AVON-BY-THE-SEA — An ordinance to fund repairs to the borough’s sewer pumps on Ocean and Lincoln avenues was introduced by the Avon Board of Commissioners Tuesday night.
In an agreement with Pumping Services Inc., out of Middlesex, the bond ordinance 16-2023 will enable repairs to the town’s sewage pump on these avenues by appropriating a maximum total of $17,500 for the project cost.
The borough’s other pump experienced a malfunction of a new valve that was replaced during the summer, and has already been taken out to be balanced and rewound, according to Mike O’Brien, superintendent of the Avon-By-The-Sea Water/Sewer Department.
“They are currently purchasing a PLC controller and hopefully have that installed soon, and they will install transmitters so they will be able to monitor us 24/7,” said Mr. O’Brien.
Due to the recently unanticipated heavy rain storms, the strength of just one currently working pump prevented successful drainage of excess water from nearby homes.
“Before the large part of the rain on Friday, we were pumping over 300,000 gallons a day higher than we normally were. When the rain came that day, we pumped 2.2 million gallons,” said Mr. O’Brien. “We usually pump 200,000-250,000 a day…the system could just not keep up with the amount of water that we had during that time.”
Mr. O’Brien said that because the groundwater was so high, it took a number of days for the water to decrease even with pumping being done every day, it was only going down by about a foot. The influx of water levels caused residents to have backup in their sewage systems.
Check out our other Avon-by-the-Sea stories, updated daily. And remember to pick up a copy of The Coast Star—on newsstands Thursday or online in our e-Edition.
Subscribe today! If you're not already an annual subscriber to The Coast Star, get your subscription today! For just $38 per year, you will receive local mail delivery weekly, with pages and pages of local news and online access to our e-edition on Starnewsgroup.com.
For more on this story, read the next edition of The Coast Star—on newsstands Thursday or online in our e-Edition.
