New Jersey’s capital city’s water problem simmers after monitoring error exposed • New Jersey Monitor

Residents of Trenton and its suburbs received a letter from their local water utility last week informing them that an employee had been fired for 15 months for falsifying drinking water data — meaning not monitoring the water for contaminants for more than a year became.

Otherwise, the news would have elicited a shrug from Trenton Water Works’ more than 200,000 customers, long accustomed to the mismanagement, money problems and staffing shortages that have left the utility operating frequently Headline fodder.

But the letter came two years after the state assumed supervision of the utility in New Jersey’s capital city and just a month after state environmental regulators denounced “serious … persistent noncompliance” with the state’s Safe Drinking Water Act — and imposed a $235,000 fine.

This also happened almost a year after the employee in question last falsified drinking water data.

“There’s a section in the letter that says, ‘What do you need to do now?’ It happened a year ago! “Do I buy a time machine and go back without drinking the water?” said Michael Ranallo, a longtime Trenton resident.

Trenton officials dispute that the falsified data means the water was contaminated. Instead, it was a monitoring violation, not a water quality violation, said Michael Walker, the utility’s director of communications and public relations.

The falsified data was “an inexcusable event,” but the employee was rightfully fired and referred to authorities for possible criminal charges, said Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora. A Spokesman of the The state attorney general’s office said the investigation is ongoing.

“We have a few hundred employees and unfortunately one of the water testers, in my opinion a criminal, failed in his duties, stayed at home and fabricated test results. Fully serious Violation. “That doesn’t necessarily mean water violations were found,” Gusciora said.

Residents and officials in the suburbs the utility serves remain skeptical.

“Although TWW maintains that there is no immediate threat to public health, I share the frustration and distrust of many residents of Ewing and our neighboring communities.” Ewing Mayor Bert Steinmann said in a statement.

Steinmann demanded more Transparency, accountability and “rapid corrective action”.

“Fake data and inadequate Testing for pollutants “This undermines public trust and raises serious questions about the utility’s ability to provide safe and reliable drinking water,” he said.

On the Facebook page Trenton Orbit, which Ranallo co-founded, Ranallo urged customers to dispute their bills and urge the state Public Utilities Authority to intervene. A board spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

“Would you pay your cable provider if your signal was there?” was messed up for a month?” Ranallo said.

He also complained that local and state officials “made a bigger deal when Starbucks left than anyone else had water for about 220,000 people.”

The closing of Starbucks was the trigger Governor Phil Murphy should intervene, vain.

Trenton Water Works serves all kinds of people and establishments, including restaurants and health care facilities, Ranallo told the New Jersey Monitor.

“If you look back at that time, how many people got sick and didn’t even think about it that it could that be water? We’ll never know,” he said.

While political leaders didn’t say much, Shawn LaTourette, the state’s environmental commissioner, did clear in his concerns about the usefulness in an order he released at the end of October.

“The Department has determined that conditions continue to exist in the system that may pose an imminent and significant threat to the health of individuals and that this (order) is necessary to protect the public health,” LaTourette wrote.

The order says the department will continue its operational oversight of the utility and informed Trenton Water Works will hire staff to manage its water treatment plant and other operations. The department is now advertise Commandments out of Companies that can assist in the operation, management, maintenance and repair of the utility for at least a period of at least 10 years a period of two years.

Gusciora said the city welcomes the state’s oversight and help In He filled the personnel gaps he denounced partially for the 200-year-old utility’s water monitoring failures and other ongoing problems.

“We are the second oldest water company in the country and there are a lot of historical issues that we have dealt with since the beginning,” Gusciora said.

He also blamed the state’s failure to invest in improvements or otherwise Support the city. During the Christie administration, the utility received just $6 million a year in state aid, compared to $47 million this yearwhile Public property in Trenton is tax-free, so the 7-square-mile city is struggling financially to close that property tax gap, he said.

“They consume a lot of our resources and take up space that would otherwise be freed up for development,” Gusciora said.