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Mayor presents DEP assessments; council weighs regional utility for Trenton Water Works
Summary
Mayor presented two DEP-commissioned studies that outline managerial, technical and financial shortfalls at Trenton Water Works and options ranging from doing nothing to forming a regional utility or selling to a private operator. Council members demanded more detail, asked for a subcommittee and stressed they must approve any change.
Mayor (title listed in meeting record) told the Trenton City Council on Jan. 28 that two Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) studies delivered this week give a “stark assessment” of Trenton Water Works and lay out several possible responses, including doing nothing, forming a regional public utility, or selling to a private company.
The studies — one described by the mayor as a 360-degree review of assets and liabilities and a second on managerial, technical and financial capacity — were commissioned after repeated DEP attention dating to a 2009 administrative consent order, the mayor said. He told the council the utility must raise roughly $600,000,000 for capital improvements over the next 10 years if it remains under current governance.
The mayor said DEP has been working with Trenton Water Works staff and that the city has made progress on several fronts: decommissioning an aging reservoir, starting a lead service line replacement program, building a new intake system on the Delaware River under DEP supervision and planning to move from the reservoir to elevated storage tanks (including a Trenton…
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