Single Flooding Pump for SE Hoboken
07
December
12/7/2009 Update:
North Hudson Sewerage Authority has stepped up, and has begun the process to finally build a single pump station in the Southeast part of Hoboken.
Questions still remain whether additional pumps are necessary, or if costly wireless technology can do the trick (as Stevens Engineers have already said they won’t).
Wet Weather Pump coming in 2010
“The North Hudson Sewerage Authority awarded a contract of $17,605,500 to build a wet-weather pump station on Observer Highway in Hoboken designed to alleviate serious flooding during a special meeting on Monday evening. The contract has been given to Anselmi & DeCicco, Inc. located in Maplewood.
The project involves the construction of a wet weather pump station to be located in the southeastern section of the city on Observer Highway. The final design for the pump station has been completed by the Authority’s engineer for the project, CH2M Hill. The Authority has already received Treatment Works Approval, Waterfront Development Permit, and HEP Soil Erosion and Sediment Control permits. Authorization to proceed from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) is anticipated within a week of the awarding of the bid. Construction will begin in February 2010. The pump station is expected to be operational by November 2010. The entire project, which includes a new river outfall and pre-treatment facility, is scheduled to be competed in by the end of 2011.
Dr. Richard J. Wolff, the Authority Chairman, said: “Street flooding during serious rain events has been a problem in Hoboken for generations. We are finally beginning a process that will go a long way to addressing the most serious incidents. The construction of this wet weather pump station should alleviate most flooding problems, particularly in the southwestern sections of the city. This area is highly flood-prone because the ground elevations are close to, or in some cases below, sea levels of the Hudson River. Although we do not expect that this one pump station will entirely eliminate all flooding incidents throughout the city, it will certainly improve the situation substantially.”
The project’s cost will be borne by the Authority. Five million dollars of the project will come from a federal stimulus grant, secured through the intervention of Senators Bob Menendez and Frank Lautenberg and Congressman Albio Sires. The balance will be financed through the Authority’s participation in the New Jersey State Revolving Loan Fund, which provides long-term, low-interest infrastructure loans to qualified entities. The project has received strong support from local elected officials as well, including State Senator Brian Stack and Assemblypersons Ruben Ramos, Jr., Caridad Rodriguez, Freeholders Anthony Romano, Jose Munoz, Tilo Rivas and Mayor Dawn Zimmer.”
So, who advocated for this pump in the first place? Contrary to what you were told in the last election it wasn’t Dawn Zimmer. Watch this brief 2007 video for the answer:
2/18/2009:
As you probably already know – the “miracle pumps” to combat Hoboken flooding has been a topic for quite a while.
Roberts seeks out Stimulus bucks to help
The total cost for these four pumps for Hoboken would likely cost over $40 million dollars when it’s all said and done – and they barely have money now to cover even one pump – so Mayor Dave Roberts is pledging for some Obama Bucks to help get this project done once and for all… God, for the benefit of the town – hopefully he can succeed.
See the ABC News video here (brief snippit towards the end).
February 19th 2009 - 11:09:06 |
Time had obama on the cover 14 times in 2008, including person of the year. approx 27% of their issues in 2008. if you include the number of times he appeared in the “skybox” (11 times) it makes for 48% of their issues in 2008. Mccain appeared 5 times; of those occassions 3 were WITH obama. so he was only on the cover twice by himself. coincidently Time chose the Sept 9th issue as one of those 2 occassions.
it seems clear to all that Time is NOT an independent news source.
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February 19th 2009 - 11:22:13 |
But why the complete omission of Barney Franks and Christopher Dodd?
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February 19th 2009 - 11:32:26 |
jcw1966 wrote:
Well – go all the way up the supply chain. Someone needs to manufacture the pumps. The manufacturer of the pumps needs to purchase the parts needed for the pumps. Someone needs to deliver them. The team that installs them is only a piece of it.
Though I agree, 700 sounds like a lot of people. lol
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February 19th 2009 - 11:40:05 |
I’ll interrupt this program to get back on topic…
As an owner on the west side of Hoboken that gets flooded every time there is a dense fog (my neighbor video taped our flooding last year and it ended up on CNN), I wish our city council would focus on enforcing current zoning and construction laws rather than “miracle pumps”. All of this new construction that has occurred is supposed to have a neutral effect on our flooding issues, but they’ve gotten exemptions or simply ignored construction laws that would alleviate much of what is occurring today. Has anyone seen how much the new construction on Monroe is sinking? Just look at the way the street has bowed and cracked along the curbs. Pumps are not going to solve this problem and are just creating another bucket of no-show maintenance jobs for us to throw money into.
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February 19th 2009 - 11:41:49 |
MidnightRacer wrote:
i was listening to a planet money podcast today and they were talking about an economist from Duetche Bank that issued a letter yesterday. Basically he said – taxpayers are on the hook no matter what. Either the economy tumbles and we lose jobs and recover eventually, or we spend money to soften it and we pay the bill later. Lots of people can criticize, but few are offering any alternatives to what’s being done.
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February 19th 2009 - 11:46:25 |
niceguyeddie wrote:
i think you’re right. the new construction needs to be done properly. there’s things people can do themselves to reduce runoff also – as dawn z has suggested in the past. But isn’t it simply a fact that are sewers cannot handle the water right now and need to be upgraded with pumps? Forget the politics of the money coming from the “stimulus”, and is this something Hoboken can benefit from? If it is, then by all means do it, and maybe it helps a few people not lose their jobs or get hired as a result.
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February 19th 2009 - 11:50:50 |
If anyone has been watching the news from Venice, you’ll know that parts of the town are now under water – permanently. Pumps are a short term temporary bandage, but the town needs way more than this temporary fix that’s gonna cost $40 million?
I’m wonder if there are better ways to do it.
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February 19th 2009 - 12:34:22 |
MidnightRacer wrote:
Hypocrite much?
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February 19th 2009 - 12:38:38 |
Whether or not you want to be honest about it, it’s way beyond shown multiple times over how the sub prime mess began, who tried to step in to stop it (but weren’t successful), the mounting risk and fall.
When TIME magazine lists the 25 people to blame, and say about Bush yes he tried to stop it but blamed him for not being successful, and then completely leave out Barney Franks and Christopher Dodd from the list of 25, it explains why people like you are the way you are – given the common knowledge of what went down.
I’ll never expect you to be a person who’ll play any other way, neither will others you’ve had a long history with the same kind of games.
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February 19th 2009 - 14:43:49 |
bradykp wrote:
My company buys pumps and compressors all the time. I just came back from a compressor factory in Pa. They were busy but only have about 50 workers working on maybe 15 different projects.
I’m definitely not saying we don’t need the pumps, I’m just saying that Roberts is using a politician’s license for hyperbole.
They are not going to raise the roadbed on all the roads in that end of town because that would just make the water run into basements and first floor apartments, and it would be very costly as well ($40 million??? I don’t know)
I’m sure we need the pumps. Let’s just be honest about it that’s all.
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December 8th 2009 - 10:31:54 |
That work and suggestion for ONE PUMP as two BLOW and make the flooding worse was given to ZIMMER way before she ran. It is about time THE SEWAGE people got the $ and are starting on the 80 percent solution. (that is what the research said could happen with ONE PUMP in a given area…) that research on the whole problem was looked at by Campos and several others including Mr. Pocci and Mr. Wolff of the sewage authority, two years ago when the 11th Street Pump station was repaired …I kept the paperwork and PICTURES>…
IT IS ABOUT TIME at least a solution ( 80 percent success rate)
is being worked on, and paid for.
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December 8th 2009 - 14:27:31 |
Putting in a pumping station with only 1 pump is foolish and a waste of good $$$. The wise thing is when this pump station is”finaly” built and installed is a pair of equal power pumps. There a plenty of reasons why 2 is the smart thing including; what if the single pump fails, maintenance down time where is the back up, and if they are set up to go on in a alternating manner it cuts down on the wear and tear. The people have waited so long do it right. It will cost a little more now but it will save in the long run.
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December 8th 2009 - 16:54:58 |
All valid points. Hey, consider telling all of this to our newly elected mayor, Ms. Dawn Zimmer. She acts as if she “invented” flood mitigation in Hoboken, but the simple fact is that she used the issue to get elected and hasn’t done anything about it. Clearly, the current quasi-solution with pumps is not hers. Nor is it satisfactory.
Perhaps one of the Zimmer supporters on this venue can talk to her and convince her to listen to the experts. So far she only seems to listen to a very narrow group of friends, all of whom are likely soon to be employed by the city.
In response to escaped68 who said:
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December 9th 2009 - 16:09:18 |
How does adding one pump make flooding conditions worse, compared to the zero pumps present now?
In response to Margaret who said:
IT IS ABOUT TIME at least a solution ( 80 percent success rate)
is being worked on, and paid for.
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December 9th 2009 - 22:49:42 |
I read the article about the pumps, it is not ONE pump it is one pump station with multiple pumps. you don’t put that kind of money for one pump, you put in a series of pumps. This is what is possible a set of small pumps for everyday use and a set big pumps for high water conditions.
In response to jacksonian who said:
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December 10th 2009 - 05:40:55 |
This “multiple” pump suggestion BLOWS when more than one is used. Look up flooding and failed pumps all over the internet.
There are myriads of web pages with complaints, including other countries in which whole towns were buried under raw sewage when the pumps failed. This also affects pumps in BUILDINGS and
there is a high school located near a failed pump where raw sewage started to come down from the ceiling onto the students.
One section of town, the worst has to be done FIRST and see how that works, not a MYRIAD of PUMPS that can cause major failures.
All of the research on this was given to ZIMMER two years ago when the 11th Street stink problem was addressed. I monitored that whole situation all summer, and the following year. IT took two years to address and it is only 80 percent corrected!
Our basement, which got flooded (washroom) no longer does. Our water which was contaminated is cleaner and drinkable. Our smell is gone MOST of the time. Our pipes are new POLYMER, no longer 149 year old clay, which most of the rest of the town still has. Our groundswell does not poison our air and the air is cleaner. ALL BECAUSE the PROBLEM was finally addressed by the NORTH HUDSON SEWAGE AUTHORITY and worked on. MR POCCI and MR. WOLFF with two f’s. I took pictures all year and notes on exactly what was done and how. ZIMMER GOT A COPY…
In response to escaped68 who said:
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December 10th 2009 - 05:46:32 |
All of that work on my own took me hours, and those “toxic avenger guys” got ice water in buckets while they were working
in the heat, coffee in the cooler days, and pictures taken for their families in their nice white “toxic avenger” suits when they went down into the bowels of OUR HOBOKEN. THAT TRUCK IS HERE EVERY WEEK checking on the pipes and the sewers, and the street now has several manhole plates for the flushing and entrances to the bowels of HOBOKEN… Each corner now has a sewer grate and that captures a lot of the water so that HUDSON street doesn’t get flooded as you approach river road (NOW CALLED FRANK SINATRA DRIVE)..Lots of things got done, including the dead polluted brown trees that were absorbing the nasty stuff. Overground pipes take that back down, come and look..I do every day…
Two years later and the problem is BETTER….
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December 10th 2009 - 05:59:39 |
When the street was “opened” to look at the problem a GIANT BALL
the size of a high rise was taken up out of the ground. It containted compacted coffee grinds, dead rodents, chemicals used over the years from the shipyard, dog waste, human waste and whatever else. IT WAS SO COMPACTED and so huge that the sewage authority had to use a chemical to melt it to take it all out of here by trucks. While the trucks were sucking it up with huge accordion looking “pipes” the smell here was outrageous. That is why the trees turned brown. THEN the guys in the while suits came and went underground AFTER they built more covers in the street to have access. COME AND LOOK at how many. THEN THE CORNERS GOT SEWER GRATES…and the flooding here stopped…THIS ALL TOOK TWO YEARS and I KEPT THE PICTURES the LETTERS the REGISTERED COMPLAINTS from the tenants about the smell…etc…etc…etc…THAT IS WHAT HAPPENED here…
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December 10th 2009 - 06:05:38 |
while I was doing all this, I went to City Hall several times to get a map of our sewers, as the research I found said that we have in most parts of town 149 year old CLAY sewers and some made of wood. A joke here (lore) is that GEORGE WASHINGTON MADE HIS TEETH OUT OF THE WOOD of OUR SEWER SYSTEM….
I got stonewalled and if there is a sewer map they wouldn’t give it to me…If this can happen on our block, maybe the rest of the town can get the help they need. Keep lobbying, keep up the letter and complaints and research. It might do some good.
I did….and continue…let us see how our NEW MAYOR handles this.
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December 10th 2009 - 08:53:04 |
Can’t argue with the logic here! However, as others have posted, why in the world are new buildings being built or considered in what clearly is a flood zone? So irresponsible in the short term, so costly in the long term. Good old boy network reigns supreme?
In response to escaped68 who said:
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