Trenton Water Works is asking its customers to scale back water usage after ice from the Delaware River clogged its intake system. The company says an expensive upgrade designed to increase intake to the system is failing.

“We’re not happy. I’m not happy because we spent a lot of money. The ratepayers spent a lot of money for this,” said Sean Semple, director of Trenton Water Works.

A 2-year-old, $9 million upgrade to Trenton Water Works is now offline all because of frazzled ice lodged in the collection pumps.

“This was a design we consulted with [the Department of Environmental Protection] and our engineers to come up with how to better intake water,” said Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora.

The design failed to handle the effects of Delaware River ice, a common and well-known hazard most famously depicted in the painting of Washington's crossing of the river back in December 1776.

With Trenton Water Works intake temporarily offline, the utility now provides its 220,000 customers using supplies from American Water.

“This was the redesign that was supposed to prevent things like this and why we initiated this project was to have a clog-proof intake system from the Delaware,” said Gusciora.

Customers in Trenton, Ewing, Lawrence, Hamilton and Hopewell will still receive safe, high-quality water from American Water, but the voluntary restrictions will remain in place until a solution is found.

“Does somebody or some engineering firm need to be held accountable for what we are seeing?” asked reporter Jim Murdoch.

“We are looking into that now. I won’t name any engineering company at this point but we are going to look into it,” answered Semple.

The experts say until the Delaware River completely freezes over or melts, they’ll have to continue to draw from American Water until a long-term redesign can be finalized.

Customers who have questions about the advisory are asked to call the TWW's Office of Communications and Public Outreach at 609-989-3033 between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on weekdays.