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Ocean Township Mayor Christopher Siciliano says his town’s sewage treatment plant has the capacity to handle Asbury Park’s wastewater if plans move forward to close the city’s treatment plant on Ocean Avenue, as proposed by master waterfront redeveloper iStar.

IStar’s proposal, reported in Thursday’s issue of the triCityNews, is to close Asbury’s waterfront treatment plant — and develop that site instead of the Bradley Cove area, where iStar can build 15 townhomes near the Loch Arbour border. The Bradley Cove area would be preserved. [The triCityNews owns this website.]

“I think it’s a great idea,” Ocean Township Mayor Christopher Siciliano said. “It opens up some prime real estate along Ocean Avenue for development. I think it’s a natural for them to send it to us.

“We can handle the flow,” Siciliano said. “We used to pump over 11 million [gallons] a day but now are down to 4 million.”

A 2007 report found the highest three month consecutive average flow to the Asbury plant to be 2.68 million gallons per day, according to Brian Cheripka, iStar’s vice president of land and development, as reported in the triCityNews.

The report also states that the full build-out of the waterfront redevelopment of 3,164 units and 450,000 square feet of commercial space would result in less than an additional one million gallon per day of additional future flow, Cheripka said. The Asbury Park treatment plant’s permitted maximum flow is 4.4 million gallons per day, he said.

While the Township of Ocean Sewerage Authority also serves Deal, Allenhurst and Interlaken, technological improvements have made operations more efficient and capable of taking on Asbury Park’s wastewater needs, Siciliano said.

“We have a well-run plant with a board of professionals that understand the sewer business,” Siciliano said.  “It runs like a great corporation.”

Sicliano and Asbury Mayor John Moor — who is also supportive of the initiative — agree that a force main to carry the wastewater could be placed under Ocean Avenue, through Deal to the Roosevelt Avenue pump station.

Two pump stations in Asbury would be needed, possibly one near the 7-Eleven on Main Street and another at the city’s existing wastewater treatment plant on Ocean Avenue, Moor said.

“We are very supportive,” he said. “I love it – it’s thinking outside the box. It’s a win for Bradley Cove and it’s a win for everybody.

“I can only speak for myself but I hope they can figure out a way to make it work because there are a lot of moving pieces,” Moor said.

The Township of Ocean Sewerage Authority, in the Oakhurst section of the township near the Deal border, serves approximately 30,000 people. It is an autonomous authority of five members appointed by the township council.

Siciliano said current utility customers pay on average $100 to $125 per quarter but a rate would need to be negotiated between the two municipalities.

There are other details the two municipalities and the master waterfront redeveloper need to iron out, Moor said.

Those details not only include engineering feasibility, but also concerns about what would become of Asbury Park utility employees and debt, he said.

“No one has addressed the debt on the plant,” Moor said. “We owe a lot of money on the sewer plant.”

According to the triCityNews report, iStar’s Cheripka said that preliminary engineering studies and financial analysis indicate that the proposal to close the city’s sewage treatment plant is feasible. The city’s infrastructure financing program for the waterfront would be used for the costs, Cheripka said.

IStar can build the 15 town homes at Bradley Cove in a .6 acre plot of land in the current Ocean Avenue right-of-way from the sewerage treatment plant north toward the Loch Arbor border. Environmentalist and surfing advocates have called for the preservation of the site. There is also an adjacent .6 acre triangular plot where iStar can develop a mid-rise residential tower, but development plans have not been filed for that site, which is also subject to a state Tidelands claim.

Last year, the state Green Acres program awarded a $1.1 million grant to Asbury Park to use toward the preservation of the Bradley Cove site where the town homes would be constructed.

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