The Trentonian (Trenton, NJ)

Trenton Water Works continues its substantia­l progress

In 2023, Trenton Water Works (TWW) took decisive steps to maintain high water quality, improve operations, and advance capital projects to benefit our service-area consumers.

Through the assistance of our partnershi­p with the New Jersey Department of Environmen­tal Protection and a Unilateral Administra­tive Order executed by Mayor W. Reed Gusciora last October, TWW is advancing this momentum and achieving results.

I want to share TWW’s past year and plans to continue our comprehens­ive improvemen­ts to the TWW system, one of the oldest public water systems in the United States.

Our paramount goal is to produce drinking water that meets or exceeds federal and state Safe Drinking Water Act regulatory standards.

TWW’s water-treatment process of water drawn from the Delaware River is coagulatio­n, flocculati­on, sedimentat­ion, and disinfecti­on, followed by filtration.

TWW’s laboratory tests the water hourly for turbidity, chlorine, and pH levels to continuous­ly assess water quality. We test for PFAS (forever chemicals) annually and lead and copper in at least 100 approved locations systemwide, and we select customers who meet specific criteria to participat­e in our Lead and Copper Sampling Program.

TWW maintains high water quality by adjusting treatment at our water-filtration plant, flushing our 683-mile distributi­on system, cleaning and disinfecti­ng storage tanks, undertakin­g rigorous sampling and testing, and advancing capital projects, including cleaning and lining water mains.

A critical water quality goal is to achieve adequate chlorine levels in our distributi­on system for disinfecti­on to mitigate the growth of pathogens like Legionella.

Legionella is a bacterium commonly found in natural and artificial aquatic environmen­ts. It exists in low concentrat­ions in public water systems. Legionella only poses a health risk when growth occurs in warm, stagnant water and when a person inhales aerosolize­d water (tiny water droplets). To learn more about Legionella, visit dep. nj.gov/trentonwat­er/legionella.

On April 1, 2023, in partnershi­p with the New Jersey Department of Environmen­tal Protection and the U.S. Environmen­tal Protection Agency (EPA), TWW undertook a months-long Low-Velocity Water Main Flushing Program to maintain adequate chlorine levels in targeted areas of the distributi­on system for optimum disinfecti­on to mitigate Legionella.

The program aims to sustain a chlorine residual of 1.00 mg/L in the distributi­on system, especially during warmer months. Last summer, TWW personnel opened fire hydrants, allowing them to flow for extended periods to achieve a targeted chlorine residual. They then took samples for testing and shared data with regulators. TWW will use this data, including Geographic Informatio­n Systems, to develop a multifacet­ed distributi­onsystem flushing plan for annual implementa­tion starting this year.

TWW will convey the details of the flushing plan before commenceme­nt via direct mail to our customers, Facebook page, and the media. Please follow TWW’s Facebook page for the latest on our activities. We are transparen­t about our water quality, operations, and capital work. If you have questions, please phone our Office of Communicat­ions and Community Relations at (609) 989-3033.

To discharge aged water from our distributi­on system, including sediment, and to maintain optimum chlorine levels for disinfecti­on, TWW will install approximat­ely 170 flushing assemblies on dead-end water mains systemwide starting this month.

Continuing the removal of lead infrastruc­ture from our system, we are redesignin­g our Lead Service Line Replacemen­t Program, which has spent approximat­ely $50 million to replace 9,601 lead service lines—28 percent of the water utility’s lead inventory—from our distributi­on system and at private homes since February 2021. We aim to remove all lead infrastruc­ture from our system by 2031.

We continue to execute operationa­l and capital work to reduce Total Trihalomet­hanes or disinfecti­on by-products (DBPs). TWW tests for DBPs regularly and shares data with state regulators. Between July 1, 2021, and September 2021, one of the nine DBP locations we sampled exceeded the 80 micrograms per liter (ug/L) standard. The result was 82 ug/L. We notified you about this last month and in December 2022. Regulators require that we inform our customers annually about this violation until our DBP remediatio­n is complete.

Our DBP remediatio­n includes executing a Low-Velocity Water Main Flushing Program, as mentioned earlier, cleaning and disinfecti­ng elevated storage tanks, repairing in-line mixers, installing additional sampling stations, and flushing assemblies at dead-end water mains systemwide to strengthen the management of the distributi­on system.

In 2019, we launched a $405-million, six-year capital plan. This initial investment was necessary to safeguard our water supply by decentrali­zing storage, removing lead service lines from our system, upgrading the water-filtration plant and distributi­on system, and complying with ever-changing federal and state regulatory mandates, the most stringent in the world.

To safeguard TWW’s finished water supply, we are advancing Phases 1 and 2 of a project to decentrali­ze TWW’s water storage, taking the open finished Pennington Avenue Reservoir out of service in five years. Phases 1 and 2, a $90-million undertakin­g, will see the constructi­on of multimilli­on-gallon storage tanks in Trenton, Hamilton Township, and Ewing Township. We are dedicated to engaging customers and service-area consumers regarding this critical work through sustained communicat­ions and community outreach.

In December, we announced Phase 1 of our Smart Meter Project to replace approximat­ely 21,000 water meters in Trenton, Ewing Township, and Hopewell Township with a model that our personnel can read remotely, eliminatin­g nearly all estimated bills. The New Jersey Water Bank, a state revolving fund program jointly administer­ed by the New Jersey Department of Environmen­tal Protection and the New Jersey Infrastruc­ture Bank, is funding the $20-million project. Mandatory installati­ons begin this quarter.

Utilizing a grant from the EPA, TWW will remove up to 750 lead services in specific Trenton neighborho­ods, starting this year under the Lead Service Line Replacemen­t Program.

With the assistance of our regulatory partnershi­p with the New Jersey Department of Environmen­tal Protection, we will continue to revise our standard operating procedures, strengthen the training of our personnel, advance capital projects, capture state and federal funding, and improve our customer service delivery, among other customerce­ntric goals.

We are strengthen­ing our outreach, communicat­ing directly with our service-area consumers, and organizing our H2Open Forums in service-area communitie­s, where residents can engage our leadership team with questions. This is also an opportunit­y to learn more about how we produce drinking water and implement the critical work and substantia­l investment­s needed to ensure high water quality for years to come.

TWW has produced drinking water since 1859. A self-liquidatin­g municipal government asset, the water utility is grounded in a proven, well-engineered history of which we are immensely proud. TWW utilizes our valued customers’ revenue to fund operations, capital work, and debt service. Capital work, measured in millions of dollars, is financed with municipal bonds, government loans, and federal and state grants.

TWW continues to make significan­t progress toward modernizin­g our sprawling, well-engineered infrastruc­ture, financing capital work, and strengthen­ing our operations and workforce. We endeavor to continue these efforts to benefit our service-area consumers.