The South Monmouth Regional Sewage Authority (SMRSA) received a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which has awarded more than $1 million to help pay to undo extensive Superstorm Sandy-related damage to the Authority’s Pitney Avenue Pump Station, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04) said Thursday.

    The grant will provide $1,081,285 in Federal funding to pay for 90 percent of the $1,201,428 cost to rebuild the pump station.

    “Sandy damaged critical infrastructure up-and-down the coast,” said Smith, who toured damage throughout Monmouth and other counties in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. “This grant will help replace a pump station located in Spring Lake that was essentially destroyed and has been bypassed for the past year.”

    Smith earlier this year took a lead role in obtaining $60 billion in federal disaster relief funding for Superstorm Sandy victims.

    At a June meeting in Smith’s Washington Office, Smith personally appealed to FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate to approve a 90 percent federal share for FEMA funding going to Jersey towns to pay for cleanup costs—instead of the initially planned 75 percent. Fugate approved the 90 percent ratio several weeks later.

    The higher cost ratio will provide the authority with an additional $180,000 for the project.

    During the storm, the Pitney Avenue pump station’s electrical and mechanical equipment was severely damaged and rendered inoperable as a result of flooding from storm surge and Lake Como, which breeched its bank. Through this grant, the existing pump station building will be demolished and replaced with a mobile-enclosure concept. The new design will have the same capacity and function while mitigating potential damages from future flooding.

    According to SMRSA Executive Director Michael Ruppel, the authority is not rebuilding the facility the same way, but rather incorporating a state-of-the-art approach that will create a high degree of resiliency into new pump station to much more resistant to weather events.

    When a flood event is predicted, the new trailer can be disconnected from the station and moved to higher ground to prevent equipment damage. A sacrificial generator or diesel driven pump will be left behind in order to maintain sewage pumping during a flood event. Once flood waters recede, the mobile enclosure will be returned to operation within a matter of hours.

    This mobile enclosure concept has been utilized successfully at the SMRSA’s Sea Girt pump station, which was operational two hours after Sandy. Ruppel said these two mobile concept facilities, developed here in Monmouth County, are the only two in the world. He added that due to their success in mitigating damages, the concept is being considered by FEMA as a nation-wide Best Management Practice (BMP) for mitigation of potential damages to equipment as a result of a flood event.

    The South Monmouth Regional Sewerage Authority (SMRSA) provides sanitary sewer conveyance and treatment for Monmouth County’s coastal towns Belmar, Lake Como, Spring Lake, Spring Lake Heights, Sea Girt, Manasquan, Brielle, Wall Township.  Much of the SMRSA conveyance system is located in low lying areas in or/adjacent to the flood plains, and are susceptible to damage from flooding.

    The funding is being provided by FEMA under authority the Robert T. Stafford Act.