Construction of a new pump station, which will service both Metuchen and Edison, is on the horizon.
The Metuchen Borough Council approved a $4.1 million bond ordinance for the construction of the new pump station at a meeting on Jan. 13.
The new station will replace the Edison Pump Station and the Metuchen Jersey Avenue Pump Station and will be built between the two existing stations.
The design and installation of the associated measuring devices and/or meters required to measure the combined flow from Edison and Metuchen pumped to the Middlesex County Utilities Authority (MCUA) for treatment and disposal would eliminate the need for each municipality to upgrade and/or replace its own pumping station and eliminate the current practice of double pumping of wastewater.
The two municipalities officially entered a shared services agreement last July for the design and construction of a new single sewage pumping station, which will be owned, operated, maintained and managed by Metuchen.
Borough Administrator Jay Muldoon said since then, borough officials have been working with CME Associates, an engineering firm in Parlin, with preliminary and final work site design as well as working with bond counsel on financing the construction.
“We are at the point now to get authorization to do bonding for construction [of the new pump station],” he said.
The cost of the bond will be shared 50-50 with Edison Township. Muldoon explained that they are the lead municipality for the project. He reported an invoice will be sent to Edison for bond payments.
Since the 1950s, the Metuchen sewage pump station on Jersey Avenue and the Edison pump station located in Metuchen less than 500 feet away processed sewage for both municipalities.
The flow to the pumping stations was all intermingled, but a shared services agreement was never made, officials said.
Both pump stations are nearing their useful lives and are in need of replacements. The Metuchen Jersey Avenue Pump Station was constructed in the late 1950s and the Edison Pump Station was built in 1955.
The borough has two pump stations located on Orchard Street and Jersey Avenue. Officials have said the Jersey Avenue station averages about 2 million gallons of sewage per day which moves down Durham Avenue and joins sewage water from Edison behind the Pines Manor and eventually makes its way to the Sayreville Water Treatment Plant.
Officials have said they do not expect any disruption of service when the construction of the new station begins.
