State vs. Trenton: Water system on brink sparks clash over control, race, responsibility
New Jersey’s top environmental official, Shawn LaTourette, appeared before the Trenton City Council on Monday night to plead for reform of the city’s water system, which experts say is teetering on collapse.
His two-hour appearance before a boisterous public audience at City Hall quickly became a chaotic forum for recrimination, racial animosity, and personal attacks on LaTourette, an environmental attorney who has led the state Department of Environmental Protection since 2021.
“This is personal for me,” said Councilwoman Teska Frisby, glaring at LaTourette as she ticked off the names of African American personnel who operate the city’s water plant.
“People always think Trenton needs to have someone come in on a white horse to save us,” Frisby said. “But you have beautiful Black people in here right now. Why not empower us to maintain the plant?”
LaTourette’s response was drowned out by whoops and catcalls from an audience of about 100 people, including more than a dozen employees of the Trenton Water Works, the 200-year-old utility that processes about 30 million gallons of drinking water each day for more than 225,000 people in Trenton and four surrounding suburban Mercer County communities.
Frisby said the state, not Trenton, bore the blame for the city’s deteriorating water plant, because politicians gobbled up land and financial resources for government buildings that dominate New Jersey’s capital. LaTourette, she said, was propagating the same kind of “environmental injustice.”
“Madam, I am a professor of environmental justice,” shot back LaTourette, who lectures as an adjunct professor of law at Rutgers Law School-Camden. “If you are used to seeing enemies everywhere, you can never see your friends.”
Monday’s public meeting came as the state ratchets up pressure on Trenton to remedy decades of dysfunction at the city water works, which has been out of compliance with state and federal clean water mandates since at least 2009.
The Department of Environmental Protection under LaTourette imposed operational oversight on the utility almost three years ago, amid a sweeping lawsuit by suburban water users and an outbreak of waterborne illness connected to Legionella. Investigators determined that the bacterium, found breeding with other deadly microbes in the city reservoir, was responsible for the deaths of several Trenton Water Works customers.
In January, a pair of independent engineering experts hired by the state concluded that the utility is on the brink of collapse after decades of mismanagement, corruption, and the postponement of about $1 billion in scheduled maintenance. The experts recommended a new regional governance structure that would entail Trenton ceding some control to suburban communities that now make up 55% of the utility’s customer base.
LaTourette has embraced the idea of a regional authority. He’s also grown increasingly frustrated at the city’s failure to improve its water system. In June, he pulled a surprise inspection at the water plant and published snapshots of rusting pipes, broken control panels, and other hazards, including a leaky roof he said was near collapse.
“This is by far the worst water utility in the state,” he said in an interview with The Jersey Vindicator, likening it to notoriously tainted facilities in places like Flint, Michigan. “This is an imminent threat to public health and safety.”
On Monday, members of the Trenton City Council insisted that LaTourette was either making up or exaggerating the water quality emergency. They seized on recent sampling data that shows water quality, for the time being at least, meets basic cleanliness standards.
Some suggested that LaTourette is a stalking horse for unnamed parties looking to privatize the utility. They accused him of wanting to be the high-salaried executive director of any new regional water authority. Others said he was grandstanding for the next governor in a bid to keep his job past January 2026.
It was clear that some council members never read the independent engineering reports released eight months ago or were aware that the state had issued a bid request for a two-year consulting study of the regionalization concept. Mostly, the elected officials belittled LaTourette’s efforts or dismissed his arguments for the study outright.
“You’re wasting our time,” said Councilman Joseph Harrison, who told LaTourette to leave.
But the council also expressed indignation over LaTourette’s surprise visit and the tone of a testy July 9 letter he sent commanding the council to vote on the regionalization study. They pointed out that the state continues to allow Trenton to periodically sell treated water to surrounding water companies and municipalities, such as Bordentown City.
Several council members also said they were insulted that LaTourette, before Monday night, did not recognize significant progress they say they have made in improving the water utility in recent years.
“Your attitude and letter have been shocking,” Councilwoman Yazminelly Gonzalez told him. “Have we done anything good?”
LaTourette, who was visibly shaken as the City Hall confrontation wore on and audience members openly challenged him, acknowledged progress but said the utility remained far from compliant with basic water safety laws. He predicted that the courts or federal government would step in if Trenton does not accept help.
He reassured city officials that they would remain in substantial control under a regional authority, and current workers — almost exclusively Trenton residents — would keep their jobs. LaTourette downplayed rumors that Gov. Phil Murphy or the New Jersey Legislature were considering legal measures to take direct control of Trenton Water Works.
“What happens if you don’t agree to a study?” LaTourette said. “I don’t know what happens. Then you’re on your own. There is no legislative order coming. But you have to do what is required by the law, and you have not.”
Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora, who sat in the audience listening to LaTourette, said he still supported a regionalization study. But he mirrored the pique of the council members and said the heated tone of Monday’s gathering reflected “democracy in action.”
The two-term mayor, who was elected partly on a pledge to clean up the Trenton Water Works, said LaTourette failed to credit the city with progress. He also said that former council members, who left office in 2021, blocked key spending measures that hamstrung reform efforts.
Data supplied by Gusciora show that two former council members voted against bond issues that would have financed more than $200 million in long-needed improvements at the water utility, including roof repairs singled out by LaTourette.
“We’ve done a lot, and this guy makes it seem like we’re the worst around,” Gusciora said. “But we’re far from the only urban water system with challenges, and we’re far from the only one with Legionella issues.”
Gusciora pointed to Paterson, where a recent pipe failure left 200,000 users without potable water for a week.
“Why isn’t LaTourette up there yelling at them?” he asked.
After LaTourette’s two-hour-plus appearance, members of the public came to the microphone. Some proceeded to stoke the confrontational tone that had come earlier.
Jerome Wakefield, director of operations at the water plant, urged the council to reject any help from the state and any study of a regional authority. “Don’t regionalize, recognize — that they’re trying to take us over,” he said.
Taya Brown-Humphrey, an engineer at the water plant, fought back tears while claiming that LaTourette and the state, and their expert consultants, got it wrong. LaTourette’s photos of the water plant, she said, in no way reflected the quality of water sent to 225,000 Mercer County residents every day.
Every day, she said, tests show the water meets state standards.
“That water is good,” she said.
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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.
