Van Abs: Water Infrastructure in New Jersey's CSO Cities

159 Pages·2014·7.19 MB·English

Water Infrastructure in New
Jersey’s CSO Cities:
Elevating the Importance of Upgrading New

Jersey’s Urban Water Systems

Prepared for New Jersey Future

May 2014 (Revised 23 June 2014)

Daniel J. Van Abs, PhD, PP/AICP
Principal Investigator
Rutgers – The State University of New Jersey
School of Environmental and Biological Sciences
Department of Human Ecology
55 Dudley Road
New Brunswick, NJ 08903

e: [email protected]
Front cover photo credits: Van Abs (left), United Water (right)
Water Infrastructure in New Jersey’s CSO Cities:
Elevating the Importance of Upgrading New Jersey’s Urban Water Systems

Daniel J. Van Abs, Alexander McClean, Ioanna Tsoulou, Yuling Gao and Tim Evans

May 2014 (Revised 23 June 2014)

Contents
Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................................................... iv
Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................................... v
Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 1
The Challenges of Combined Sewer Overflow Controls ............................................................................................. 2
Overview of New Jersey CSO Municipalities ............................................................................................................. 4
Overview of Federal and State Regulation of Combined Sewer Systems.................................................................... 4
Options for CSO Controls ......................................................................................................................................... 7
CSO Control Lessons from Other Cities ..................................................................................................................... 9
Chicago, Illinois .................................................................................................................................................. 10
New York, New York .......................................................................................................................................... 11
Portland, Oregon ............................................................................................................................................... 11
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ................................................................................................................................. 12
Cost-Effectiveness of Green Infrastructure Measures ......................................................................................... 13
A New Jersey Case Study ........................................................................................................................................ 15
NJPDES Individual Permits for CSO Controls ........................................................................................................... 20
Chapter 2: Demographic and Economic Overview of CSO Municipalities .................................................................... 27
Population and Housing Status and Past Trends ..................................................................................................... 27
Employment Status and Past Trends ...................................................................................................................... 30
Population and Employment Projections ................................................................................................................ 32
Economic Stresses ................................................................................................................................................. 33
Public Transportation ............................................................................................................................................. 35
Summary ............................................................................................................................................................... 36
Chapter 3: Water and Water Infrastructure Issues for CSO Municipalities ................................................................... 39
Waters Affected by CSO Discharges ........................................................................................................................ 39
Water Infrastructure Ownership and Capacity in CSO Municipalities ...................................................................... 45
Public Community Water Supply Systems .......................................................................................................... 47
Public Sewer Systems......................................................................................................................................... 48
Growth Demands for Water Supply and Sewer Utilities .......................................................................................... 52
Combined Sewer Systems, Outfalls and Catchment Areas....................................................................................... 54
Asset Management Indicators ................................................................................................................................ 61
Vulnerability of Water Infrastructure to Flooding and Storm Surge ......................................................................... 63
Costs and Affordability of CSO Controls .................................................................................................................. 67
Recent Requests for State and Federal Financing.................................................................................................... 73
Chapter 4: Water Infrastructure Analysis for Selected Municipalities .......................................................................... 75
Bayonne ................................................................................................................................................................ 76
Population and Employment Projections ............................................................................................................ 76
Detailed Utility System Descriptions ................................................................................................................... 76
Planned Water Supply System Upgrades ............................................................................................................ 79
Planned Sewer System Upgrades and CSO Controls ............................................................................................ 79
Institutional Capacity for Utility Management .................................................................................................... 80
Obstacles to Upgrading Water Infrastructure ..................................................................................................... 81
City of Camden ...................................................................................................................................................... 83
Water Infrastructure in New Jersey’s CSO Cities:
Elevating the Importance of Upgrading New Jersey’s Urban Water Systems

Population and Employment Projections ............................................................................................................ 83
Detailed Utility System Descriptions ................................................................................................................... 83
Planned Water Supply System Upgrades ............................................................................................................ 86
Planned Sewer System Upgrades and CSO Controls ............................................................................................ 86
Institutional Capacity for Utility Management .................................................................................................... 88
Obstacles to Upgrading Water Infrastructure ..................................................................................................... 89
Elizabeth ................................................................................................................................................................ 91
Population and Employment Projections ............................................................................................................ 91
Detailed Utility System Descriptions ................................................................................................................... 91
Planned Water Supply System Upgrades ............................................................................................................ 93
Planned Sewer System Upgrades and CSO Controls ............................................................................................ 93
Institutional Capacity for Utility Management .................................................................................................... 95
Obstacles to Upgrading Water Infrastructure ..................................................................................................... 95
Jersey City .............................................................................................................................................................. 97
Population and Employment Projections ............................................................................................................ 97
Detailed Utility System Descriptions ................................................................................................................... 97
Planned Water Supply System Upgrades .......................................................................................................... 100
Planned Sewer System Upgrades and CSO Controls .......................................................................................... 100
Institutional Capacity for Utility Management .................................................................................................. 102
Obstacles to Upgrading Water Infrastructure ................................................................................................... 102
Newark ................................................................................................................................................................ 103
Population and Employment Projections .......................................................................................................... 103
Detailed Utility System Descriptions ................................................................................................................. 103
Planned Water Supply System Upgrades .......................................................................................................... 105
Planned Sewer System Upgrades and CSO Controls .......................................................................................... 105
Institutional Capacity for Utility Management .................................................................................................. 106
Obstacles to Upgrading Water Infrastructure ................................................................................................... 107
Paterson .............................................................................................................................................................. 109
Population and Employment Projections .......................................................................................................... 109
Detailed Utility System Descriptions ................................................................................................................. 109
Planned Water Supply System Upgrades .......................................................................................................... 111
Planned Sewer System Upgrades and CSO Controls .......................................................................................... 112
Institutional Capacity for Utility Management .................................................................................................. 113
Obstacles to Upgrading Water Infrastructure ................................................................................................... 115
Summary from the Case Study Municipalities ....................................................................................................... 116
Chapter 5: Findings and Considerations .................................................................................................................... 117
References ............................................................................................................................................................... 119
Appendix A: CSO Drainage Area Characterization .................................................................................................... 123
Appendix B: CSO Cost Estimates .............................................................................................................................. 129
Appendix C: Municipal Water Supply and Sewer Utility Residential Costs and Affordability Indices (CSO Municipalities)
................................................................................................................................................................................ 135
Appendix D: NJDEP Intended Use Plan Rankings, SFY2014 for Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CSO Municipalities)
................................................................................................................................................................................ 136
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Water Infrastructure in New Jersey’s CSO Cities:
Elevating the Importance of Upgrading New Jersey’s Urban Water Systems

Appendix E: NJDEP Listing of Proposed Projects for Sandy Funding, Clean Water SRF (CSO Municipalities) .............. 140
Appendix F: NJ Drinking Water Revolving Fund Projects with Executed Loans in the Smart Growth Initiative (CSO
Municipalities) ......................................................................................................................................................... 141
Appendix G: NJDEP Intended Use Plan SFY 2014, Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (CSO Municipalities) ........... 143

June 2014 Modifications
The May 2014 report was modified based on comments received and to reflect minor editing. Significant
changes in the report are as follows:
 Table 3-5 was updated to reflect May 2014 information on Total Available Capacity and Net
Available Capacity for water supply facilities serving CSO municipalities.
 Table 3-10 and related text were updated to reflect the modifications to Table 3-5, which
significantly changed the findings regarding Newark and Jersey City, both of which shifted from
potential future deficits based on growth to no projection of deficits through 2035.
 The detailed utility description for Bayonne in Chapter 4 was modified to reflect the change in Table
3-5 for North Jersey District Water Supply Commission.
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Water Infrastructure in New Jersey’s CSO Cities:
Elevating the Importance of Upgrading New Jersey’s Urban Water Systems

Acknowledgements

This report was developed for New Jersey Future by a research team at Rutgers-The State University of
New Jersey led by Daniel J. Van Abs, PhD, PP/AICP, Associate Research Professor, Department of Human
Ecology, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, with Ioanna Tsoulou, Alexander McClean and
Yuling Gao, graduate students at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. Evaluations
of population, employment and economic trends were prepared by Tim Evans of New Jersey Future. Chris
Sturm, Senior Director of State Policy at New Jersey Future, provided overall project direction. Funding for
this project was provided by the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.
Our thanks to Alexander Sliwecki for use of his case study on green infrastructure effectiveness. Thanks
also to the NJ Department of Environmental Protection for staff review of the draft report. NJDEP’s
involvement and provision of data do not constitute in any way an endorsement of the findings or
recommendations of this report. In addition, the following individuals provided valuable information and
insight regarding water supply and wastewater utility operations within the target areas. Many thanks for
the time and effort provided. Each was provided with interview notes for review but any errors in
interpretation are the responsibility of the Principal Investigator:
 Bayonne Municipal Utilities Authority: Stephen Gallo, Executive Director; Joseph Nichols, Attorney;
John Rolak, Hatch Mott MacDonald
 City of Camden: Patrick Keating, Director, Department of Public Works; Uzo Ahiarakwe, City Engineer
 Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority: Andrew Kricun, Executive Director
 Elizabeth City: Daniel Loomis, City Engineer; Steve Rinaldi
 Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority: Rich Haytus, Senior Engineer; Rajiv Prakash, Water Engineer
 Newark Department of Water and Sewer Utilities: Andrea Hall Adebowale, Acting Director; Joseph
Beckmeyer
 Passaic Valley Water Commission: James Duprey; Director of Engineering; Kevin Byrne, Principal
Engineer
 Paterson City: Frederick Margron, City Engineer
 United Water
o Robert J. Iacullo, Executive Vice President
o Richard W. Henning, Senior Vice President Communications, Outreach and Creative Services
o Kevin W. Chandler, Vice President North Division
o John E. Dykson, Vice President, Capital Planning and Research
o Neil Phillips, Field Services Manager Camden
o John C. Ludington, Project Manager, Bayonne
o John Manganaro, Project Manager, Camden
o Chris Riat, System Manager: Bayonne, Hoboken, Jersey City, Rahway

This report has not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey; it
represents the work and views of the authors and not those of the University. Please cite this report as:

Van Abs, Daniel, Alexander McClean, Ioanna Tsoulou, Yuling Gao and Tim Evans. 2014. Water Infrastructure
in New Jersey’s CSO Cities: Elevating the Importance of Upgrading New Jersey’s Urban Water
Systems. A report for New Jersey Future. Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey. New
Brunswick, NJ.
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Executive Summary
Talk to managers for urban water supply or sewer utilities about their systems and a simple yet troubling word is
commonly used – “old.” Utility systems in our urban areas are constantly balancing the irreconcilable. They
must maintain the long-term viability of rapidly aging utility assets while recognizing that increased rates are a
major concern for customers and political leaders. The systems are old – often very old, as in a century or more
– and getting older, while very often emergency repair costs are rising and capital projects are deferred for lack
of funding. While treatment plants generally are well maintained to comply with State regulations for drinking
water quality and wastewater effluent limits, the pipes that distribute water to customers and take the resulting
wastewater from them are too often “out of sight, out of mind,” at least for those who aren’t responsible for
keeping them going. After Hurricane Sandy, the primary public focus is perhaps even more strongly on the
above ground buildings and structures that were damaged, with too little thought to the below-ground systems
that support the above-ground development.
And yet, how can any urban area function effectively without sound water supply, sewer and stormwater
systems? These utilities can be thought of as the arteries and veins of the city, supplying life-giving services to
the body of the city. These water utilities are fundamentally important, along with transportation and energy
infrastructure.
This report provides a review of available information on urban water infrastructure. It focuses on the 21 New
Jersey municipalities that have combined sewer systems (CSS) that discharge through Combine Sewer Overflows
(CSOs) in part or all of their area. However, the report also examines issues regarding water supply capacity and
wastewater capacity for these municipalities. Table ES-1 lists the 21 CSO municipalities, with those shown in
bold having more than 10 CSOs (see also Figures ES-1 and ES-2):
Table ES-1. New Jersey CSO Municipalities
Bayonne Hackensack Paterson
Camden (City of) Harrison Perth Amboy
East Newark Hoboken Ridgefield Park
Elizabeth Jersey City Trenton
Fort Lee Kearny Union City
Gloucester City Newark Weehawken
Guttenberg North Bergen West New York

Combined sewers convey sewage to a treatment plant, just as separate sewers do. However, they also serve as
the storm sewer system; flows rapidly increase during wet weather events as runoff from these urban areas
enters the sewers. This technology dates originally from the Roman Empire but then fell out of favor; it was
reapplied from the mid 1800’s to around the 1920’s as a method of getting all types of wastewaters out of the
cities and into rivers and estuaries as fast as possible – without treatment, as there were no sewage treatment
plants when combined sewers were initially constructed. The use of combined sewers is more common than
people generally perceive; roughly 860 municipalities in the United States have such systems, mostly in the
Northeast and Midwest. London and many other European cities have combined sewers, and some of the
original Roman combined sewers are still in existence, indicating the endurance of the technology.
New Jersey’s CSO municipalities are among the earliest urban places in New Jersey, often with very high
populations densities (for example, Hoboken has over 50,000 people in one square mile). They include six of the
13 New Jersey municipalities with more than 75,000 people, and the four most populous municipalities (Newark,
Jersey City, Paterson and Elizabeth). They are generally less wealthy than the New Jersey average (with Hoboken
and Fort Lee being exceptions), and sometimes very poor. Several CSO municipalities have over 20% of their
households below the poverty line as defined by the federal government, which probably understates the issue
given the high cost of living in New Jersey. Chapter 2 provides an overview of these municipalities regarding
their population and employment trends, household incomes, tax ratables, home values and public
Water Infrastructure in New Jersey’s CSO Cities:
Elevating the Importance of Upgrading New Jersey’s Urban Water Systems

Figure ES-1. CSO Municipalities in Northeast New Jersey
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