09/04/2026
"At around 9:50pm a power outage left around 600 customers of the City of Trenton Utilities without power. A racoon got into the power plant substation on West Crowder Road and created a short which caused the outage. The outage lasted about 30-40 minutes while a crew from the Electric Department isolated the affected area in the substation, removed the racoon carcass, and restored power by 10:30pm
During the outage power was lost at the Water Treatment Plant. The backup generator seems to have fired briefly but did not hold. The water in the towers should have held the pressure but the valves closed. At the moment we are not certain why the closed. We do know that the SCADA system shut down and rebooted, and it is possible that the system defaulted to closing the valves on the towers.
With towers locked out of the system water pressure dropped rapidly and most of the town experienced noticeable drop, some even lost all pressure. Electric power, SCADA, water towers, and water pressure was restored by 12:20 am, but out of an abundance of caution and to meet the code (water pressure went below 20psi), we issued a boil water advisory for all of the City of Trenton. If you are supplied water from a system dependent on our supply it is likely that they will issue a similar advisory but check with your water supplier. The notice that all of Grundy County is under a boil water advisory was incorrect.
Everything at the City of Trenton Utilities Water Plant is back online and functioning. Crews were flushing lines and we will be testing water samples throughout the system to see if the drop in pressure resulted in any detectable compromise of the water supply. More information will be forthcoming."
Thank you,
Matt
Matt Harline, City Administrator
