The Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced an agreement with the Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority (JCMUA), to significantly improve the Jersey City, N.J. wastewater and drinking water infrastructure.
The agreement states that JCMUA: will significantly improve the city’s municipal sewer and drinking water systems; will significantly reduce the amount of pollution being discharged into the Hackensack River, Hudson River and Newark Bay; and will benefit many Jersey City neighborhoods that face environmental justice challenges. The agreement is a modification of a consent decree that JCMUA entered into with the U.S. government in 2011.
“As a result of this settlement, the sewer system improvements will reduce discharges from Combined Sewer Overflows by 370 million gallons per year, preventing over one million pounds of pollutants from entering nearby waterways each year,” said EPA Regional Administrator Lisa F. Garcia. “Furthermore, it will accelerate the replacement of thousands of lead service lines, which means cleaner drinking water for vulnerable communities. EPA is renewing its commitment to safeguarding underserved and overburdened communities such as Jersey City. These and other environmental and health benefits are key to protecting public health.”
Under the agreement, JCMUA is committing to repairing and upgrading significant portions of its municipal combined sewer system while also expanding the system’s capacity. JCMUA will also upgrade the city’s drinking water system by replacing over 12,000 lead drinking water pipes.
Many of the areas that these upgrades will benefit are communities of color that have faced environmental justice challenges for decades. JCMUA will also incorporate climate change adaptation and resiliency best practices and design measures into its sewer upgrades to ensure its sewer systems are better prepared to withstand severe storms and hurricanes.
“This settlement will help improve the environment and public health of communities that have long endured a historic and disproportionate burden from pollution,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “The Department of Justice is committed to protecting the public’s right to clean and healthy water under our nation’s Clean Water Act.”
JCMUA estimates the work detailed in the consent decree modifications will take an additional 10 years to complete and cost approximately $1.099 billion.
Under the initial settlement in 2011, JCMUA committed to resolve Clean Water Act violations for failing to properly operate and maintain its combined sewer system, which led to repeated releases of untreated sewage into the Hackensack River, Hudson River, Newark Bay and Penhorn Creek.
That original agreement also included a requirement for JCMUA to complete a comprehensive assessment of the condition of its sewer system. This assessment revealed additional improvements that needed to occur in order to ensure the sewer system will operate in compliance with the Clean Water Act. These additional improvements are being addressed in this settlement.
While the city’s drinking water system is subject to Safe Drinking Water Act regulations and was not addressed by the 2011 Clean Water Act settlement, under the modification, JCMUA has chosen to upgrade both its sewer and drinking water systems at the same time to save time and costs.
The identification, removal and replacement of lead drinking water service lines is important in communities like Jersey City to protect public health, especially children’s health since kids are more vulnerable to the impacts of lead than adults.
The consent decree modification is still subject to a 60-day public comment period and final court approval.
