides 35 million gallons of treated water daily to more than 200,000 users in Trenton, Lawrenceville, Hamilton, Ewing and Hopewell. In recent decades, users have been increasingly hit with boil-water advisories and other crises as the utility degenerated under mismanagement, patronage and political corruption, and systematic neglect of capital improvements.

In 2022, the state was forced to place the utility under its supervision after Trenton Water ignored a string of water quality compliance orders. Several suburban water users died after being exposed to Legionella and other microbes breeding in the city reservoir, which the state says remains in violation of water quality standards.

The utility was hit by scandal last year after an employee pleaded guilty to faking water quality reports. The employee sat at home collecting overtime pay instead of collecting samples for more than a year, investigators found.

A series of independent consultant reports paid for by the state and released earlier this year found that the utility was on the brink of collapse and recommended a laundry list of management changes, the hiring of qualified plant managers and a range of capital improvements costing hundreds of millions. A lead line replacement program ordered by the state remains incomplete and underfunded as city residents continue to show high blood levels of the toxic element.

The Gusciora administration, which the DEP had credited with stabilizing problems at Trenton Water, is now considering a 14% water rate hike that would begin to pay for more than $1 billion in needed repairs over the next decade. Even with the rate hike, which would add $68 a year to the average water bill, Trenton water would still be among the cheapest water providers in the state, officials say.

LaTourette’s letter and his surprise inspection mark the beginning of what he says will be a new era for Trenton and its decaying water works. The DEP will now lessen day-to-day supervision of the utility and focus more on increasing “compliance,” according to the letter — a word Gusciora said meant “fines, fines and more fines.”

“The protection of public health and safety shall remain DEP’s highest priority,” LaTourette wrote. “A consistent DEP compliance and enforcement presence should be expected.”

DEP Photos of Trenton Water Works Site visit

The photos taken by officials last month show corroded pipes, switches and equipment, flooding, roof leaks, and filtration plant intake issues. The DEP issued a warning Wednesday that taps could run dry due to inadequate and failing equipment that could shut down the filtration plant. Boil water advisories could be issued due to a loss of water supply pressure.