A sewer line replacement project now underway in a town in New Jersey has caused concern for an environmental group due to its location on the edge of a wildlife preserve. Easing some of that concern, though, is the fact that horizontal directional drilling will be used on the project.
According to a report in the Montclair Local, work recently began on tree removal in preparation for the replacement of a failing 80-year-old sewer line that services town of Clifton residents living on the border of the 21-acre Alonzo F. Bonsal Preserve. The sewer line runs under the preserve, which is owned by the neighboring town of Montclair. About 30 trees are marked for removal, but the environmental impact could have been more without the decision to use HDD.
To further minimize the impact, a gravity-fed line is being put in that won’t need a pumping station. The project will require six 20-by-12-foot pits dug about 40 feet deep. Those six locations will then become manholes after the sewer line is constructed.
“The line will be redirected along the edge of Bonsal,” Jonathan Grupper, co-founder of the group Friends of the Bonsal Wildlife Preserve, told the Montclair Local. “Though that runs uphill on the surface, the line will be pitched underground steadily downward to be gravity-fed. Only six spots will be impacted to varying degrees, mostly along the northern border of the preserve.”
The town of Clifton has promised the Friends group that 10 new trees will be planted for every tree that is cut down. The project is scheduled to be complete by April 2019.
“So far it’s been a big success of private citizens and government, including the state, county and towns, coming together,” Grupper told the Montclair Local.
Source: Montclair Local
