The RVSA was organized in 1928 as the "Rahway Valley Joint Meeting." The municipalities of Springfield, Kenilworth, Roselle Park, Cranford, Westfield, Garwood, Clark, Rahway, and Woodbridge joined together to create a treatment plant and a trunk sewer system that would collect and treat wastewater. In 1951, the original nine member municipalities entered into a new agreement, forming the Rahway Valley Sewerage Authority. This agreement was revised in 1995. The Service Agreement of 1995 details the rights of the towns to use the system and allocates the responsibilities of the cost of operating, maintaining, repairing, and improving the facilities to each of the customers. To obtain a copy of the Service Agreement, please contact Andrea DeCarlo at (732) 388-0868 x 219.
The RVSA is governed by a Board of Commissioners, which consists of one representative from each member municipality. Appointments are made by each municipalities' governing body. Each commissioner serves a staggered five-year term, and the chairmanship and vice-chairmanship of the RVSA rotate annually.
The wastewater which has gone through the treatment process is released into the Arthur Kill, and the waste by-products that remain are sent to the sludge handling and processing facilities. RVSA operates three gravity thickener tanks, three anaerobic digestion tanks, four sludge storage tanks, and a sludge dewatering facility utilizing three sludge dewatering centrifuges. The RVSA also owns and at times operates a sludge dryer which is capable of drying sludge to 98% solids.
The member municipalities are responsible for the annual costs of maintenance, ordinary repairs and operation of all units of the sewage collection and treatment system incurred by the Sewerage Authority, as well as interest and amortization on capital improvements. "User charges" are determined through a formula based on use of the system. Click here for a detailed explanation of the process for allocating costs, abstracted from the 1951 and 1995 Agreements.
In the RVSA service area, most lateral connections are made into the sanitary sewer system owned and operated by the local municipality; therefore, your first point of contact should be your municipality.