Borough undertakes $2.6M in Sewer improvements in 2024

Before this month the Borough had not raised sewer fees in three years, yet the Sewer Treatment Plant and our sanitary sewer lines and systems still required capital improvements and preventative maintenance during that period of course, at a cost of over $2.6M this year alone!

The lion’s share of these improvement costs is directed at the Berkley Avenue Pump Station Improvement project, located at Temple Blvd and Berkely Ave. The original Pump Station, constructed in 1922 and still standing and operating today, need significant modernization. The contract was awarded to Sovereign Consulting, Inc of Robbinsville, NJ on May 20th, at a cost of $1,989,000.00. See our engineer’s description of the project below! *

• Additional improvement projects undertaken in 2024 include a significant repair to the sanitary sewer main on 3rd Street at a cost of $327,875.
• Phases II and III of the sewer mains “inflow and infiltration” project (have you seen those SewerRat trucks around town?), which includes inspection – TV’ing is the term – and cleaning of our sewer mains, at a cost of $256,050. This project is intended to identify problem areas for repair and long-term maintenance needs.
• Plus $52,711 for manhole and treatment plant repairs and improvements.
• And finally, the Borough is hiring a new Sewer employee to assist with after-hours vent calls and other requests and needs required by our residents!

* The following was provided by:

William H. Kirchner, PE, CME, N-2
Vice President, Environmental Resolutions, Inc.

Berkley Avenue Pump Station and “Mount Palmyra”

A few months ago, the Borough received a complaint about “Mount Palmyra”.  If you do not frequent the intersection of Temple Avenue and Berkely Avenue the “Mount” in question is the large soil pile located on the site of the Berkley Avenue Pump Station, the small brick building located on the southwest corner of the noted intersection.  A pump station for those of you who do not know, is the answer to the question of how one makes water run up hill.  Essentially you need to pump it and aptly enough where that pump is housed is called a pump station.  The sanitary sewers that run throughout the Borough utilize gravity sewer lines, pipes that operate partially full, that are pitched downhill toward where flow is directed.  When the Palmyra Sewer Plant was originally built in the 1920s the gravity lines hit their lowest point at the Berkley Avenue Pump Station.  There the flow was collected and pumped up to the Sewer Treatment Plant which is located at the end of Firth Lane.  This practice continues today.  However, the pump station design has a 1920’s vibe which does not address modern issues that range from pump efficiencies and dependability issues, to being able to deal with the onslaught of flushable wipes. Also, worker safety and its location within the flood plain concerns the Borough.

To address these issues, the Borough will be undertaking the complete reconstruction of this pump station to modernize it and bring it to compliance with current regulatory standards.  The installation of new clog resistant pumps, grinders to macerate the flushable wipes, updated electronics and controls and the installation of a natural gas back up pump that will be able to keep things flowing (pun intended) even if the station experiences a power loss.  The project will also seek to soften the site’s appearance with a significant increase in site landscaping.  Associated with modernization, comes a migration away from the building at the site.

The issues associated with the building are twofold, one provides an area for sewer gases to collect which is both a nuisance and a worker safety issue.  Modern stations utilize an underground well with submersible style pumps, less contained area means less volume for odor to collect and intensify meaning less nuisance odors and less worker exposure.  As opposed to pumps permanently fixed in a dry well, or basement of the building next to the wet well that holds the sewage, submersible pumps are installed directly in the sewage holding tank.  To service the pumps, they are removed from the well and brought up to ground level where they can be worked on out of the sewer environment.  This is a much safer approach for the system workers.  The second issue is that the existing building is located below the 100-year flood plain.  Why is this a concern? Flooding or inundation of the station with rainwater leads to the overwhelming of the station – essentially the mixing of rainwater with sanitary sewage, this leads to negative impacts on the Sewer Plant’s ability to properly treat the flow and the chance that raw sewage maybe mixed with stormwater flows that make their way to the river without proper treatment.

This is where the “Mount” will come in.  The proposed design will see the existing building demolished and the underground wet well elevated to be above the 100-year flood elevation.  To accomplish this, the front corner of the site will be filled in or raised up and that takes soil or “fill dirt”.  This is the purpose of the stockpiled soils or “Mount Palmyra”.  While it looks like just a pile of dirt, the cost of disposing of that soil and providing new soil for this project would have cost the Borough $20,000 to $30,000.  So, while the Borough does apologize to the neighboring residents for having to look at this for the past year, it is in the spirit of saving the Borough money.

As stated, aesthetics are being considered by the new design as are additional stormwater improvements to continue to minimize to the extent possible the flooding along Temple Boulevard.  Underground storm water retention pipes will be constructed on site adding an additional 12,000 gallons of stormwater storage to the 30,000 gallons of storage previous construction along with the rain garden at the Temple and Firth Intersection.  A seating wall, matching the walls at the Temple and Firth Rain Garden will be installed behind the site frontage sidewalk of the Berkley Avenue Pump Station Site to tie the pump station’s visual appearance in with the rain garden.  However, this seating wall will have another purpose, to allow the site to be raised above the flood plain without looking stark.  Extensive landscaping around the station will further screen the station’s functional components.  A combination chain link with privacy slats and wood look vinyl fence is proposed around the station to provide site security and an initial screen while the landscaping grows in.

The project was awarded to Sovereign Consulting Inc. out of Robbinsville, New Jersey at a cost of $1,989,000.  They are currently working on obtaining the required equipment and anticipate construction to begin in the fall of 2024 with construction completion sometime in the summer of 2025.

Plans for the original Pump Station constructed in 1922.