Back in our fall edition, we covered how the Army Corps of Engineers is assisting the CCMUA with work on the C32 Combined Sewer Overflow outfall, but we didn’t discuss why the matter is so critical to the Authority.
When the CCMUA was formed, it inherited substantial parts of Camden City’s former wastewater management assets: the water resource recovery facility itself actually began its life as Camden City’s largest wastewater treatment plant, and the Baldwin’s Run Pump Station was a smaller city treatment facility as well. That smaller facility included a CSO Outfall (serving as the plant’s effluent pipe) to allow excess sewage that could not be processed during storm events to overflow into the back channel of the Delaware River.
While the CCMUA does not own the municipal sewers that ultimately bring sewage and stormwater to flow out of the outfall, the gallons that exit through it are ultimately our responsibility under the Authority’s surface water pollutant discharge elimination system (NJPDES) permit with NJDEP.
Addressing C32’s overflow and flooding issues is all the more important because flow monitoring conducted by CCMUA consultant CDM Smith indicates that this one outfall could constitute up to almost one-third of the city’s CSO volume!
