the staff of the Ridgewood blog
South River NJ, Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced that the former licensed operator of the South River Water Department, the public drinking water system for South River Borough in Middlesex County, pleaded guilty today to submitting false water samples and records to a lab that tests such samples for coliform bacteria for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
Robert Baker, 57, of Mine Hill, N.J., pleaded guilty today to a violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act, a third-degree crime, before Superior Court Judge Benjamin S. Bucca Jr. in Middlesex County. Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that Baker be sentenced to 364 days in the county jail and a term of probation. Baker was suspended from his position after he was charged, and he later resigned. He is permanently barred from public employment in New Jersey. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 24, but Baker was immediately remanded to custody today to begin serving time in the county jail.
