Mayors want money back for sewerage facility’s power plant that never opened

by Sergio Bichao on Mar 31st | Email

Woodbridge Mayor John E. McCormac is unhappy with the Rahway Valley Sewerage Authority's budget. (Staff file photo: Jason Towlen)

A group of mayors upset with the Rahway Valley Sewerage Authority budget haven't given up their fight.

This week the mayors of Woodbridge, Clark and Rahway -- the largest of the 14 municipalities that pay the authority to accept its waste water -- called on the authority to adjust its 2010 budget, mainly by eliminating expenses budgeted in the event that the authority's cogeneration power plant were to open, which it hasn't and probably won't at all this year.

"The budget should be adjusted immediately to remove any costs associated with the non-opening of the cogeneration facility,'' Woodbridge Mayor John E. McCormac said Tuesday.

The cogeneration plant was built to convert the methane gas produced at the waste water facility into energy. The plant is supposed to serve as a back-up power source and was part of a $250 million court-mandated facility upgrade. The plant, however, has been offline since completion because of equipment failure and litigation. All the while, the RVSA has been budgeting for the unopened plant's expenses. The unused money has created annual surpluses that the mayors say should be returned to ratepayers.

McCormac said that the RVSA in 2008 budgeted $15.4 million, not including debt service, for 2009. But the agency's actual spending in 2009 was close to $13 milion. This year's budget is includes $14.8 million in expenses, 14 percent higher than the amount actually spent last year.

In November, McCormac, Clark Mayor Sal Bonaccorso and Rahway Mayor James J. Kennedy formed a financial oversight committee to audit the RVSA's books and suggest cuts before the agency adopted its 2010 budget. The mayors say they were rebuffed by the authorities' administrators.

Since then, the mayors have been hit with the news that Gov. Chris Christie wants to reduce state aid to municipalities, heightening the need for any cost-savings.

McCormac hopes the RVSA's Board of Commissioners, comprising representatives from all the municipalities, will be open to revisiting the budget now that Executive Director Michael J. Brinker Jr., who defended the budgeting for the cogeneration plant, has retired.

But Robert Luban, a Woodbridge councilman and a RVSA commissioner said the board would not amend its budget this year even if commissioners decide to shutter the plant for good.

"We're going to try to work out the kinks and if we can't, in September we'll make the decision as to whether to continue with trying to get the cogen plant to work or to moth-ball it," Luban said.