The North Bergen Municipal Utilities Authority broke ground on Friday on a combined sewer overflow tank in the parking lot of the former, High Tech High School on Tonnelle Avenue.
The five million gallon tank will be the largest CSO in the state of New Jersey. It will significantly reduce the frequency and volume of sewage overflow stormwater into local waterways, thereby improving the quality of water in those creeks and streams and the Passaic Valley Sewerage Authority.
The project is being constructed at 85th Street and Tonnelle Avenue. It is scheduled for completion by September 2025, when the new Middle School is scheduled to open. However, the sewage connections will take another six months to complete.
Thanks to significant financial assistance from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the township and the Municipal Utilities Authority are having to pay back far less money than they would have otherwise been required to do.
The project will cost $60 million, but the NJDEP was able to obtain an 80% principal, meaning the payback cost is only about $12 million at a 1% interest rate over 30 to 40 years.