This story was produced as part of the Northern New Jersey Media Collaborative Project "Stormwater Matters," a project focusing on stormwater management solutions in the state.

PATERSON, NJ—There are 21 municipalities in New Jersey with a combined sewer system (CSS), where stormwater runoff, human waste and industrial wastewater run through the same pipe. The system overflows when the lines exceed capacity during heavy rainfalls or snowmelts—discharging untreated wastewater directly into rivers and even backing up into streets, flooding people's homes—although, in many cities, such as Paterson, it doesn't take much rain to overwhelm the system.

As a result, combined sewer overflow (CSO) systems are a priority water pollution concern across the United States, subject to the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting program. The NPDES was created in 1972 through the Clean Water Act, but New Jersey only recently required municipalities to submit Long-Term Control Plans (LTCP) with proposed stormwater infrastructure projects that reduce or eliminate CSOs or sewage overflows. These plans have been under review by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) since October 2020, but Paterson residents and activists say they can't wait any longer—they need immediate action when little attention is given to their city and their sewage overflow problem. 

“The system can’t handle the stormwater runoff,” said Martha Arencibia, a resident of Paterson for 45 years, flood victim, and former co-chair of the Paterson Green Team that led citywide cleanups and numerous outreach programs to educate the community on CSOs. “The system gets backed up, and then you have the sewage waste coming back up into our streets and our homes and our schools and bodegas and houses of worship. And this is a major issue, and this goes into a health crisis.”

The state identified Paterson as one of the most impacted and distressed municipalities by Hurricane Ida, which ripped through the state in 2021. About 300 Paterson residents were rescued in the flood, and nearly 100 cars were abandoned throughout the city. Paterson has the third largest population in the state, after Newark and Jersey City, and is recognized as overburdened by the state—where most of the population are people of color, low-income and suffer from disproportionate environmental impacts and public health stressors. 

“My neighbors are Afro-American to Portuguese to Brazilians, Italian, Colombian, you name it, it's a little melting pot right here on my block,” said Arencibia, and the floodwater in Paterson isn’t just rainwater, it's a slurry of rain and human waste.

According to the NJDEP, the impact of flooding was worse in areas with poorly managed stormwater infrastructure, where pipes and inlets were damaged or blocked with debris and backed up into streets and homes. The CSO pipes, built around the late 19th century, are also too small to carry increased rainfall, so when the pipes and the inlets were overwhelmed, they backed up into areas that were not even in a flood plain.

"More and more all over the city, flooding is becoming a problem with sewers," said Denise Womack, a Paterson resident. "The last big storm that we had somewhere back in May, the flooding was coming up through sewers in places it's never happened before. So, it is no longer just a problem in certain parts of the city. It's becoming a city-wide problem."

Frances Harrison, the former co-chair of the Paterson Green Team, said one of the contributors to flooding in Paterson is garbage and debris blocking catch basins. Catch basins, such as storm drains, capture rainfall or surface runoff. To help alleviate flooding, the Green Team started an Adopt-A-Catch Basin program, where residents commit to monitoring and cleaning specific catch basins to prevent debris clogs and stormwater blockage. “We gave out supplies for people to keep the cash basins clean, which is something that would help the flow of the water,” Harrison said.

To maintain catch basin function and efficiency, the city of Paterson has a semi-annual catch basin cleaning program. All catch basins are supposed to be inspected twice a year for sediment, trash and debris. Still, dirty catch basins are a problem in Paterson—with so many residents, businesses, tourists and visitors in Paterson, there’s a lot of garbage, and grass and trees growing out of catch basins isn’t an unfamiliar sight either. 

"If the simple things, a simple maintenance, is not being done, then how do you expect us not to flood?" Arencibia said. "If you could do something to alleviate that pipe not to burst by cleaning it out, and not having garbage go in it, by all means, let's do that. I mean, it's just common sense."

All municipalities are required to inspect and maintain their sewer system, which means cleaning out catch basins, but it's not always done and enforced by the NJDEP. "Sometimes they really just need to be a regulator and enforce their laws," said Chris Obropta, an Extension Specialist in the Rutgers Cooperative Extension's (RCE) Water Resources Program and professor with the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers University. "And that's something that would address a lot of these problems if the city of Paterson was audited, and the DEP would come in and compare what's going on to what's required. And they can actually force them to take up a line of procedures, so they can start taking care of these things. Or they can levy fines."

Nicole Miller, the co-chair of Newark DIG (Doing Infrastructure Green), said they run an Adopt-A-Catch Basin program. She's had residents send her pictures of dirty catch basins, which she sends to the Newark Department of Water and Sewer for them to address. Although it's the city's responsibility to monitor and maintain the sewer system, residents can help monitor and clean catch basins when cities don't have the resources to do it on their own. "They can help make connections when just logistically, the capacity isn't there for the city to be able to monitor all of that," explained Miller. "We don't have the code enforcement to be able to monitor things," but residents can help fill that gap.

The Paterson Green Team replicated Newark DIG's Adopt-A-Catch Basin program and rolled out five events to give out catch basin kits that contain everything someone would need to clean a catch basin, such as gloves, garbage bags, reusable bags, a trash grabber and a safety vest. Not only did the program help clean up debris and prevent it from blocking the sewer system but provided an opportunity for residents to learn more about CSOs. 

Arencibia said one of Paterson's biggest issues is that many in the community don't understand what a CSO is. She's watched people walk waist-high in floodwater, which in Paterson is really sewer water. "If they really knew what was in that water, you think that they will be standing in it, walking in it?" she said.

Paterson's LTCP states that 19th Avenue is one of Paterson's busiest and most densely populated regions and suffers from "substantial street and basement flooding." Arencibia said that flooding poses a serious public health risk to individuals with basement apartments, especially if they don't know that the floodwater contains human waste. "And no one's aiding them, and our schools are being affected," she said.

During Hurricane Ida, School 24 on 19th Avenue suffered substantial damage from flooding, putting 13 classrooms, nine offices, the band room, the art room, the gym and the cafeteria out of commission. Mayor Andre Sayegh said at the time that the city would use American Rescue Plan funds to fix the sewer system in neglected areas to prevent flooding in the future. But according to the LTCP, sewer relief on 19th Avenue is slated to begin sometime between 2036 and 2040.

Miller said most overburdened communities affected by CSOs, such as Newark and Paterson, have limited revenue to spend. Although the NJDEP will allocate $248 million of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for improvement projects listed on the LTCP for CSO communities, including Paterson, they need to be ready with a list of project designs to put that money into effect. "So just having the money isn't enough if the city isn't ready and available to take advantage of that money," said Miller, and 2040 is too far out for residents such as Yolanda Mateo.

Mateo said the flooding on her street was so bad it looked like a river and flooded her basement. "They have to fix the problem," Mateo said. "It looked like a river. For a lot of people, it caused damage. We sent pictures to the city, we talked, and nobody listened."

Flood damage to people’s homes and basements from a CSO must be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected to reduce the risk of disease, but it can be expensive. Many Paterson residents can’t afford to have it professionally cleaned. "A lot of these homes or businesses, these foundations have mildew and germs and whatever bacterial stuff growing as we speak because no one cleaned up properly,” said Arencibia. “So now this is a health hazard. And the flooding at this point is the worst that it has ever been."

Although the Adopt-A-Catch Basin program is meant to alleviate flooding by keeping the catch basins clear for proper drainage, Paterson depends heavily on grant money for their program, so when the money runs out, so do the catch basin kits.

"I would love for the administration to make the Adopt-A-Catch Basin program go straight through Clean Community or DPW for funding," said Arencibia. "So, it could be an everyday, ongoing process, where the entire community could go and get a kit—not when the Green Team has grant money. It could take a year. It could take two years, so you can't wait on a Green Team to work on a possible grant." 

In Newark, although Newark DIG runs the program, the city pays for all the materials they need to run it. Like any program or project, Miller said it boils down to the willingness of elected officials to listen to residents and understand the importance of community programs and green infrastructure projects in helping protect people and their property. She said it should be part of the city's budget and city planning.

"We also need to make sure that the people know that this is their right, this is important, and it should be valued, it should be funded, it should be part of the budget," she said. "These are not things where we need to make sure that we have somebody from Rutgers to write a special grant."

While the Adopt-A-Catch Basin program has been successful in Newark, Miller said more community engagement and promotion from the city would help since there's only so much one organization can do. However, the city of Newark does have a website with a list of the most problematic catch basins for people to adopt—something Paterson doesn’t have.

What Paterson does have, Arencibia said, is an app called Paterson Plus, which the city could utilize to promote the catch basin program and track catch basins. For example, residents can report any issues on the app, such as illegal parking or a clogged sewer, and it has a map. The city could use the map to showcase where all the catch basins are and which are adopted and which aren’t. “And then it would be more of a community thing, being engaged,” she said.

Community outreach and engagement have been critical to educating the public and leveraging change at the government level in Newark. It can also be integral for Paterson residents to address sewage overflow and loss damage mitigation in stormwater management.

Another benefit of the Adopt-A-Catch Basin program, Miller said, is that when people clean a catch basin, other residents will ask about what they're doing, which is an opportunity for more community engagement and education. However, Newark DIG's primary driver of community engagement is its Green Infrastructure (GI) Reformer outreach program. The program provides each ward in Newark with a Newark DIG liaison, who is responsible for educating residents about stormwater issues and increasing the adoption of catch basins through educational trainings and community meetings.

"I think the role is for us to just really educate and bring awareness," said Sabrina Ross, a GI Reformer for Newark DIG. "The idea is to connect, to be collaborative with other organizations that host community meetings, to talk with residents. It's definitely important to get people involved and really just lay it out so they know what they're dealing with so they can make the best decisions or interpret the information that's given to them in the best way possible."

Although GI Reformers try to engage and educate residents by listening to their concerns and putting something into motion to resolve those concerns—"that's the only way to get people to stay involved, to be interested in being involved, they have to see results," said Ross—that doesn't necessarily translate into them being able to bend the mayor's ear, Obropta said. They need somebody else to do that.

Harrison believes that what Paterson needs is a project manager—someone to monitor projects and programs, which doesn't appear to be happening. "Things are being thrown up haphazardly, and money is being wasted," she said. "And if you had a project manager who cared about the city, some of these things that are going on wouldn't be happening."

One of the key differences between Paterson and Newark—similar to a project manager and has significantly helped Newark DIG—is having a Chief Sustainability Officer who works directly under the mayor with representatives from various municipal departments, the Environmental Commission, NJDEP and members of the community.

"It's really important to have someone who can be that central point,” said Miller. “Who knows the issues, who cares, is connected to it and understands it."

Although Arencibia and Harrison have laid the groundwork for future Green Teams, they've received little support from the city, and the team currently needs a chair. Arencibia said the Green Team was originally created as part of Mayor Sayegh's beautification and anti-littering campaign. Under the Green Team resolution, the city was supposed to appoint leader heads from different departments to help guide them, but the administration never followed through. 

"So it was like jumping out of the plane with no parachute," Arencibia said. "It was a lot of work being a volunteer on a Green Team that didn't have all that was supposed to be proposed under the resolution."

While they had several liaisons from City Hall, Arencibia said no one understood the goal of the Green Team, which was to bring reusable, recyclable resources to the community and help educate the community. "And we did more than expected of us," she said. Last summer, the Green Team did a community outreach program for businesses affected by CSOs. They partnered with New Jersey Future and the Passaic River Coalition and visited businesses along Presidential Boulevard—which runs parallel to the Passaic River—that flooded in the past but didn't know about CSOs. 

"We've done a lot, like with no budget, and no resources, just partnerships, and reaching out trying to get grant money," said Arencibia. "We brought so many amazing things to our city, so many resources to our city. If we could do that, as volunteers with no budget, imagine administrative people that do have a budget and have the resources to go after government money that's out there."

The issue for some residents is that the city relies too much on volunteer groups to do the work that the city needs to do, such as pre-storm treatment or check-ups on catch basins, said Womack. "And we have to bring to bear the force of the community to say this is important. It needs to be addressed. And if you aren't going to be the person to get involved and address it for us, you also can't represent us.”

In Part III of this series, PSA will look at the city of Camden and its efforts to address sewage overflow and environmental damage and what reparative justice can look like.