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PEQUANNOCK - Village to get updated sewer plan
(by Stephen Janoski - Staff Writer - October 02, 2008)
PEQUANNOCK - Over heavy protests from some residents, the Township Council voted unanimously to appropriate $400,000 for the design of the Village Area Sewer Project at its Tuesday, Sept. 23 meeting.
The project includes sewer line installation in the Village Road area, as well as the construction of two new pump stations in order to push the water flow over the flat land of Pompton Plains. A main line will be constructed going down the Newark-Pompton Turnpike and down Sunset Road to hook up with the main interceptor line on the Boulevard.
A connection will also be planted under Route 23 to sewer future businesses that may move onto the northbound side of the highway.
The Village Road area’s septic systems have been failing as a result of low elevation and soil type, resulting in their being declared in “critical condition” by the Health Department.
Opposition to more design costs
Former mayor Nate Glinbizzi vocally opposed allocating the funds for a new design, saying that a sewerage design done by Malcolm Pirnie Engineering in 1981 could be used instead. He at least wished to see the design updated and used as a base if it could not be used entirely.
Crew Engineering of Butler is currently under contract for the Village Road project, and Vice President Michael Simone was on hand to discuss the needs for new plans.
Simone said that Mayor Nick Kapotes had asked him to look at several engineering plans from the past that outlined the sewerage system, including Malcolm Pirnie’s, to gauge their usefulness in regard to the current project.
He said that all of the plans were too outdated to consider using.
“The essence of sewering is that everything flows down hill. That hasn’t changed,” said Simone. “So to say that one study is good and one is not is incorrect. However, what is relevant is whether things have changed from one time to another, and if that warrants a change in the way you do something.”
Simone said that after the Malcolm Pirnie study had been conducted, the Pequannock River Basin Sewage Authority (PRBSA) constructed a main interceptor line going through the center of the town on the Boulevard, and that altered the flow of sewage.
An interceptor line provides a main line for sewage flow heading toward a treatment plant, collecting sewage from the laterals that branch out from houses.
Simone said that the Malcolm Pirnie study was done for a specific project that the township was applying for in 1981, one that was done according to the standards and regulations of the time.
On top of this, the main interceptor line on the Boulevard is not present on the study, while a line that was proposed but never installed on Pequannock Avenue is shown.
“While some of studies can be considered to be valid at the time, they’re not necessarily valid anymore because of the way the system has evolved,” Simone said.
Because of the changes in the system, as well as the age of the report, Simone stated that the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) would not accept them.
‘Reality has changed’
So many things have changed in layout of the town that it makes them invalid. The data from 1975 or 1981, it’s not what you can sewer today. Regulations have changed, reality has changed, and some of those companies are not in business anymore,” said Simone.
Glinbizzi was not convinced that the plans were useless.
“All you have to do is look at those plans, and they’d give you the elevations, which you can still use, as well as the lines and laterals; all you have to do is update it. I’m totally against this town spending $380,000 for a design again. The cost is way out of line when we’ve already spent the money (doing the Malcolm Pirnie study),” said Glinbizzi.
Simone then said the plans could not be used unless he certified them as correct.
“There is a point at which data is useful, and when it isn’t. The elevations probably haven’t changed, but the plans provided by another engineer are not valid documents for me to certify to you. When you tell me you want me to do a project, I have my engineer’s license on the line saying it’s going to be good, it’s going to be right. And I can’t say that here,” said Simone.
“I’m not saying the plans are wrong, I’m saying they’re different. It’s difficult for someone to put their license on anyone else’s work for anything. If there’s errors, they’ll become my errors,” he said.
Glinbizzi suggested spot-checking listed elevations in order to verify that the plans were still correct.
“If I spot check (the elevation of sewer lines to houses), and I miss one, and that house needs a pump, I can’t say that I used the old elevations. A 1981 set is 27 years old, and I can’t do anything with them,” said Simone.
Engineer survey sought
Before the council’s vote on the appropriation, council candidate Henry Samek proposed having Town Engineer Fred Hermann survey the sites to see if the 1981 study was still correct.
Councilman Joe Jorgensen stated that the township did not have the manpower to do this, then asked Samek if he disagreed with Simone in regards to the DEP’s likely rejection of the Malcolm Pirnie study.
“They might approve it with exceptions,” Samek replied.
Jorgensen said that he would rather rely on the “opinions of the experts."
“You can’t expect (Simone) to put his license on the line for that. If the elevations are wrong, that’s his responsibility. I wouldn’t sign off on someone else’s work. Period,” said Jorgensen.
Councilman Louis Skvarca agreed, saying that the plans were drawn by hand and would not be accepted anywhere.
“They’re not even going to look at it,” said Skvarca.
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