Waste Treatment Plant Slowly Returning to Full Service
Officials say it may take weeks before complete treatment of waste water resumes at PVSC
Hurricane Sandy dealt a heavy blow to the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission plant in Newark, but the facility has largely been able to continue treating effluent pumped into the region’s waterways, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection said Thursday. But federal officials also said a key indicator of the waterways’ cleanliness was still above acceptable levels, prompting a call for people to continue avoiding contact with the waters of Newark Bay and the lower Passaic and Hackensack rivers. The PVSC serves 1.4 million customers, including in Bergen and Essex counties. Its plant, the state’s largest consumer of electricity, experienced unprecedented flooding when the waters of the nearby Passaic River surged …
Chris Len
5:14 pm on Sunday, November 18, 2012
The headline and first paragraph of this article are wildly misleading. Secondary treatment is required by law. With primary treatment, to the extent that you can call what PVSC is doing right now is primary treatment, PVSC is simply discharging millions of gallons of sewage mixed with bleach directly into the harbor. This is legally and environmentally insufficient as reflected by the water … more ›