Look What We Accomplished in 2021! |
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This year brought highs and lows for communities with combined sewage flooding. As we reflect on this year, we must also acknowledge that many of our communities experienced some of the worst combined sewage flooding in a decade, causing displacement as well as financial, physical, and emotional damage. Let’s celebrate our top five accomplishments while acknowledging the work we must do in the coming year to prevent future devastation. |
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Conducted a two-day workshop with climate, environmental justice, green infrastructure, affordability, and water quality leaders to assist community members with reviewing the CSO LTCPs, as well as with drafting and submitting comments.
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Collaboratively drafted and submitted general comments on the CSO LTCPs endorsed by 21 organizations.
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Wrote and delivered a letter to the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission (PVSC) Board of Commissioners—signed by 37 signatories—asking for the costs of a $219 million regional parallel interceptor to be paid by the utility. PVSC agreed to pay for the regional upgrade.
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With support from our capacity building grant program, supported six community organizations to conduct outreach to small businesses, elected officials, and residents on combined sewage flooding solutions and challenges.
- Advocated for and participated in a stakeholder process to create overarching requirements for the forthcoming CSO permit.
Now let’s rest, relax, recover, and prepare for 2022!
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New Jersey’s regional and local governments are learning how to incorporate the impacts of climate change into decisions about land use, housing, open space, and infrastructure investments. The State was awarded a $15 million federal grant as part of the Hurricane Sandy relief efforts in 2016. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection is administering $10 million for the Resilient NJ program. The remaining $5 million is being used to develop a toolkit of best practices for regional stormwater infrastructure. Learn more here.
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Municipal planners, drinking water/sewer utility officials, municipal development officials, CSO permittees, consultants, and interested parties gathered for the virtual workshop that was co-hosted by Jersey Water Works and the New Jersey Chapter of the American Planning Association. The workshop was designed to help planners and officials understand the ways in which they can reduce sewage generation through water conservation and redevelopment design, including stormwater systems retrofits and green infrastructure. It also covered the use of public spaces in ways that help resolve CSOs while reducing customer costs and improving the quality of life and resilience of CSO neighborhoods and municipalities. Learn more here.
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Sewage-Free Streets and Rivers partner leader and Paterson Green Team co-chair Martha Arencibia was prominently featured in the USA TODAY article, “Climate change brings a perfect storm of raw sewage and rainfall in cities that can least afford it.” "USA TODAY spent a year investigating how climate change is exacerbating overflows, parsing through national rainfall data and reports of spilled sewage in dozens of states and cities. It found that, across the board, communities saddled with these systems now face harder and more frequent rainfalls that can lead to even more toxic spills.” Learn more here.
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This month we are featuring Anthropocene Alliance (A2), a national coalition of frontline communities fighting for climate and environmental justice, and their push for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to update their flooding maps. “Flooding in the U.S. is both common and destructive, but the flood maps that are supposed to prepare us are badly outdated,” said Harriet Festing, A2 executive director and co-founder. The Sewage-Free Streets and Rivers campaign is funded by a generous grant from The Kresge Foundation to New Jersey Future. As part of an initiative that funds 24 grantees, the Climate Resilient and Equitable Water Systems (CREWS) initiative is a program working to transform stormwater and wastewater systems with climate-resilient water management practices that emphasize equity.
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Sewage-Free Streets and Rivers is an action-oriented campaign that empowers community organizations to engage residents and small business owners to shape their communities’ solutions to reduce localized flooding and the raw sewage dumped into rivers and streams due to combined sewer overflows (CSOs). It is organized by its partners and an advisory board, with the support of New Jersey Future.
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