The Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission, which treats wastewater for more than 3 million people across 48 cities and towns in Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Passaic and Union counties, quietly ended livestreaming of its board meetings earlier this year, forcing residents to show up in person to a meeting room with seating for barely three dozen people. The agency says it will announce changes to public access at its Thursday meeting, promising to exceed the minimum requirements of New Jersey's Open Public Meetings Act.
The timing has drawn scrutiny because the shift away from remote viewing comes as PVSC fights a high-stakes legal battle over a planned natural gas-powered backup plant at its Newark treatment facility, a case first detailed by NJ.com. The commission operates the country’s fifth-largest sewage treatment plant, located on Doremus Avenue along Newark Bay, and its regional sewer system collects and treats roughly one-fourth of all wastewater produced statewide.
Meeting Access Rolled Back in May
PVSC returned to in-person-only public meetings in May 2026, ending a remote-access option that had been in place since the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the commission to shift meetings online. The commission has said in-person attendance was its longstanding requirement before the pandemic, and that it continued allowing remote attendance afterward only because heavy construction around its offices made physical access difficult. Once the area was deemed safe and parking could be accommodated, the commission said, it returned to requiring in-person attendance.
The Ironbound Community Corporation has said hundreds of people joined PVSC meetings remotely at various points, demonstrating the value of that accessibility, and that community participation declined immediately once the commission went back to in-person-only sessions. Under New Jersey's Open Public Meetings Act, public bodies must give advance notice and open physical meetings to the public, while N.J.S.A. 10:4-9.3 authorizes public bodies to hold virtual meetings even when there is no state of emergency, according to the New Jersey School Boards Association. Separate virtual-meeting rules were enacted under state statute for declared public health emergencies.
A Gas Plant Fight Looms Over the Meeting Debate
PVSC plans to build the natural gas-powered backup plant to guard against sustained power outages like the one that struck in 2012, when Hurricane Sandy flooded the treatment plant and sent hundreds of millions of gallons of partially treated or untreated wastewater into Newark Bay and connecting waterways. The commission has pledged to use the backup plant only in emergencies, though opponents have questioned why its generating capacity exceeds what the treatment plant actually needs. PVSC has also built a flood wall around the plant and elevated its existing electrical equipment.
Opponents say the plant would add carbon emissions to the Ironbound, a neighborhood that already experiences elevated asthma and other respiratory ailments attributed to pollution, and that already hosts three fossil-fuel power plants and multiple industrial facilities, according to a statement from New Jersey Senate Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Ruiz, who in July 2024 condemned the state's permit approval as an indefensible violation of New Jersey's 2020 Environmental Justice Law. That law is intended to protect disproportionately Black and brown neighborhoods from the burdens of industrial land uses. Groups opposing the project include the Newark Water Coalition, South Ward Environmental Alliance, NJ League of Conservation Voters, Clean Water Action, Food & Water Watch, Passaic River Community Advisory Group, New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance and Democratic Socialists of America.
Permit Fight Winds Through the Courts
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection issued a permit for the backup plant in July 2024; officials found no disproportionate impact and therefore did not need to reach the environmental-justice law's compelling-public-interest relief provision, according to News From The States. Newark and the Ironbound Community Corporation responded with two separate legal actions seeking to block construction. One is an administrative appeal of then-DEP Commissioner Sean LaTourette's permit decision, arguing the state had no compelling reason to depart from the intent of the environmental justice law; that appeal still awaits oral arguments before the New Jersey Appellate Division. Earthjustice lawyer Jonathan Smith is handling that appeal for the community corporation. A May 2025 report reviewed clean alternatives to the gas plant.
The second legal action is a joint lawsuit filed by Newark and the Ironbound Community Corporation in state Superior Court against the DEP and the commission, asserting the DEP granted the permit arbitrarily. Superior Court Judge Robert Gardner issued a stay in October 2025 blocking construction pending a final decision, according to The Vector. The PVSC board had awarded the Paterson-based Skanska/Railroad SPOF JV a $232.7 million construction contract in June 2025, and the commission separately obtained a $183 million loan from the New Jersey Water Bank to help finance the project, a loan secured in part to prevent regional biosolids disposal crises during utility power disruptions. That joint lawsuit also still awaits oral arguments.
Advocates Push for Hybrid Meetings
Smith said the commission has not been responsive to community concerns and that reducing transparency is not the solution. Advocate Paula Rogovin said in an email that the commission's promise to improve meeting access remains ambiguous until there is a formal announcement or action, adding that allowing virtual or hybrid monthly meetings with viewing options and public comment would resolve the issue. PVSC is led by Chairman Brendan Murphy and Executive Director Gregory Tramantozzi.
The Newark Bay treatment plant traces its roots to 1902, when the commission was established, and began operating in 1924. More than a century later, the facility has an influent capacity of about 330 million gallons per day and processes sewage from 48 towns across five counties.
