Bayonne is the site of a six-month pilot program assessing how to treat water runoff from storms that could have state or even national implications.
The kickoff of the Wet Weather Flow Treatment and Disinfection Project on Aug. 20 was hosted by the Bayonne Municipal Utilities Authority wastewater facilities on Oak Street.
The $1.3 million demonstration project is a collaborative funding and technical effort by the United States Department of Environmental Protection, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the BMUA, city of Bayonne, Rutgers University, and Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission.
State and federal authorities were among those attending, including Dan Kennedy, DEP assistant commissioner; Stanley V. Cach Jr., DEP project manager; John S. Rolak Jr., Hatch Mott MacDonald project manager. All three spoke to the crowd.
BMUA Executive Director Steve Gallo and Mayor James Davis also attended and addressed participants.
The demonstration project is designed to assess combined sewer overflow, or CSOs, and treatment systems that could be installed in remote locations, at the pipe endings where CSOs discharge.
The project’s specific goal is to test various treatment units and combinations of treatment units on storm and combined sewer overflow at the BMUA’s Oak Street pumping station. All flow will be pumped from the existing diversion chamber, treated, sampled, and ultimately returned to the dry weather flow pumping station.
“United Water is proud to support the NJDEP and the BMUA in the endeavor to test CSO abatement solutions for the good of Bayonne and the state,” said Chris Riat, senior director of New Jersey Contract Operations for United Water, Bayonne’s water company, after the meeting.
The EPA has indicated that New Jersey is the first state that is conducting a full-scale project to test wet weather CSO disinfection technologies.
Bayonne and the state have been trying to test CSOs for 10 years, officials said.
“United Water expects that the New Jersey DEP could benefit from this demonstration project and that it would result in not only local municipal and state benefits, but it might make a significant beneficial national impact as well,” Riat said.
The project will include an evaluation of the EPA’s chosen emerging technologies.
The pilot project is being funded by the DEP and was secured by the BMUA.
Following the overview, the BMUA hosted a demonstration and tour of the Wet Weather Flow Treatment and Disinfection Project.
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