Keeping the Lights on Without
River Water
By Captain Bill Sheehan, Hackensack Riverkeeper

Striped bass are back in the Hackensack. Ninety percent of the fish caught in a 1988 study were mummichog, a small pollution-tolerant fish. In 2004, a followup study found the number of white perch, striped bass and other predatory species had increased significantly and the river was closer to a natural balance.

In the 1980s Public Service Electric and Gas Co. (PSE&G) operated an antiquated coal-fired power plant at the confluence of the Hackensack River and Overpeck Creek in Ridgefield, New Jersey. The plant was a notorious polluter.

In addition to the constant black plume of smoke, the plant also impacted the Hackensack River with its once-through cooling process. In those days, the plant pumped 500 million gallons of water daily from Overpeck Creek and discharged the heated water into the Hackensack.

Across the river sat the Bergen County sewage treatment works, treating the sewage from 45 municipalities in one of the most heavily populated regions in the U.S. The treatment plant discharged treated wastewater into the Hackensack directly across the river from the power plant.

In 1988, a fish swimming up the Hackensack River, when it got to the section of the river between Ridgefield and Little Ferry, NJ, would have to swim through a curtain of superheated heated sewage. Oxygen levels hit the basement and fish kills were an annual event. American shad, striped bass, bluefish and menhaden, fish that live part of their lives in the ocean, had disappeared from the river. Today, they are back.

In the early 1990s, when the operating permits for the plant came up for renewal PSE&G decided to convert the facility to natural gas. The company also decided to install cooling towers and eliminate once-through cooling. PSE&G took the idea even a step farther, running a pipeline under the river to the sewage treatment plant and drawing treated wastewater to replenish water lost due to evaporation in the cooling towers.

The result has been a profound improvement in the Hackensack River. PSE&G’s decision, however, was controversial among their peers. Many in the industry take the hard line that they must pollute to provide cheap energy. Energy production is a dirty business, but PSE&G has made an effort to do things right at the Bergen plant. They brag a lot about it, and they deserve to. This industry will never be white glove clean, but in this case PSE&G has been very responsible.

Let’s be clear that PSE&G is far from perfect (see the story on page 38 on their Salem nuclear power plant.) However, as we move into the 21st Century, we should consider the forward-thinking approach taken by PSE&G at the Bergen Generating Facility and give credit where credit is due. When we can do that, then everyone should realize that we do not have to settle for outdated and outmoded technology. No waterway anywhere on this planet should be forced to bear the burden of pollution just to keep our lights lit.

If they can do it in Bergen County, New Jersey, then they can do it anywhere. And if their business model doesn’t allow them to do it, they need to get a new business model.

New Jersey and Reuse: Perfect Together
PSE&G’s Bergen County power plant started life as a coal plant, later converted to oil and eventually to a high efficiency combined cycle natural gas plant. Natural gas is burned in jet engines to spin a turbine and generate power. These engines do not require water for cooling. However, waste heat from the motor is used to boil water, which is put through a separate steam turbine creating a second source of power. At the Bergen plant water in this secondary steam system comes directly from the wastewater treatment plant located across the Hackensack River.