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Why do you ask us?

It must be somewhere in the article. I mean, this is not some propaganda piece, this is news item! That means somewhere in the text they quoted Christie's explanation of what he thinks is wrong with the law.

Strangely though, I couldn't find it... Must be an editorial mistake.

So Christie didn't sign the bill requiring public notice of sewer overflow being released into our local waterways. That doesn't mean that Jersey City CAN'T do it on its own. If people around here are so concerned about it then let's just do it ourselves. Get on the horn and insist our Mayor do it. I'm sure he'll make it happen right away being concerned about the environment and all. He'd just love to announce to the world that his city is dumping crap into the water every time a large storm hits.

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See no evil+hear no evil =speak no evil

If there were announcements after every rainstorm that there was shit in the water, NJ would get a black eye. It's the same reason there's no tracking of when the downtown sewers flood, unlike Hoboken that installed monitors. "Problem? We have no data showing there's a problem."

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Because it?s bad marketing for townships with combined sewer systems, and it fulfills the negative stereotype that New Jersey is a cesspool?

Why in the world would Christie not sign this??

no surprise here!

Boo.

Christie declines to sign bill requiring public notice of raw sewage overflows

Tuesday January 21, 2014, 4:55 PM

BY JAMES M. O'NEILL

STAFF WRITER

The Record

Governor Christie declined to sign a bill that would have required public notification whenever sewer-outfall pipes dump raw sewage into local rivers and bays, legislation that had received overwhelming support by both parties in the state legislature.

The bill also would have required outfall pipes to be clearly marked with signs for swimmers, fishermen, kayakers and other who use the water.

Christie?s office announced Tuesday that he let the bill expire without signing it ? in effect a pocket veto.

?I?m extremely disappointed,? said Debbie Mans, head of the NY/NJ Baykeeper, which supported the bill. ?This is a significant public health issue. Unfortunately the governor didn?t think important that the public be informed that they are swimming in raw sewage.?`

Bill Sheehan, the Hackensack Riverkeeper, agreed. ?That?s terrible news,? he said. ?But I?m not surprised.?

Environmental groups had been pushing for public notification when sewer lines overflow because the health of those who use the rivers and bays right after an overflow could be at risk. Raw sewage can cause gastroenteritis, hepatitis, and skin, respiratory and ear infections.

The bill would have required towns and sewer authorities to report expected sewer overflows to the state Department of Environmental Protection even before they occur or immediately after they happen. The DEP would then have had to alert the public within 12 hours by posting a notice on the agency website and sending emails out to those who signed up for such a service.

More than 23 billion gallons of raw sewage and other pollutants get dumped into New Jersey waters each year, including the Hackensack, Passaic and Hudson rivers, because aging sewer systems that convey both sewage and storm water from street drains can?t handle the extra flow from heavy rains.

The raw sewage pours into rivers and bays dozens of times a year from more than 200 outfall pipes, including some in Ridgefield Park, Hackensack and Paterson.

The DEP has been revising the language of permits that sewer agencies need to operate sewer pipe outfalls. The revised permits would include new public notification requirements similar to those in the bill, and the DEP is conducting a series of hearings throughout the state on the language in the new permits.

?But the process is such that it will take up to a year for the new permits to go into effect,? said Sheehan. ?It looks like now it will be every man, woman and child for themselves this upcoming swimming season.?

http://www.northjersey.com/news/Chris ... raw_sewage_overflows.html

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I totally forgot about the east side plant, despite passing it a few times a week on my bike.

Looked it up.. the plant is closed, its just a pumping station now.

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I thought is was only part of the sewage load? Years ago I was in the J.C. plant (1994) and it was still operating then.

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The problem with this idea is that the intercepting sewers themselves can't handle the capacity of the surge, so the overflows occur at any of Jersey City's 21 outfalls, scattered around the perimeter of the city.

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I was under the impression that all of our sewage went to PVSC in a 72" pipe under the bay. If you check the satellite maps, the treatment facility on 440 looks very abandoned.

Maybe they could build dams at both ends of the Bergen Arches and turn it into a giant poop pool during storms?


yes.. I am being facetious.....

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That ship's capacity is 180k barrel = 7,740,000 gallons. Compare that to the numbers above and you'll see it's a drop in the bucket, or a bailing with a teaspoon, or.....

Iran has been buying defunct super tankers to store heavy oil in. I wonder if we could do something similar? Purchase some older single hull tankers (still water tight, but no longer used because the are not double hulled), dredge and park them next to the treatment plant off rt. 440, and use some high volume pumps to dump the storm surge into the tankers.

The US Navy is getting ready to scrap some tankers that have never been used:

http://gillreport.com/2011/07/u-s-nav ... on-on-two-scrapped-ships/

Just a thought....

It would be nice to no longer depend on the PVSC, who is the primary reason our sewer bills went up 45%. Right now, JC has to send a good portion of its sewage to the other side of the Hackensack river to PVSC to get treated.

That Milwaukee project looks interesting.

Arithmetic

JC has 15 sq miles of land. subtract parkland & new developments with separated sewers and account for backyard absorbing some. Call it 10 sq miles of runoff.

10x5280x5280=278784000 divided by 12 to get cubic feet of rain in a 1 inch storm=23232000, times gallons in a cubic foot 7.48=173,787,429. That #1 Milwaukee tank holds 405 million gallons. So if we built the same tank we could put a 2.3 inch storm in there.

Not bad, but we get bigger storms than that fairly often. And look at the price tag, $3B for a city of $600k. I guess the reason their capacity needed per person is less than my guesstimate is they're considerably less dense, which means more greenspace to absorb water and not put it into the system.

Now, JC doesn't have a pot to piss in, never mind $3B. Abandon all hope...

JC has two choices. Separate the combined sewer or build storage systems like this:

http://v3.mmsd.com/DeepTunnel.aspx


Neither are cheap. The former would be the most difficult because JC has required roof drain tie directly into the sewer system. Even if you separate the storm drains, you still have millions of sqft of roofs collection rain water and sending it into the sewer.

Nothing more then generation of neglect by Cityhall administrators and Mayors.
With this revelation (even though us born and bred here knew the problem for years, but ignored by cityhall) does it mean we can sue cityhall for damages caused by sewer backflows and flooding ?

Looks like smoke and mirrors to me. The money is nowhere near enough to deal with the basic conflict between the CSO design and not enough plant and transport capacity to deal with the total wastewater+runoff.

The only long term answers are either to separate the system street by street, or build the capacity to pump it to a storage tank & treatment facility big enough to handle the load. Both of which are HUGELY expensive, not a paltry $52m.

Before people get started, green roofs and permeable surfaces would help, but not nearly solve the problem.

Jersey City, N.J., to Upgrade, Repair Sewer System to Resolve Clean Water Act Violations

July 25, 2011
http://eponline.com/articles/2011/07/ ... water-act-violations.aspx

A settlement between the United States and the Jersey City, N.J., Municipal Utilities Authority (JCMUA) will resolve Clean Water Act violations by JCMUA for failing to properly operate and maintain its combined sewer system, the Department of Justice and the EPA.

JCMUA violations included releases of untreated sewage into the Hackensack River, Hudson River, Newark Bay and Penhorn Creek. JCMUA will invest more than $52 million in repairs and upgrades to its existing infrastructure and pay a civil penalty of $375,000.

Under the settlement, JCMUA is required to comply with its Clean Water Act permit and will conduct evaluations to identify the problems within the system that led to releases of untreated sewage. JCMUA will also complete repairs to approximately 25,000 feet of sewer lines over the next eight years. Finally, JCMUA will invest $550,000 into a supplemental environmental project that will remove privately-owned sewers from homes in several neighborhoods in Jersey City and replace them with direct sewer connections, creating better wastewater collection in those areas.

?This agreement, like others reached with cities across the country, addresses critically important and long-overdue upgrades to the municipal sewer system in Jersey City, which are required if JCMUA is to achieve compliance with the nation?s Clean Water Act,? said Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice. ?Among the actions required by the agreement, a supplemental environmental project will replace privately-owned sewers with direct sewer connections, directly benefiting economically disadvantaged residents by improving wastewater collection and preventing sewage backups in their homes.?

?Investment in municipal infrastructure and local commitments like those in today?s agreement are practical and necessary solutions to sewer overflow problems,? said Judith A. Enck, Administrator for EPA?s Region 2 Office. ?Today?s agreement will help improve water quality in waters around Jersey City and protect community residents from exposure to raw sewage and contaminated stormwater, now, and into the future.?

Combined sewer systems are designed to transport sewage, industrial wastewater and rainwater runoff in the same pipes to wastewater treatment plants. During periods of heavy rainfall, the volume of wastewater traveling through a combined sewer system can exceed the capacity of the treatment plant. Resulting overflows, called Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs), contain not only stormwater but also pollutants such as untreated human and industrial waste, toxic materials, and debris. They pose risks to human health, threaten aquatic habitats and life, and impair the use and enjoyment of the nation?s waterways.

EPA recently released a report, "Keeping Raw Sewage and Contaminated Stormwater Out of the Public?s Water," to answer commonly asked questions about combined sewer overflows. To read or download a copy of the report, visit www.epa.gov/region2/water/