Did you know that your community has a Combined Sewer System (CSS) that discharges into local waters during heavy rains? Revisions in the laws governing CSSs require that all municipalities with these systems develop a Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Long-Term Control Plan (LTCP).
Combined Sewer Systems are typically located in older urban areas and were constructed to provide for the transportation of sanitary sewage, industrial discharges and stormwater within the same pipe. The system in your area was designed to transport all sewage fl ows, and some wet weather flows for treatment. The system was also designed to discharge excess flows from the Combined Sewer System as a CSO discharge into the adjacent receiving waters. If these systems were not permitted to overflow, the community would flood.
The CSO Long Term Control Plan is a feasibility study to evaluate the means, costs and effectiveness of control alternatives for reducing the frequency and volume of CSO discharges, as well as different levels of pretreatment and disinfection.
To meet the Public Participation Program, and other requirements of the LTCP, the City of Paterson, the Towns of Guttenberg, Harrison and Kearny, the Borough of East Newark, Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authorities (MUA), Bayonne MUA, North Bergen MUA and Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners have joined together to form the New Jersey CSO Group. Each of these entities owns and/or operates various components of a Combined Sewer System.
Hatch Mott MacDonald (HMM), a Consulting Engineering firm, has been retained by the NJ CSO Group to develop, coordinate and implement the Public Participation Work Plan as submitted to the NJDEP. The first task in this endeavor is the formation of a Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) to explore issues and options related to Combined Sewer Systems.
Hatch Mott MacDonald has prepared flyers, brochures and posters for the Citizen Advisory Committee.
For more information, contact Marques Eley at (973) 466-2969.