Lied About Testing New Brunswick's Drinking Water for Years, Prosecutors Say

New Brunswick, NJ - He had one job: To make sure the drinking water for New Brunswick and Milltown residents was safe.

But New Brunswick water plant operator Edward O’Rourke confessed that for more than two years, he lied about testing the area’s drinking water, and knowingly submitted false water reports to the state Department of Environmental Protection.

O’Rourke, 60, of Brick, submitted false water purity reports for New Brunswick and Milltown from April 2010 through December 2012, according to the state Attorney General’s office.

He confessed Thursday to a second-degree charge of corruption of public resources and third-degree violations of the Safe Water Drinking Act. O’Rourke will be sentenced Feb. 8, and the state is seeking an unusually strict jail time: Three years in state prison on each of the charges.

“He lied hundreds of times,” said Elie Honig, Director of the Division of Criminal Justice. “If (he) had simply been honest from the start about any failure to comply with the requirements for water purity testing, he would not be facing such stern punishment.”

One of the main things he was supposed to be testing for was the presence of coliform bacteria. Coliform bacteria is present in the soil, plants and feces of all warm-blooded animals and humans. But if coliform bacteria is found in drinking water, it could indicate that other disease-causing organisms could also be in the water system — pathogens which can potentially make people very sick.

Because O’Rourke failed to correctly test the water for 33 months, regulators were not able to determine whether there were any pathogens in the water pumped to the public during that time.

O’Rourke and his staff submitted reports on more than 200 samples that contained one or more types of falsified data, the AG said.