After a three-month delay, North Bergen is pumping its sewerage through Jersey City to the Passaic Valley Sewage Commission’s (PVSC) treatment plant, rather than to its own outdated facility.
Beginning Oct. 6, the five-mile 30-inch sewerage pipeline takes combined storm drainage and effluent from North Bergen and brings it to a new pump house, nearby the former Central Treatment Plant. From there, waste water is transported underneath the nearby freight railway to Jersey City, which has a pump house on Route 440 that transports sewerage to the PVSC, located in Newark.
The project cost $45 million, and will allow the township to pump up to a maximum of 14 million gallons of waste water a day.
The pipeline, which has been in the works for eight years, was delayed from its expected July opening. At a press conference on Oct. 20, North Bergen Municipal Utilities Executive Director Frank Pestana said that while constructing the pipeline at the Paterson Plank overpass, a foundation was hit and they had to change the direction of the pipe. Also, while placing the pipe beneath the Amtrak trestle in Jersey City, they dug into some “debris.” The solution there was to bring the pipe over the trestle and encase it with a retaining wall, Pestana said.
“Given the initial numbers, you knew it wasn’t reality.” –Nicholas Sacco
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Pianese first got involved with the project eight years ago when he took the position of township administrator and was faced with a resolution that would have had North Bergen guarantee $60 million in debt so that the Municipal Utilities Authority (MUA) could build a new plant.
The plant had long outlived its usefulness, but Pianese suspected that replacing the plant could cost up to $100 million and double the MUA’s operating budget, which is at around $4.5 million now.
“Given the initial numbers, you knew it wasn’t reality,” said Mayor Nicholas Sacco, who credited Pianese’s vision for the project’s fruition.
Tough construction
North Bergen is now pumping around 8 million gallons of sewerage a day, but the pipeline was decades in the making.
The Central Treatment Plant was built in the late 1970s and was never planned as a permanent solution, said Sacco. By 2000, it was already 20 years old and needed to be replaced. The Federal Environmental Protection Agency had told North Bergen that a new plant was needed.
“To keep the plant alive and active and functional for the eight years this took…I have to give [the MUA] credit for that,” said Pianese.
Sacco said that construction of the pipeline was difficult because they township had to find a treatment plant that could handle their waste water and find a way to get a pipeline there. Building along the railroad also slowed down construction.
“This is the toughest project I’ve ever been involved with,” said Pianese.
‘Good government’
Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy said that Jersey City taxpayers would receive over a $300,000 stipend per year.
The two municipalities joined into a contract in 2006 that will allow North Bergen to pump their sewerage through Jersey City from $306,000 a year escalating to $988,000 over a 25-year period, a rise of around 5 percent per year. North Bergen spent $14 million of the project’s budget on renovating Jersey City’s pump station. They also cleaned Jersey City’s sewerage lines at $2 million.
“This is a great example of collaboration,” Healy said.
Pianese said it was an example of “good government.”
In 2016, North Bergen will begin paying an annual PVSC service fee of $7 million for 14 years.
Bills will be $10 more
Pianese said that North Bergen residents can expect to see a $10 increase in the sewer bills this year.
The town is not yet sure if they will remediate the outdated treatment plant property and keep it, or sell it.
Pestana said that in order to save funds, MUA workers were currently cleaning out the tanks while township officials consider what to do.
Pianese said that it would likely cost around $500,000 to clean the property in order to sell it, and that the township would likely be prepared to go out for bid for “decommission” work in six months after it decides the fate of the 1.5 acre property.
North Bergen’s smaller Woodcliff Sewerage Plant, located on River Road, will continue to treat Guttenberg and northeastern North Bergen, before releasing the treated water into the Hudson River.
Tricia Tirella may be reached at TriciaT@hudsonreporter.com.