Embattled council rejects most of nearly $110M requested for troubled water system

Trenton Water Works

File photo of the Trenton Water Works building in TrentonMichael Mancuso / The Times of Trenton

The Trenton City Council — embroiled in scandal after a headline-grabbing rant by one of its members — made a split decision on nearly $110 million that had been requested for improvements to the city’s troubled water utility.

Trenton Water Works — the 200-year-old utility that is owned and operated by Trenton and serves 217,000 people in the city as well as in Lawrence, Ewing, Hamilton and Hopewell Township — is currently under two administrative consent orders from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

Mayor Reed Gusciora had warned on Wednesday that failure to pass the bonds, which would pay in part for state-mandated upgrades, would invite the DEP to sue the city.

The council approved $25 million for the water system’s ongoing efforts to replace lead service lines. The garden hose-sized pipes are recognized as the source of lead issues in the Trenton system, as well as the cause of lead water problems across New Jersey.

Trenton Water Works launched its lead service line replacement program with $15 million in January. Gusciora said the utility will replace 2,600 lines by the end of this year. There are more than 36,000 lead service lines in the system; replacing all of them is expected to take five years and cost $150 million.

The utility was found to have high lead levels in 2017 and 2018, but has not had a lead violation since the end of 2018. Last November, Trenton Water Works began a new treatment method to prevent lead from leaching into drinking water.

The council then rejected more than $83 million in bonds for Trenton Water Works that had been requested in two separate ordinances.

The first of the rejected ordinances would have provided $50 million to Trenton Water Works for a water meter replacement project, and the state-mandated replacement of the outdated Pennington Reservoir. The second was for $33.6 million for various improvements at the Trenton Water Works water treatment plant and headquarters.

Both of those ordinances won a simple majority with 4-3 votes, but the measures required a supermajority of five yes votes to pass. Council President Kathy McBride, West Ward Councilwoman Robin Vaughn and Councilman-At-Large Santiago Rodriguez voted no on both ordinances.

Vaughn has been washed in scandal this week after unleashing a profane, homophobic rant against Gusciora on Saturday, which led to Gov. Phil Murphy, U.S. Senator Cory Booker and others to call for her resignation. On Wednesday, Vaughn apologized but said she would not resign.

McBride and Vaughn both said they voted against the bonds because they were concerned about the city taking on more debt. They also expressed doubts about the utility’s ability to pay back the bonds, despite recently approving a rate increase for all Trenton Water Works customers.

Trenton Water Works is self-liquidating, according to David Smith, the water system’s interim director.

Vaughn asked why the new revenue from the rate increase could not finance the projects proposed by the rejected ordinances.

Janet Schoenhaar, the city’s chief financial officer, told the council that the bonds were needed so that the utility would have cash on hand to actually do the proposed work. She added that the new revenue from the rate increase would then pay back the bonds.

“It’s going to take some time for the rate increase to generate all this money,” Schoenhaar said.

McBride called for a forensic audit of Trenton Water Works, raising questions about how bonds issued back to 2012 have been spent by the utility and echoing a request that she has made for months.

“I don’t know what is so hard for anyone to understand that in order to move forward, you need to know where these millions of dollars have gone,” McBride said.

Councilman-At-Large Jerell Blakely expressed dismay that the money was not approved, and he said the council was being irresponsible with public health by rejecting the ordinances.

“This is a dark day in the history of the Trenton Water Works,” Blakely said. “The Trenton Water Works cannot just be a cash cow for the city of Trenton.”

On Friday, the DEP released a statement expressing disappointment in the council’s actions.

“The DEP is disappointed in the Trenton City Council vote against investing in measures necessary to ensure Trenton Water Works’ ability to comply with its obligations under state and federal law and DEP administrative orders on consent that Trenton had previously agreed to,” the statement read. “DEP urges the Council to reconsider and to take the measures necessary to protect the health of the customers who rely on them for safe drinking water.”

This story was updated on Friday at 4:15 p.m. with additional comment from the DEP.

MORE: See our comic that draws out how lead got into drinking water across N.J.

Read more of NJ.com’s coverage of New Jersey water issues here.

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Michael Sol Warren may be reached at mwarren@njadvancemedia.com.

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