Author: Mo Kinberg

On June 9, NewarkDIG (Doing Infrastructure Green), in partnership with Sewage-Free Streets and Rivers and the Jersey Water Works Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Committee, held a workshop to help community advocates around the state prepare for reviewing the CSO Long Term Control Plans (LTCPs) now due on October 1, 2020.  Watch the workshop here.

In 21 NJ communities, CSO Long Term Control Plan (LTCP) decisions are being made alongside a flood of other political, social and environmental storms. Nicole Miller, NewarkDIG chair, explained how the CSO LTCPs fit in the context of our current realities. “This is absolutely an environmental justice issue, and so when we think about the world we are living in right now and all of the things that are happening, this is also part of that conversation. We hope that all of you take this seriously. We hope that you are thinking about the communities that are affected like Newark, where I live, Trenton, Camden, Paterson. These are communities that have cumulatively been impacted by environmental damage. So we want to make sure we are providing healthy safe water and waterways for people to recreate and live and sewage free streets at the very least.”

Speakers emphasized the importance of communities having a voice in the plans that will include the multi-million dollar projects selected to reduce sewage overflows, a timeline for implementation, what will be prioritized, costs, and the financial capability of the municipality or utility to be able to pay for the plans. Presenters discussed what’s new, where to focus and what to look out for in these plans. A major component of the plans that has not been sufficiently communicated to the public are the regional alternatives, like the very large tunnels and parallel interceptors being considered for the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission Region. Participants expressed concerns about the cost of these large projects and how the City of Newark would specifically be burdened by the construction.

Michele Adams, founder of Meliora Design, touched on another issue that has not been part of the plans: private property opportunities for implementing green infrastructure (GI). She explained how the City of Philadelphia updated its stormwater ordinance to capture the private property opportunities for new and redevelopment projects as part of their Long Term Control Plan. She stressed that the most cost-effective time to implement GI is when you are building something and that the ordinance has not stopped development or redevelopment. This is especially relevant in New Jersey as the state just released a new stormwater rule and all of the CSO municipalities are now in the process of revising their stormwater ordinances.

Larry Levine, Director of Urban Water Infrastructure & Senior Attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council and member of the JWW Asset and Finance Committee presented on equitable and affordable ways to finance CSO LTCPs. “Do not take the existing rate structure for granted. Evaluate more equitable rate structures, which can reduce burdens on low-income customers, or on residential customers generally” said Levin. He suggested that community groups and advocates ask utilities if they are considering equitable financing options like a stormwater utility fee.  Even within the context of the presentation there were debates about the use and efficacy of a stormwater utility.

Another aspect of ensuring that these plans benefit CSO communities is through a focus on water workforce development. Connecting water workforce opportunities with local hiring and the local economy was one strategy proposed in the workshop. Green infrastructure projects, more than any other alternative, lend themselves to towns working with local contractors. Prioritizing green infrastructure training in these communities along with local hiring ordinances that are tied to municipal contracts would bring money back into the community.

While the new deadline extension allows more time for public outreach, the limitations of physical distancing require new tactics and strategies for gathering feedback from the public on the selection of alternatives to CSOs. The group discussed the importance of continuing public outreach and using multiple methods for outreach including online and offline tactics.

The presentation discussed these things and more. Feel free to watch the presentation at the link above or view the slide deck on the Sewage-Free Streets and Rivers website. A second installment of this workshop will be held in August. Please join us as we focus on reviewing a draft of the LTCP with the express purpose of developing useful comments from community groups for NJDEP consideration.

The submittal deadline for the Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Long Term Control Plans (LTCPs) has been postponed until October 1, 2020. The submittal deadline was extended because of the impacts of Covid-19. Public outreach on the plans has come to a standstill but it should not stop. In fact, municipalities and utilities now have more time to inform and engage the public in the selection of solutions to stop sewage overflows.

The need to upgrade archaic combined sewer systems that dump sewage into our waterways onto streets needs to be addressed. Residents who are impacted by flooding and sewage overflows still need a say in the final Long Term Control Plans. Questions still remain as to whether these plans will be affordable, keep residents healthy, invest in local jobs, businesses and neighborhoods, and create more green spaces that promote climate resiliency. Stay involved to make sure that these multi-billion dollar plans deliver community benefits and are not decided behind closed doors.

1. Email and call your CSO permit holder and ask them to hold a series of public virtual meetings on your combined sewer overflow Long term Control Plans before the October 1, 2020 submittal deadline.
2. Ask your CSO permit holder to release their draft CSO LTCP to their supplemental CSO team and the public for comments 60 days before the plans are due. This will allow for CSO permit holders to review the public input and incorporate it into their plans before they are submitted to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP).
3. Participate in the June 9, 2020, CSO LTCP Review Workshop hosted by NewarkDIG in partnership with the Sewage-Free Streets and Rivers campaign and the Jersey Water Works CSO committee and learn how to review the plans and submit comments.
4. Follow the Sewage-Free Streets and Rivers campaign on Facebook and Twitter for the latest news on the CSO LTCPs.

The Covid-19 crisis has had a severe impact on all of our communities and utilities. The Sewage-Free Streets and Rivers campaign would like to thank the CSO permit holders for requesting an extension and the NJDEP for granting it. Now, let’s use this time to ensure that the people who live, work, and run businesses in these cities have a say in these plans.

 

What are we learning from the Covid-19 crisis?

In a matter of months, Covid-19 has changed our world dramatically. The lessons we are learning have as much to do with what our world looked like before the coronavirus as what it looks like now.

We are learning that:

Water and wastewater utilities and workers are essential. The Covid-19 crisis has made clear what and who is essential: those treating patients and keeping our hospitals running, our grocery stores open, and our utilities functioning.  Water utilities and workers not only deliver a basic necessity for hydration but especially during Covid-19 deliver a necessity for hygiene when sheltering at home.  In March, Governor Murphy stepped in to ensure that no New Jerseyan would be left without water during the Covid-19 crisis and called on water utilities to suspend water shut-offs.  We are also learning how many households are on the brink of having water, a basic necessity, shut-off.

Our crumbling water infrastructure needs to be repaired before we have a crisis.  Water main breaks in New Jersey have left communities without water needed for hygiene and hydration during a health crisis. Combined sewer systems that needed to be repaired before the crisis will need to be repaired after it. The need to upgrade our water infrastructure remains during COVID-19, only now CSO communities, many of which are economically distressed, are faced with budget gaps, in addition to the cost of upgrading their water infrastructure.

Our environment impacts health outcomes. Worldwide stay-at-home orders have given us a glimpse of how the environment can regenerate when polluting industries are put on hold. Here in New Jersey, we have seen a significant drop in pollution levels that cause much of the health problems associated with unhealthy air quality.  At the same time, our history of poor air quality has been associated with higher levels of Covid-19 fatalities.  Air pollution is not spread evenly, low-income residents and people of color are disproportionately exposed to health-threatening environments in their homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces. We are learning that the pandemic is not just a health crisis, it’s an environmental justice crisis.

The pause caused by Covid-19 has made room for reflections on what needs to be done when we hit the start button.  This crisis has magnified the inequalities in our society.  Now we need to amplify these lessons in the solutions that are implemented in the recovery.

 

NewarkDIG, in partnership with Sewage-Free Streets and Rivers and the Jersey Water Works CSO Committee, is hosting a workshop to help community advocates around the state learn how to evaluate this complex document and develop comments for submission to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP). This understanding is also crucial to advocacy organizations helping to spread the word to residents, business owners, and other stakeholders about the stormwater infrastructure changes that will be decided upon by the 21 CSO communities this year.

The submittal deadline for the final CSO Long Term Control Plans has been postponed 90 days due to the COVID-19 crisis and now must be submitted by October 1, 2020. Draft plans will be made available to the public for comment before the plans are submitted to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Using a draft of the Newark LTCP, this workshop will guide participants through the evaluation process with a particular focus on environmental and engineering specifications, green infrastructure specifications, local job impacts, and financial analysis.

The virtual workshop is being held on Tuesday, June 9th, 2020 from 10 am-noon.

RSVP for the workshop here.

The coronavirus is changing the world rapidly but some things remain the same—toilet paper is the only thing that should be flushed. Anything else clogs our sewers during a time when our water infrastructure is already in need of repair.

NorthJersey.com reporter, Alexis Shanes, interviewed wastewater experts about the impacts of flushable wipes on our sewers during the coronavirus in her article, “Coronavirus cleaning: Flushing that disinfectant wipe? Think again, experts say.” In the article, Shanes describes how flushed wipes can clog sewers. “Flushed items go first to waste pipes in homes and then to town sewer lines that run beneath streets, which can be as small as 18 inches. The flushed wipes eventually end up in larger pipes owned and operated by county utilities, which are as wide as 96 inches. Sewer systems rely mostly on gravity.  If wipes collect in a system, they can prevent water from flowing, like leaves in a yard drain.”

An important reminder for people who are using “flushable” wipes to disinfect groceries and take-out orders from the coronavirus is that “flushable” wipes are not biodegradable and will clog sewers and cause sewer back-ups.

Walter Marlowe, Executive Director at Water Environment Foundation, makes another important point about keeping our sewers clean during COVID-19 in Shane’s article, saying, “being self-quarantined at home can be tough. Being self-quarantined at home with a backed-up sewer is much, much worse. Do not flush things that shouldn’t be flushed.”

On Monday, April 6, Hudson TV posted a photo on its Facebook page of plastic gloves that customers used as protection from the coronavirus, littered across a Walmart parking lot with the caption, “Please, throw away used gloves to a trash container.”  Similar posts of images of gloves and masks littered on city streets in New Jersey have been posted recently on Facebook. If these plastic gloves get into our sewers they will also cause clogs and back-ups, and put an additional strain on our water infrastructure and essential wastewater workers.

On March 27, ABC News reported on back-to-back water main breaks in Jersey City during the coronavirus. Workers were sent out to repair the water main break and a water truck was sent to neighborhoods without running water. The water main breaks sparked concerns about sanitary conditions for residents left without running water, a necessity year-round, but especially during a pandemic. While the timing of this water main break was unfortunate, it was not surprising as New Jersey’s water infrastructure is in need of repair.

Water and wastewater workers are deemed essential. They continue to repair and operate our aging water infrastructure during the coronavirus. Let’s help them keep us (and themselves!) safe and keep our sewers clean.

From the outset of the combined sewer overflow permits issued in 2015, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) encouraged collaboration between waste water treatment plants and their member municipalities (whose sewage they treat). Of the 25 permits issued, 9 were issued to waste water treatment plants and 16 to municipalities, resulting in 9 regional collaborations. Municipalities and waste treatment plants have been working regionally on water quality monitoring, modeling of the sewer systems and public participation as well as regional alternatives like sewer treatment plant expansion and regional storage tanks.

What does this mean for the final Long Term Control Plans?

The plans will include regional alternatives that involve upgrades to waste water treatment plants and the sections of the collection system that they own and operate and could serve one or more municipalities. The plans will also include municipal alternatives that involve upgrades within the collection system that municipalities own and operate and on municipal land. Regional and municipal permit holders will submit regional Long Term Control Plans that may include chapters or appendixes that focus on the municipal alternatives.

 

 

Who is collaborating on regional plans?

The sewer treatment plants and combined sewer overflow municipalities they serve are working together to develop the regional plans. These include:

Bergen County Utilities Authority (BCMUA) Hackensack Ridgefield Park Fort Lee

Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority (CCMUA) Camden Gloucester

Joint Meeting of Essex and Union Counties (JMEUC) Elizabeth

Middlesex County Utilities Authority (MCUA) Perth Amboy

North Bergen Municipal Utilities Authority (NBMUA) – Woodcliff Sewage Treatment Plant Guttenberg

North Hudson Sewerage Authority (NHSA)* – Adams Street Wastewater Treatment Plant and River Road Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission (PVSC) Bayonne East Newark Harrison Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority (JCMUA) Kearny Newark North Bergen Municipal Utilities Authority (NBMUA) Paterson

*NHSA owns the pipes and the treatment plant. The following cities are served by NHSA but are not permit holders: Hoboken, Union City, West New York, and Weehawken.

What are the regional alternatives?

The regional alternatives are infrastructure upgrades that the sewer treatment plants can make such as increasing the amount of flow to the plants and the plants’ treatment capacity. Bypass of secondary treatment, also known as wet weather blending, effluent blending, or high-rate treatment is being considered by most of the wastewater treatment plants to increase the capacity of the plant. Learn more about this option in this fact sheet developed by the Clean Waterways, Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative organized by the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission. Improvements to sewer infrastructure that the plants operate and own are also being considered like increasing the size of the pipes, pumping capacity and regulator modifications to increase the flow to the plants. Regional storage tanks and tunnels are also under consideration by the Bergen County Utilities Authority, the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission and North Hudson Sewerage Authority to store flow during wet weather and pump it back to the treatment plants during dry weather.

North Hudson Sewerage Authority is the only sewer treatment plant that owns the plant, sewer system, and outfalls. Their plan includes sewer treatment plant upgrades and more municipal focused infrastructure upgrades like green infrastructure, and inflow and infiltration upgrades. Find a full list of the regional alternatives being considered from the Development and Evaluation of Alternatives Reports at the end of this post.

The municipal alternatives that are being considered by municipal permit holders include: storage tanks, sewer separation, inflow and infiltration reduction, treatment of CSO discharge, green infrastructure, water conservation, and sewer system optimization.  Regional and municipal alternatives will be combined in the Long Term Control Plans so that both municipal and regional permit holders meet requirements to reduce combined sewer overflows and water quality standards.

Who will be held responsible?

Although the municipalities and sewer treatment plants have been working collaboratively for the last five years, each permit holder will be issued their own permits and will be held individually responsible for meeting permit requirements.

Both regional and municipal alternatives to combined sewer overflows will have community impacts and benefits. It is important for residents to review the Development and Evaluation of Alternatives Reports (DEARs) and look at both the regional reports and the municipal reports or appendixes that include municipal alternatives to understand the options that are being considered.  A list of regional alternatives is also at the end of this post and the Sewage-Free Streets and Rivers campaign developed fact sheets for nine of the reports. Permit holders are now in the process of selecting infrastructure upgrades from the alternatives they evaluated in the DEARs and will decide what they will include in their Long Term Control Plans. Ask your CSO contacts for more information on the options they are considering and to release their draft Long Term Control Plans to the public for comments before they submit their plans to the NJDEP.

List of regional and municipal alternatives from the DEARs:

Bergen County Utilities Authority, Hackensack, Ridgefield Park, and Fort Lee:

• Expansion of water pollution control facility capacity
• Wet weather blending
• Regional storage
• Utilize inline storage in interceptor for CSO
• Municipal alternatives include: green infrastructure, sewer separation, treatment of CSO discharge, storage tanks and tunnels.

Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority (CCMUA), Camden and Gloucester City:

• Expand wet weather treatment capacity of waste water treatment plant  to 220 million gallons daily (MGD) via effluent blending
• An additional 130 MGD wet weather capacity at or near the CCMUA wastewater treatment plant through a dedicated process train using ballasted flocculation or other high rate treatment process to address Cooper River outfall
• Municipal alternatives include: restoring the City of Camden’s collection system, green infrastructure, satellite treatment, storage, and sewer system optimization.

Joint Meeting of Essex and Union Counties (JMEUC) and the City of Elizabeth

• Satellite treatment facilities (Actiflo with PAA)
• Effluent blending at wet weather treatment plant
• Municipal alternatives include: sewer separation, storage tanks, tunnel storage, green infrastructure, and inflow and infiltration reduction.

Middlesex County Utilities Authority (MCUA) and Perth Amboy

• High-rate treatment with disinfection
• Municipal alternatives include: storage tanks, storage tunnels, pump station expansion, treatment of CSO discharge, and green infrastructure.

North Bergen Municipal Utilities Authority (NBMUA) – Woodcliff Sewage Treatment Plant and Guttenberg

• Woodcliff Sewage Treatment Plant upgrade and expansion, and wet weather blending to allow for wet weather flows of 10 MGD
• Municipal alternatives include: inflow and infiltration reduction, sewer separation and green infrastructure.

Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission (PVSC), Bayonne, East Newark, Harrison, Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority (JCMUA), Kearny, Newark, North Bergen Municipal Utilities Authority (NBMUA) and Paterson

• Regional storage tanks and tunnels
• Secondary bypass treatment
• Plant expansion
• Newark regulator modifications
• Hudson County force main
• Parallel interceptor (Newark, Kearny, Harrison, East Newark)
• Jersey City pipe
• Municipal alternatives include: treatment of CSO discharge, storage tanks, sewer separation, green infrastructure, sewer system optimization, and inflow and infiltration reduction.

North Hudson Sewerage Authority (NHSA) – Adams Street Wastewater Treatment Plant

• Storage tank
• Satellite treatment
• Storage tunnel
• Increase pump station capacity
• Disinfection (includes in-water chlorine contact tank)
• Green infrastructure
• Wastewater treatment plant improvements
• Inflow and infiltration rehabilitation

North Hudson Sewerage Authority (NHSA) – River Road Wastewater Treatment Plant

• Storage tank
• Regulator modifications
• CSO treatment
• Storage tunnel
• Green infrastructure
• Inflow and infiltration rehabilitation
• Wastewater treatment plant improvements