Fixing aging sewerage collection pipes, a significant capital project, could help West Windsor avoid future spikes in sewerage treatment costs. That’s the bottom line of a report presented to West Windsor Council by Bob Bartolini, a West Windsor resident and longtime board chairman of the Stony Brook Regional Sewerage Authority (SBRSA).
Since 2010 the township has paid $3 million in yearly charges to the Stony Brook Regional Sewerage Authority (SBRSA), or roughly 8 percent of the municipal budget.
The $3 million derives from two separate charges. SBRSA charges the township based on its share of sewerage delivered to the treatment facility. West Windsor’s sewerage flow, 2.5 million gallons per day, is 23 percent of the total collected by SBRSA, which amounts to a base charge of around $2.8 million in 2014.
In addition there is a “debt service adjustment” charge for repayment of the initial SBRSA bonds that underwrote the construction of the sewer facility on River Road. These repayments go to Princeton, which paid for the full capital costs in the mid-1970s. West Windsor’s present yearly charge is $230,000, and the final seven-year installment goes from 2015 to 2022.
“We’re coming to the end of the Princeton debt,” says Bartolini. “The costs have been fairly flat, though it is dependent on whether it rained, kind of like a variable interest rate.”
The debt service adjustment is based on the yearly flow changes, and this is where West Windsor’s pipes come in. Since 1993 West Windsor’s sewerage flow has increased 67 percent, from 1.5 million gallons a day to 2.5 million gallons a day. This increase is mainly due to the township’s development, but in the same period Princeton’s sewerage flow has trended in the opposite direction, decreasing by 1 million gallons a day.
According to the SBRSA report prepared by Bartolini for Council, Princeton has decreased its sewerage flow by fixing its sewer collector pipes, and the report advises that capital improvements now could control West Windsor’s sewerage flow and avoid ballooning debt service charges in the final years of repayment.
The same report estimates that under projected flow increases based on the growth rate since 1993, debt service adjustment payments for 2015 to 2022 would be just under $3 million, or $375,000 a year, over 50 percent more than the current yearly payment.
Bartolini explains West Windsor’s trunk lines are in good shape, but the network of smaller collector pipes that funnel the sewerage to the trunk lines have infiltration and inflow (I&I) issues. The old collector pipes are not pressurized, and rainfall that seeps underground “infiltrates” the underground pipes, thereby increasing the volume of sewerage. “Inflow” is another problem in West Windsor, which occurs when homeowner sump pumps are illegally connected to sewer lines. In addition to contributing stormwater to the township’s sewerage flow, sump pumps can overload sewer pipes and leak polluting sewage into the ground.
In the township’s proposed 2015 to 2020 capital budget, $250,000 per year is allocated for sewer improvements, totaling $1.5 million. High priority areas include sections of North Post, Alexander, and Wallace roads. Bartolini says the township has remote cameras that can locate deteriorating sewer sections for additional investigation.
Stabilizing sewerage flow through updating the sewer pipes also leads to savings on the base sewerage charge. SBRSA’s total operating costs in 2014 were $12.1 million, of which West Windsor paid $2.8 million. Wages, capital projects, and energy utilities account for nearly 75 percent of SBRSA’s operating costs.
The gross operating cost in 2014 was actually $14.65 million, but this was offset by $2.5 million in revenue generated from SBRSA’s sludge incineration operations, as other towns pay to have their solid waste incinerated at SBRSA. The incinerators run on natural gas, and operating costs increased from $9.6 million in 2005 to $12.4 million in 2009, in large part due to a spike in natural gas costs. West Windsor’s yearly payment to the SBRSA has increased by 40 percent in the same time period, though there have been no significant increases since 2010 after the installation of a state-of-the-art retrograde thermal oxidizer that is more natural gas efficient.
“Our job is to treat what they send us in an environmentally sound and fiscally responsible manner,” Bartolini says.
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The township is one step closer to a new EMS building with Council approving an architectural firm at its March 9 meeting.
Manns Woodward Studios, based in Maryland, was selected to provide building designs and cost estimates for a proposed EMS facility adjacent to the Princeton Junction firehouse. The firm specializes in firehouses, and a report is expected before Council in early May.
Construction of a new facility could start later this year. “The architect did not think it was unreasonable to have a structure in place by winter,” says EMS director Jim Yates.
SPRAB Update. Toll Brothers went before the Site Plan Review Advisory Board Monday, March 9, to review the 45-acre Maneely tract adjacent to Old Bear Brook Road. According to several SPRAB members the site plan application will need to go back to SPRAB before it can be approved and sent to the Planning Board.
The meeting room was packed with residents, mostly those residing on Old Bear Brook Road.
The developers envision a mixed-use site with 51 three-bedroom townhouses; 20,000 square feet of retail with 40 apartments built above; and 192 corporate suites. In addition 10 acres on the eastern part of the property are to be subdivided to the township in accordance with a concept plan that calls for a 72-unit affordable housing complex that is a separate site application.
