I hope you’ve heard by now that you need to boil your tap water before drinking this evening, in Trenton and the surrounding townships served by Trenton Water Works. A release issued this afternoon explains:
“Due to the high level of the Delaware River basin, we are experiencing very difficult conditions treating the water at the Trenton Water Filtration Plant. Thus, this heavy flow requires us to use the water reservoir reserve. As of 2:30pm, we were producing seven MGD flow, which is one quarter of our normal flow which is 28MGD. All residents in Trenton, Ewing, Lawrence, Hopewell, and Hamilton are advised to boil water prior to consumption. The plant is working around the clock to restore service back to normal. This message should be sent to all news outlets, neighboring municipalities, published on the City of Trenton’s website, and via emergency telephonic communications.”
Interesting, the explanation that this is due to high river levels. According to this graph posted by the National Weather Service, the Delaware crested two feet short of flood stage on Saturday morning, and has been steadily dropping since then. From 5AM Sunday onward, the river has been 15 feet or lower. So, ascribing today’s problems to water levels that peaked more than 50 hours ago seems odd on its face. I do recall that the severe flood in June 2006 washed out the pump house on Route 29, forcing TWW to draw its drinking water from its reservoir. But that was when the Delaware crested about 13 feet above flood stage, not 2 feet below.
Which may give some credence to the unnamed “insider” quoted on Trentonian.com this afternoon, who points a finger of responsibility to an unnamed on-call technician who was MIA yesterday. If this is the case,this should come to light. When public safety is at risk due to threats to our drinking water, anonymity shouldn’t be be condoned.
In any case, the City’s response today has been somewhat less than confidence-building. Water pressure in our household was low this morning, which we didn’t really pay that much attention to; it happens briefly once in a while for short periods of time. When we started to see notes from neighbors around town on Facebook about the same problem, we knew it was a city-wide problem.
Mid-afternoon saw increased water pressure, but the water ran brown for a while. I called TWW at 3PM to ask if the water was safe to drink (it was clear by then), and talked to 2 people who had no idea; other than offering to transfer me to the Superintendent’s voice mail, they offered no assistance, nor made no further effort to find me an answer. I didn’t think my question was all that unexpected!
The City’s website was silent about this until about 4:30 PM, when the notice above was posted, and emailed. I haven’t been notified via the Reverse 911 system. I suppose that’s reserved for really important messages, sch as holiday trash pickup schedules. Or did we drop that service? I remember the contract for the company hosting that service was up before Council a few months ago. I can’t recall if the city re-upped that service, or closed it down.
In any case, there should be more information forthcoming. I look forward to hearing more about how high water levels can have such a delayed reaction in our system. Or perhaps, more about MIA technicians, hmmm??
Kevin,
You are on correct in finding odd the release’s citing of the water level of the Delaware River as the cause of the treatment problems at the plant. Apparently, prior to its issuance, the release wasn’t reviewed by the water treatment plant supervisory staff. Otherwise, the release probably would have read something like “Due to high turbidity levels in the Delaware River…”
If the City or the water utility staff conduct any additional investigation into the cause of the treatment problems, it or they may find and conclude that rapidly changing water quality in the river and the plant’s inability to react to those changes were the causes of the ineffective treatment. However, additional investigation may reveal that operator error or operator neglect was the cause or a contributing factor. It may also find that there may have been an equipment malfunction that was not accurately reported by the plant’s computer monitoring system. Hopefully in the days ahead, the City will provide more credible information regarding the treatment plant problems and the course of action that will be taken to eliminate or minimize the re-occurrence of the loss of treatment.
The problems at the plant should not have been the cause of the problems reported throughout the service area. As has been reported by the press in the past, as long as there is water in the reservoir and the pumping station supplied by the reservoir is operational, customers should receive adequate supply at adequate pressure. There may have been other problems beyond the treatment plant problems that caused the reported loss of service or inadequate flows and pressures. Hopefully, the City will determine if this is so and take the necessary steps to assure its customers that it will not happen again.
Nice to hear from you again, William! I was working on a new post today while your note came in. Perhaps you will have an answer to the question I asked: After an incident such as this one, is there any kind of mandatory reporting required to, or investigation by, any outside body: DEP, EPA? Or is this not serious enough to require it?
I do note that the city’s press release – the short one at the top of the city’s website still lists high water as the cause, although the longer Advisory (available only if you keep clicking through three or four levels down into the city website – IT, take a note!!) explains the situation “due to a treatment plant shutdown.”
We haven’t yet seen any reports of equipment malfunction, although it is still early in the investigation, and that may come out later on as a contributing factor. Right now, human error seems likely as a major contributing cause.
Thanks for writing and for reading, William!
Kevin,
I am not aware of any State or Federal requirements that require a water utility to conduct an investigation and prepare a report for filing and review after loss of treatment at a facility or loss of pressure in a distribution system.
A New Jersey water utility like Trenton’s is subject to the rules and regulations contained in N.J.A.C. 7.10 The Safe Drinking Water Act. Within that act is a requirement that the water utility notify NJDEP in accordance with the following:
7:10-2.4 Reporting of changes to plants and emergencies
(b) A supplier of water shall notify the Department by
telephone at (609) 292-5550 during business hours, or (609)
292-7172 during non-business hours, within six hours of the
occurrence of any emergency that may tend to lessen the quality
or pressure of delivered water, or increase the likelihood of
delivery of water that does not meet the standards set forth in
N.J.A.C. 7:10-5.
The chapter does not specify what action the utility should or shall take after remedying what caused the utility to notify the NJDEP.
Incidents that trigger boil water orders are not that uncommon. However, they are usually the result of large water main breaks that cause system pressure, either locally or system wide, to fall to levels that may not prevent back siphonage from customers. Based upon the newspaper reports, it appears that yesterday’s boil water order was issued due to the reported loss of pressure in parts of the service area and was not issued due to the problems at the treatment plant. Although it was reported that dirty water was pumped out of the plant, it is highly unlikely that the people in charge of the plant allowed that to happen. It is also highly unlikely that any water that did not meet regulatory requirements was pumped out of the plant and delivered to customers and to the reservoir.