A comment on the latest boil
water advisory…..
As
many of you know, Trenton Water Works (TWW) issued a “Boil Water Advisory” (aka
BWA) on Friday morning, September 27, 2019. An official of TWW called our Health Officer (Carol
Chamberlain) early that morning to inform her that its system had a malfunction
which had resulted in a low chlorine level due to a mechanical failure which
was significant enough to trigger the advisory.
The BWA was issued by TWW at 6:16 AM.
In response to the information provided by TWW, our Health Officer then
informed Township officials including me, Police officials and our Director of
Emergency Management (Jack Oakley). I
have also been informed that the Mayor of Trenton contacted our Mayor at this
same time to further explain the situation.
Our
emergency services personnel (EMTs and Firefighters) were dispatched to
locations throughout the community that dealt with the public (i.e., day care
centers, medical offices and dialysis centers , schools, senior citizen housing
and businesses) to inform them of the situation. Police sent out NIXLE notifications (a
reverse 911 form of notification), and the Township posted the BWA on its
website (with a link for more information), and sent out an advisory email and posted
on our social media sites. Later that
day at approximately 4:45 pm, TWW informed us that the repairs were completed but
the BWA remained until lab testing confirmed the water to be safe for
consumption. without boiling. The following day TWW informed
the Township that the BWA was lifted, issued its formal statement, and we
responded by putting the information out on our various modes of
communication. If anyone reading this has not signed up for
our NIXLE notification system, please do.
Here is the link: https://local.nixle.com/register/. If you have never gone to our website, here
is the link and I encourage you all to go frequently to obtain information
about your Town: www.lawrencetwp.com.
While
the BWA was in effect, many residents took to social media to voice their
complaints, concerns and frustrations with TWW.
Some also had strong complaints about how the Township responded to this
advisory believing that we needed to do more.
From all of the commentary, it was clear many residents were uninformed
about very basic information regarding the recent history of TWW and the work
that has been done to address its deficiencies over the past 2 years. I hope
this article addresses this.
To
those of you who read my comments on FB responding to angry and frustrated
residents, I apologize for the following (since you all have heard this many times
before), but it is worth repeating now.
The TWW is a public water utility.
It is regulated by the State of New Jersey (under the Department of
Environmental Protection). The municipal
governments of Lawrence Township, Hamilton Township, Ewing Township and
Hopewell Township have absolutely no authority or control over this public
utility. We do not have access to its
offices or access to its operational facility.
We do not manage this public utility in any way, and we all certainly
have no authority to make statements on its behalf or issue advisories on its
operations UNLESS that information is provided by TWW or the State of NJ
DEP.
We
are all residents of the State of New Jersey.
The state government has control and oversight over many services that
are provided to us, public utilities such as TWW or PSE&G are among them. As a result, the Township, having residents
that are customers of these utilities absolutely has an obligation to notify the residents of anything that may affect the health and well-being of our residents….and we do
take it seriously and act accordingly and within the limitations we are
presented with.
Many
of you may not be aware that TWW has a website where you could register for
emergency advisories. The link is
here: https://public.coderedweb.com/CNE/en-US/BF84F5061533?isMobile=false&fbclid=IwAR3DR3R4TMKth7e3O8N6upHiR6LejJ751IcJqoh4KHeQQtNU_P8grLiMEGY. Some of you tried to do this during the BWA,
and may have experienced some problems I assume from too many people trying to
sign up at once…but sign up now! It is
easy.
In
addition, many of you may not know that as a result of advocacy and pressure
from the municipal officials from the four Towns and the growing concerns of
the NJDEP of the poor performance of TWW over the past several years, in 2017
the NJDEP took action against it. This
resulted in a administrative court order that legally obligates TWW to take
very certain and specific actions to improve its operations. The NJDEP press February 7, 2018 press
release is here: https://nj.gov/dep/newsrel/2018/18_0012.htm. The Administrative Consent Order (“ACO”) that
requires TWW to take immediate and certain actions is very informative and if
you take the time to read it, you will have a very good understanding that
government officials are acting on your behalf.
The link is here https://www.nj.gov/dep/docs/tww-aco-20180205.pdf. To those of you who want something to be
done….it is. What remains is possibly
for the State to actually take over this utility, and this very well may
happen. But it will still present us all
with a road to improvements that will take time.
Now,
I understand it is very easy for someone to say, “Well, a lot of good this is
doing. We just had another boil water
advisory.” This is the part where I ask
all of you to take a deep breath and be reasonable. Every single one of us is a work in
progress. We strive to improve, and at
times we take a step back and fail in some way.
Companies often find themselves seeking to recover from poor
performances only to experience setbacks for one reason or another. Public water utilities are no different in
this respect. Throughout our country
there are many public water utilities (especially the older ones like TWW) that one time or another (probably multiple times) have had to issue
BWAs due to a human or mechanical failure.
It happens. I know it happens to
us more than it should and we are all sick of it!!! But my purpose in writing this is not to
defend TWW. I am a customer, and I am as
frustrated as you all are. But from my
vantage point, I know for a fact TWW is improving. It is putting millions of dollars into improved infrastructure, and it is hiring qualified professionals to operate all aspects of the system. But these improvements will take time, and there will be set
backs.
What
we can do as your township officials is to take action to improve our
communications to you (and we will), but you need to do your part and take affirmative action
to stay connected with us. Put our
website as one of your “favorites” on your computer and visit it often. A new web design is coming soon so the
version you see today will be greatly improved.
Follow us on FB at https://www.facebook.com/TownshipofLawrence/ or Twitter https://twitter.com/LawTwpNJ and sign
up for NIXLE and receive the important notices as you want to (on your cell phone
or email). And for those friends and
family members who may not be connected, please do your part and get the word
out to them.
The
health officials of the municipalities will be meeting with TWW officials soon to discuss how communications can be
improved so our residents get the information as quickly as possible. And your elected officials from the
municipalities will do their part and continue to advocate on your behalf and
demand better from TWW.
I
hope you find this helpful, and I hope you read the NJDEP press release and the
Administrative Consent Order so you know what has been happening over the past
year.
