xvEPA

January 2025

Communities with Combined Sewers
Adapting to a Changing Climate:

Camden County, New Jersey

Background

Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority (CCMUA) provides
wastewater services to approximately 500,000 people in 36
municipalities in Camden County, New Jersey. CCMUA has a
joint long-term control plan (L.TCP) to manage their combined
sewer overflows (CSO) with the cities of Camden and Gloucester,

Challenges

Key Information

•	Location: Camden County, NJ

•	Population served: 500,000
Permit Number: NJ01Q8812

•	Key hazards: increased storm
frequency and intensity, rising
river levels

Due to its low elevation and historical underinvestment in its
sewer system, some areas of the regional combined sewer
system experience street flooding and basement backups. As
Camden County expects to experience increases in the frequency
and intensity of storms, as well as higher water levels in the

Delaware River, CCMUA is taking an integrated approach to wet weather management, wastewater treatment,
and equitable community development. To leverage additional funding sources, regional knowledge, and local
stakeholder input, CCMUA has formed numerous partnerships and started several community-focused initiatives.

Early in their LTCP development
process, CCMUA and its partners used
EPA's Augmented Alternatives Analysis
to identify optimal and cost-effective
mixes of green and grey infrastructure to
support its LTCP. The approach is
designed to engage community
stakeholders and emphasizes
environmental, social, and economic
criteria in the decision-making process.

Example of a neighborhood that is routinely flooded from the one-year
flood event.


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Communities with Combined Sewers Adapting to a Changing Climate: Camden County. NJ

Climate Impacts

In 2015, CCMUA worked with EPA's Creating Resilient Water Utilities (CRWU) team to use EPA's Climate
Resilience Evaluation and Awareness Tool (GREAT). According to CRWU's Adaptation Case Studies for Water
Utilities. CCMUA's primary climate-related threat is flooding, based on the projected increase in the frequency and
magnitude of intense rain events. CREAT also projects that the nearby river levels are likely to rise more than 18
inches within this century, which could potentially lead to increased flooding and backflow of the sewer system.

Solutions

Restoring Hydraulic Capacity

To address street flooding, CCMUA, in collaboration with its two municipal partners in the LTCP, has facilitated a
more intensive collection system cleaning program in both the cities of Gloucester and Camden. This work, of
which the Camden City component was recently completed, is intended to restore capacity to the system and
enable CCMUA to accurately model current and future conditions. To maximize the impact of their cleaning
efforts, CCMUA is piloting Cieanlet, an app developed by Drexei University that engages urban residents for 'just-
in-time' inlet cleaning.

Leveraging Partnerships and Technical Resources

CCMUA has also partnered with researchers at Drexei University.1 To better understand the existing and future
flood hazards, as well as evaluate the effectiveness of implemented CSO projects, Drexei has developed a model
of CCMUA's sewershed. Drexei is also implementing sensors in the sewershed to monitor flooding in real time,
which will help validate results from the model. Drexei is also working to develop better local climate projections of
future storm characteristics for the Camden area.

Illustration of Drexel's modeling results that are validated with detailed, real-time observations of flooding using
Floodnet sensors (inset top left).

1 Drexei University is a member of the Consortium for Climate Risk in the Urban Northeast (CCRUN). The CCRUN serves stakeholder needs
in the Northeast by assessing and managing risks from climate variability and change. CCRUN conducts stakeholder-driven research that
reduces climate-related vulnerability and advances opportunities for adaptation in the urban Northeast.

January 2025 vvEPA


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Communities with Combined Sewers Adapting to a Changing Climate: Camden County. NJ

Collaboration in the Community

Since 2011, CCMUA has led the Carrideri Storrriwater Management and Resource Training (SMART) Initiative,
which seeks to address both stormwater management and community revitalization by combining a Complete
Streets approach with green infrastructure (see EPA's Green Streets Handbook'). The Initiative includes
neighborhood green infrastructure projects, stormwater management policy development, and green
infrastructure training programs. To date, over 60 green infrastructure projects have been installed with the
support of multiple funding sources including a Clean Water Act 319(h) grant, a NJ state stormwater mitigation
grant, and a FE.MA hazard mitigation grant.

Building off of the success of
Camden SMART, the City of
Camden, Camden Community
Partnership, CCMUA, the New
Jersey Department of
Environmental Protection, and EPA
launched the Camden Collaborative
Initiative (CCI) to maintain, restore,
and enhance the environmental
resources in Camden, NJ. The
initiative focuses on many priorities,
including flooding and CSOs. The
CCI framework aims to facilitate
awareness and support for
integrated solutions such as green
infrastructure, which can improve air
quality and revitalize communities in
addition to reducing flooding and
CSOs.

CCMUA's Complete Streets approach combines green infrastructure with other
community revitalization aspects, such as improving pedestrian and bicyclist access.

Additional Information

For more information on the Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority, contact Scott Schreiber,
Executive Director at sschreiber@ccmua.orc. For more information on Drexel University, contact Dr.
Franco Montalto, Sustainable Water Resource Engineering Lab Director at fam26@drexeI.edu.
Additional information on CCMUA's permit, CSOs and climate adaptation can be found here:

•	CCMUA's 2024 NPDES Permit (NJ0108812)

•	CCMUA's 2020 LTCP

•	CRWU's Adaptation Case Studies for Water Utilities

•	CCMUA's Augmented Alternatives Analysis Case Study

EPA Publication 830-F-25-011

January 2025 &EPA


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