Tropical Storm Ida wreaked havoc across much of the Northeast last week, including here in Jersey City. In a recent interview with NPR, Mayor Steven Fulop talks about the measures his administration is taking to ensure Jersey City is prepared to handle future storms.
“The reality is the amount of water that we got in such a short period of time — there was no sewer system in the country that could handle that,” said Fulop.
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However, Fulop goes on to say that Jersey City has a “climate and resiliency master plan” that has gone into effect. “We have some streets and major sewer lines that we upgraded over the last couple of years,” says Fulop. He also mentions that the city has larger pipes under the ground to handle more water coming through them. According to the interview, the city has invested “about a billion dollars’ worth of sewer and infrastructure work” to ensure Jersey City is ready for the next climate disaster.
Fulop is also trying to “incentivize the private sector to get them to build more climate consciously.”
The mayor admits that the city needs financial help from the federal government. “We’re really hopeful for the federal support via the infrastructure bill,” says Fulop. “We’ve committed that the majority of the dollars that we get will go towards flood mitigation because you can’t be dealing with flooding issues every single year.”
