Trenton City continues to fight NJ over troubled water utility

This article, written by Joanna Gagis, originally appeared on NJ Spotlight.

In a fiery city council meeting Monday night, Shawn LaTourette, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, presented a litany of reasons why the state supports Trenton and surrounding suburbs creating a regional authority to govern its water utility.

“I’m here to talk about the infrastructure, the ability to maintain it, and a better way that can be pursued that does not rip away from the city its asset and ability to generate revenue,” said LaTourette. “The system is at an extremely high risk of systemic failure that the city alone cannot repair even with the support and stabilization from the DEP.”

Trenton received two recent reports outlining the utility’s failures, with five options for moving forward, one of them: regionalization.

The next step would be a study to analyze what regionalization could look like. Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora worked with LaTourette to develop a proposal for the study. LaTourette thought the City Council was on board, but council members thought they were being strong-armed when they received a letter from the DEP at the end of July. The council pushed back on the idea that its utility is failing, pointing to safe drinking water results in the latest tests.

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The DEP sued Trenton Water Works in 2020 for several compliance failures, but that lawsuit was put on hold by LaTourette two years ago, who bolstered the system with state support, helping it complete grant applications. Trenton Water Works is still not in compliance in many areas, but maintaining local control is a point of deep pride for Trentonians, who rejected privatization several years ago.

“You’re saying you’re not sure if it’s sustainable or not. My question to you is, if you are here not to take something that is of value to us, and to collaborate with us, why not empower us to maintain our own water supply?” said Councilwoman Teska Frisby.

“Compliance with the law is your obligation, not mine. Compliance with the safe drinking water act is your obligation, not mine. And the goal is not selling it off. Not to take it away, but to put it on a better footing,” said LaTourette.

“I was in favor of the regionalization study as a way for council to get that information from the beginning. I still am. But it shouldn’t be forced on Trentonians, as the commissioner made clear tonight,” said Gusciora.

The regionalization study would analyze the financials of Trenton Water Works, and how it could bond separate and apart from the city, which would LaTourette says would put both the city and the utility on better financial footing.

One council member suggested creating a Trenton-run authority. But the council also heard from community members and Trenton Water Works employees, who said they want to maintain control and they’re ready to fight for it.