Trenton Water Crisis, Sept. 1975

Trenton Water Crisis

September 1975

By Tom Rue
In the late summer of 1975, the entire Trenton city water supply drained into the Delaware River, leaving New Jersey's capital city and much of Mercer County without water for close to a week.
A student at Lawrence High School at the time, I heard on a radio in the school's print shop where I was working, an emergency warning that the reservoir would soon be dry. I ran home and filled the bathtubs and several camping jugs, which became my family's culinary water supply for almost a week. While we were without municipal service, we regularly drove eight miles to Morrisville, Pennsylvania where a church permitted us the use of its showers for bathing.
An emergency pipeline was laid between Princeton and Lawrence townships, to provide water for healthcare and firefighting purposes. Volunteers from companies up and down the east coast provided mutual aid, some from as far away as Maryland. Tankers lined Princeton Pike for miles, pumping water from one truck to the next. On the evening of September 4th, I walked to the command post at the Reed Sod Farm on Princeton Pike and spent the night and morning in a Salvation Army canteen, passing out coffee and donuts to fire-fighters digging trenches.
The following paragraph appears on the history page of the website of the Pennington Fire Co.
"Also in 1975, the Company quickly responded to calls for aid in the Trenton water crisis. While Pennington's pumpers were sent to join the 67 trucks involved in relaying water 2 1/2 miles down Princeton Pike to Trenton, its tanker was dispatched to Prospect Heights to provide water in case a fire broke out there. After nearly five days of round-the-clock service, the trucks returned to base."
My recollection is that investigators concluded that the crisis was apparently the result of sabotage by a disgruntled employee at the Trenton Water Works. If anyone can provide documentary evidence to me to confirm or dispute this cause, I would be pleased to link to it or place it on this site.
The special collections department of the Lafayette College library (Meyner Papers, Series III, Box 28, Folder 35) is said to contain documents pertaining to the incident.
A photo of the city's reserviour after it was refilled is here. In the first image of the collection below, looking down the stairs that lead to the reserviour, the sign at a Texaco station across the street advertises gasoline at 53.9¢. Debris on the reservoir floor appears to include a sled, the metal frame of a stool, and other items.

The following account text was lifted from the history page on the website of the Lawrence Road Fire Co.

August 31-September 5, 1975
The infamous “Water Crisis” of 1975 began at about 10:15 a.m. on Sunday, August 31, 1975, when two valves malfunctioned and flooded the Trenton water filtration plant with more than one million gallons of water. The water was reportedly at least 12 feet deep and covered all four of the plant's pumps. Trenton firefighters and other mutual aid fire companies were sent to the plant on John Fitch Parkway, near Calhoun Street, to pump out the water.

At 10:03 p.m., Lawrence Road firefighters were called to help. According to the incident report, Lawrence Road firefighters were on the job 12 hours. But once the water was cleared out, it was discovered that all four pumps would need repairing and would be unable to provide the city and its suburbs with water for several days. Water held in reserve in the Trenton reservoir quickly was depleted. Thus, it became necessary to pump water into Trenton from outside sources. To accomplish this, more than 300 fire companies, rescue squads, civil defense groups and other organizations banded together to form hose relays, including one that stretched more than two miles down Princeton Pike in Lawrence Township. The following account was printed in the Trenton Evening Times on Wednesday, September 3, 1975:

“Motorized ‘umbilical cords' drawing some 7 million gallons of water from four neighboring systems have become the mainstay of the Trenton area's water supply. The four lifelines, powered by fire equipment and manned around the clock by firemen from three states, are pumping water from Princeton Township, Morrisville, Hamilton Square and Bordentown into hydrants connected to Trenton's water mains. Even with supplies in Trenton's reservoir shrinking to nothing, umbilical operations have so far been sufficient to maintain at least some pressure in almost every home served by the system.

“The most ambitious of the four links is the 2.5-mile chain of hose and fire trucks snaking down Princeton Pike between a Princeton Township hydrant at Gallup Road and a Lawrence Township hydrant (part of the Trenton system) in front of the Union Camp building at the I-95 interchange. The chain involves (at least) 67 fire trucks spaced about 700 feet apart, pumping at a rate in excess of 1,000 gallons per minute from Princeton Township, which is supplied by the Elizabethtown Water Co. Rudy Fuessel, the Slackwood fire chief who planned the operation and worked nearly 40 hours straight putting it to work, said he hopes to pump at a rate of 2 million gallons daily when various technical difficulties are resolved. The major problems involve leakage caused by ill-fitting couplings between adjacent trucks in the chain, Fuessel said. The line employs trucks from as far north as New Brunswick and as far south as northern Delaware, he said, and much of the equipment from one fire company is incompatible with that of another.

“The line of trucks is being refueled at regular intervals by diesel tankers from Nassau Oil Co. and the Mercer Metro system, according to Fuessel. Firemen manning the line – some 300 are needed for each shift – are bused by Mercer Metro to the Lawrence Road firehouse for rest and food. Among the fire companies represented along the line are those from Princeton, Lawrence, Pennington, Hopewell, East Windsor, West Windsor, Hightstown, Hillsborough, Rocky Hill, Cherry Hill, Landsdale (Pa.), Swedesburg (Pa.), Plainsboro, Merchantville, Hope, Washington, Kingston, Bridgeport and from many other Bucks, Middlesex, Montgomery and Camden county fire departments. A shorter linkage is the line of fire hoses running from Morrisville across the Calhoun Street Bridge. That line, which is supplying about 1.5 million gallons daily to the Trenton system, was set up late Monday when Trenton officials first began to realize the scope of the crisis facing the city.

“A picture of a fireman tending the bridge linkage was distributed by the Associated Press yesterday and has become for newspaper readers across the country the symbol of Trenton's water crisis. Hamilton fire companies have set up a chain of hoses about 500 feet long on Shady Lane off Route 33. Frank Peterson, assistant chief of the Colonial Fire Co., said the line draws from the Garden State Water Co. in Hamilton Square to a hydrant on Shady Lane that is part of the Trenton system and could bring in as much as 2 million gallons per day. The fourth line of hoses runs through a stretch of woods just south of the White Horse circle. There four pumpers and 1,700 feet of hose are being used to carry another 2 million gallons daily from a Bordentown pumping station to a hydrant off of South Broad Street near Barclay Village…”

On Friday morning, September 5, 1975, one pump at the filtration plant was placed back into service and life slowly started returning to normal. During the water crisis, while Lawrence Road apparatus was committed in the water relay, the following alarms were transmitted and answered by cover companies (Marlton Fire Co. and Beechwood Fire Department) responding from Lawrence Road's firehouse: a minor stove fire caused by melted wax at 14 Lumar Road at 8:05 p.m. on Thursday, September 4; a car fire at Lawrence and Marlboro roads at 11:09 a.m. on Friday, September 5; and a field fire on Drift Avenue at 3:06 p.m. on Friday, September 5.

Other reading:

Mark E Slafkes (1976). The Trenton water crisis of 1975: Impressions and analysis (working paper), Emergency Water Allocation Project, School of Engineering / Graduate School of Administration, University of California, Irvine.

More information
The following comment was received on December 24, 2008 from Timothy Griscom (tim @ timgris.com):

"Nice photos of Trenton and the water crisis. Regarding the cause of the problem at the water plant, the official report indicated that the cause was human and design error. Specifically, the wrong valve was closed, cutting off all power to the valves. The plant operator was 'small in stature', the valves were not labled, and automatic controls which could have prevented the situation were not installed. While switching pumps, one pump was shut off and the valve failed to close. Another pump was started, but its valve failed to open, so the pump automatically shut down. Operators attempted to restart the first pump, but it would not, as it was already spinning backwards from the water flowing down from the reservoir. By the time valves outside the plant could be closed by hand, the pump room was flooded. Over 24 hours later, when the water was drained from the pump room, it was discovered that the concrete floor had ruptured. It took days to replace the floor, and have the concrete develop sufficient strength to support the pumps, which had to be baked dry.
"The report was produced by the State Department of Environmental Protection in 1976. I have not found it on line, but hard copies exist at the New Jersey State Library and the Mercer County Library at Lawrence Twp.
"The photo you have labeled 06 is of a fire engine that I also photographed in 1992 tim613.tripod.com/tfd/tfdre2.htm."

Tom Rue replied on Wed, Dec 24, 2008 at 3:02 PM:

Cool! I've had those pictures on the web since December 9, 2001, according to the files' date stamps on the files on the server. I think yours is the first comment that I've had on them. I don't even know if I have prints of these photos. I have negatives, and I believe I scanned the online images from those film negatives.
Were you present at the time? I was in high school -- took pictures and volunteered working on a Salvation Army canteen truck serving coffee and donuts to firefighters and others who dug the trench for the pipeline on Princeton Pike.
I'll definitely update the text, acknowledging you and the source that you cite.
Thanks and happy holidays.
Tom
Wed, Dec 24, 2008 at 4:16 PM, Timothy Griscom (tim @ timgris.com) replied:

Tom,
I came to Trenton in 1979, but my wife was here in 1975. She remembers the water tankers, and carrying water to flush toilets.
The hoselines that ran from Princeton to Trenton are still the longest relay pumping operation on record, involving more than 200 fire companies.
The reservoir holds about a three day supply. It was completely drained because officials initially believed that they could remedy the situation before the water ran out, especially since it occurred during a Labor day weekend, but when they discovered that the pumproom floor had rupture, it was too late to implement conservation measures.
The Trenton Filtration Plant in June of 06, shut down due to Delaware River flood. The reservoir also drained during this event, but the plant was restarted in time to avoid a water shortage.

Engine 2 (a 1961 Maxim) which was shown in your photo number 6, as it appears in a 1992 parade.

The official report citation: Report on the Trenton water crisis / New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. 1976 call # 974.90 W329, 1976 at the New Jersey State Library.
I am on Flickr at flickr.com/photos/tim613.
Happy Holidays to you!
Tim Griscom Photography
30 Perdicaris Place
Trenton, NJ 08618
www.timgris.com