Articles Roads and utilities
Closing the Cherry Valley Sewage Plant: What the Project Is, What It Costs, and What Is Still Open
Montgomery plans to shut the 30-year-old sewage plant that serves the Cherry Valley development, turn the site into a pump station, and send its wastewater about 3.4 miles to the Skillman Village plant. The plan dates to at least 2020. The state budget has $600,000 for it; the township puts the whole job at $15 million, and the state Water Bank list at $11 million. There is no public schedule, route map or estimate of what it means for sewer bills.
What the project is
Montgomery runs four sewage treatment plants of its own: Pike Brook, Stage II, Skillman Village and Cherry Valley. The Cherry Valley plant sits on township land at 192 Inverness Drive in Skillman. It serves the Cherry Valley development and releases treated water into Bedens Brook.
The township wants to close it. In the words of its September 2026 grant resolution, the project would:
decommission the aging Cherry Valley Wastewater Treatment Plant and transfer flows to the Skillman Village Wastewater Treatment Plant via a new 18,000-foot force main and pump station upgrades. This project will improve wastewater treatment efficiency, reduce operational costs, and eliminate discharge into Bedens Brook, enhancing environmental water quality.
A force main is a pressurized sewer pipe. Wastewater is pumped through it rather than flowing downhill. 18,000 feet is about 3.4 miles. The Skillman Village plant, off Burnt Hill Road, is the former North Princeton Developmental Center plant. It now serves the schools and the newer developments in that area. According to the township’s environmental commission notes and its engineer, the Cherry Valley site would become a pump station once the plant is removed.
Why the township says it is needed
The clearest explanation came at the 2026 budget introduction on April 16. The slide lists the project as “Required to avoid major upgrade of CVWWTP – reduce overall cost,” says it would “bring total Montgomery WWTPs to three,” and promises to “Improve Beden Brook water quality” by removing Cherry Valley’s discharge and using the membrane bioreactor treatment at Skillman Village.
The engineer who presented the wastewater slides said he had worked for Montgomery for about 35 years. According to the uncorrected captions, he said of Cherry Valley:
It’s over 30 years old now. So that’s showing its age … it would be millions of dollars to many millions of dollars to … improve that treatment plant, essentially rebuild it. And so that’s why this is … that final treatment plant that we think we can abandon, convert it to a pump station and pump the wastewater to the Skillman Village wastewater treatment plant.
He also set the project in a longer history. In 2010 the township had eight treatment plants, many built by developers for single developments. By 2020 it had four. “Maybe by 2030 or a little after that,” he said, it could be down to three. Montgomery’s streams are small, so state permit limits are strict, which requires costly advanced treatment.
A federal survey dates the Cherry Valley plant’s first discharge to Bedens Brook to 1993.
The history of the decision
| Date | What happened | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Dec 17, 2020 | Kleinfelder hired for $717,601 to design, permit and find financing for the consolidation, and to design upgrades at Skillman Village (Res. #20-12-245) | Recited in May 4, 2023 minutes |
| May 4, 2023 | Contract raised to $794,723 for NJDEP’s Level 2 Environmental Planning Report, wetlands and flood permits, a canal commission application, a cultural resources study, and Green Acres and county parks coordination (Res. #23-5-138, 4-0, one absent) | May 4, 2023 minutes |
| Jul 3, 2025 | Richard Grubb & Associates hired, up to $73,161, for a Phase 2 archaeology survey at the Maplewood site and a plan to avoid the Fernwood site in Skillman Park (Res. #25-7-231, 5-0) | July 3, 2025 minutes |
| Jan 2026 | State Water Bank priority list includes the project at $11,000,000 | NJDEP / NJ Infrastructure Bank |
| Mar 20, 2026 | Montgomery’s U.S. Representative asks Congress for $3,000,000 in fiscal 2027 funding | Request letter |
| Apr 16, 2026 | Budget deck lists it as a $15 million “future project” | Budget presentation and video |
| Jun 30, 2026 | State budget signed with a $600,000 line for the project | P.L.2026, c.27 |
| Sep 3, 2026 | Committee votes 5-0, on its consent agenda, to apply to the Department of Community Affairs for about $600,000 (Res. #26-9-231) | Sept 3, 2026 minutes |
| Oct 15, 2026 | The district’s state senator and Assembly members present the Committee with “Fiscal Year 2027 Funding” for the project | Meeting video |
None of these steps was a public hearing on the project itself. The 2020 and 2023 contract votes and the 2025 survey contract were routine professional-services resolutions. The 2026 grant application passed without discussion on the consent agenda.
Where the pipe would go
No route map has been published. The July 2025 resolution gives the best clues. Its Phase 1 study covered “various locations along the project limits within the Blawenburg Historic District and Maplewood historic property.” It found nineteenth-century archaeological deposits at two sites:
- Maplewood (John A. Voorhees House) Site, Block 26001 Lot 1.08. It needs a Phase 2 study to test whether it qualifies for the state and national historic registers.
- Fernwood (J. Voorhees House) Site, Block 26001 Lot 1.10, in Skillman Park. It is to be avoided during construction with “engineering controls and matting.”
The 2023 contract amendment adds permits that point the same way: state freshwater wetlands and flood-hazard approvals, a Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission review, and “coordination and permitting with Green Acres and Somerset County Parks.” It also mentions work “to modify the sewer servicing Bedens Brook Country Club.”
What it costs and who pays
The public record has three totals for the same project:
| Figure | Source | Date |
|---|---|---|
| $15,000,000 | Township budget presentation | April 16, 2026 |
| $11,000,000 | Water Bank priority list report to the Legislature | January 2026 |
| $10,656,000 estimated cost ($8,880,000 in building costs) | NJDEP Intended Use Plan | May 2026 |
The record does not explain the gap. The NJDEP figure includes engineering, administration and a 5% contingency.
Known or requested outside money:
- $600,000 from the state, enacted. The fiscal 2027 Appropriations Act lists “Township of Montgomery - Wastewater Treatment Plant Consolidation … ($600,000)” under the Department of Community Affairs. The township’s September application was to that department for “approximately $600,000.00.” On October 15 the district’s state legislators presented a check for “Fiscal Year 2027 Funding.” No amount was said aloud, and the township has not said the three are the same money. The match in amount, department and project makes it very likely.
- $3,000,000 from the federal government, requested only. It is not known whether Congress included it in any fiscal 2027 bill.
- A Water Bank loan, planned. The July 2025 resolution says the project “will receive federal funding from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through the NJDEP’s Water Bank.” The Water Bank is a low-interest state loan program. NJDEP’s May 2026 plan lists the project’s funding status as “2027.” No loan resolution or bond ordinance for it has come before the Committee as of October 1, 2026.
At $15 million, the state grant covers about 4% of the cost. At $11 million it covers about 5%.
What it could mean for sewer bills
Montgomery’s sewer utility is paid for by its users through sewer charges, not by the general property tax. The 2026 rates, adopted 5-0 on May 14 with no public comment (Ordinance #26-1775), are the same for every connected home in the township: $288 a year plus $11.94 per hundred cubic feet of water used ($15.96 per 1,000 gallons). The usage fee has risen about 2% a year since 2016. The 2026 sewer utility budget is $8,537,800, of which $3,933,000 is debt service.
No estimate has been published of how the Cherry Valley project would change those rates. For comparison, at its June 19, 2024 public hearing on the Pike Brook expansion, the township said a $15.6 million Water Bank loan at about 1.5% over 30 years would cost $647,724 a year. The township says the Cherry Valley project would “reduce operational costs,” but it has not published figures for the savings either.
At the April 16 budget introduction, Raj Koltur, a resident named in the minutes, presented a petition with “500+ signatures” asking for $3 million in budget reductions. Among its requests were “pausing new sewer capital projects in 2026” and a “shift to a flat sewer rate.”
The plant’s record
EPA’s compliance database carries NJDEP’s permit data for Cherry Valley (permit NJ0069523):
- Size and use. Permitted for 0.29 million gallons a day. It averaged 0.160 MGD in 2025, or 56% of that.
- Permit status. The permit is listed as expiring September 30, 2026 and “Admin Continued,” meaning it stays in force while a renewal is pending.
- Enforcement. A state Notice of Violation on April 24, 2024, and a state penalty settlement of $2,000 on September 26, 2025. The database does not say what the settlement covered.
- Exceedances. Effluent results over the permit limits for suspended solids (June 2024, March 2025), BOD (April 2024, February 2026) and E. coli (May 2025), and frequent late discharge reports. The plant has not been in “significant noncompliance,” EPA’s most serious category, in the last three years.
The township’s resolution says the consolidation “supports … regulatory compliance.” It does not cite these records.
Can Skillman Village take the flow?
Skillman Village is permitted for 0.5 MGD and averaged 0.125 MGD in 2025. Together with Cherry Valley’s 0.160 MGD, that is about 57% of its permit. The township has also reserved Skillman Village capacity for several new projects since 2024: Montgomery Crossing townhomes, an age-restricted affordable development, a childcare centre and, on October 1, 2026, a county parks maintenance building. How much of the plant’s capacity those reservations use is not published.
On April 16 the engineer said, according to the uncorrected captions, that the township had “negotiated with DEP to get effluent limits at two different flows” at Skillman Village so it could take Cherry Valley’s wastewater. He added, “there is capacity at Skillman Village right now without an expansion to take in the Cherry Valley flow. So we don’t even need that added permit yet.” The 2020 contract also includes design of “upgrades at the Skillman Village WWTP,” which are not described publicly. Skillman Village had its own $1,000 state penalty order in August 2025.
What happens to Bedens Brook
The stretch of Beden Brook below Province Line Road is on New Jersey’s list of impaired waters. The causes are impaired biota (cause unknown), metals, nutrients and pathogens, and it is listed “with restoration plan.” Closing Cherry Valley would end one treated discharge directly into it.
The water does not leave the watershed. Skillman Village discharges to Rock Brook, which flows into Beden Brook further downstream. That water would be treated at a plant with newer membrane technology. The township says the overall effect is better water quality. No public analysis measures it.
The cell tower at the same site
The township is separately trying to bring a cell tower to the Cherry Valley plant property. In November 2025 it sought bids to lease about 2,500 square feet there (Res. #25-11-373). How the tower, the plant’s removal and the new pump station fit together on the site has not been described. That story is tracked under Cherry Valley cell coverage.
What is not known
- The total cost, and why the township’s $15 million differs from the state’s $11 million.
- How the rest would be financed, and the effect on sewer rates.
- The route of the force main, and the property, easement and park-land approvals it needs.
- The schedule. The only timing on record is “maybe by 2030 or a little after.”
- Whether the federal $3 million was funded.
- What the 2025 state settlement covered.
- How much spare capacity remains at Skillman Village after existing reservations.
- Whether the October 15 check is the same $600,000 as the state budget line. The October 15 minutes have not yet been posted.
What residents can do
- Speak at a Township Committee meeting. Public comment is open at every regular meeting. The remaining 2026 dates are November 12, December 3 and December 17 (meeting calendar). Useful questions: the cost estimate, the financing plan, the expected effect on sewer rates, the route and the schedule.
- Watch for the next votes. A Water Bank loan needs a Committee resolution, usually with a bond ordinance that has its own public hearing. A construction contract also needs a vote. For Pike Brook, the township held a public hearing on the project and its cost to users as part of its Water Bank application.
- Request the records. Through the Township Clerk (OPRA): the 2020 Kleinfelder contract (Res. #20-12-245) and proposal, the Level 2 Environmental Planning Report, the DCA grant application and agreement, and the cultural resources reports. Through NJDEP: the Cherry Valley permit file (NJ0069523), the April 2024 Notice of Violation and the September 2025 settlement.
- Ask the Sewer Division (50 Estates Drive, 908-533-9323) technical questions about the plant and the project.