as rising sea levels lead to more intense storms in New Jersey the water systems that flush our waste and provide clean drinking water are increasingly in danger today Governor Murphy joined with U.S senator Bob Menendez congressman Frank pallone and state senator Ving gopal to announce new federal funding coming to the Monmouth area that'll fix broken pipelines and prevent future damage but a senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports it's merely a drop in the bucket of the real amount needed to shore up the state's water infrastructure so there's a real risk that it could rupture and if it did things would get ugly fast Governor Murphy issued that warning about a problematic underwater sewer pipe running into the two rivers treatment plant in Monmouth Beach it processes 11 million gallons of raw sewage daily every flush every shower for 90 000 people across a dozen towns and two military bases in the area the dangerously corroded pipeline needs to be replaced but if that pipeline fails takes about three months to put a bypass in that would allow about 800 million gallons of sewage to get into the river before we have a chance to replace it we have to make sure that our sewer plants are upgraded so we don't have uh overflows so we don't have breaks so we don't have you know sewage going out into our rivers and streams the sewage plants got another weak point its main pumping station got slammed by superstorm Sandy cracking its two foot thick concrete walls a new pumps needed at an elevated site that's less vulnerable to flooding and we're looking ahead to the undeniable reality Rising Seas stronger storms and the risk of future floods Bob Menendez and others joined the governor to announce 20 million dollars in FEMA funding that will help Finance both a new pump station and a new sewer main the current half mile long 55 year old iron pipe will be replaced by a new fiberglass pipe buried a hundred feet deep in a new underwater tunnel it's part of a broader plan to make New Jersey's water infrastructure more resilient 10 years ago we saw firsthand the vulnerability of our water and sewer treatment facilities after Sandy hit not a not a single water treatment or wastewater treatment plant in the state not one was fully operational as a result an estimated three to five billion gallons of untreated Wastewater entered our waterways Jersey's got a lot of water plants that handle sewage and storm water combined to upgrade them all would cost an estimated two to three billion dollars according to the dep but superstorm Sandy raised multiple red flags says Bay keeper Greg Ramo for the investment in in clean water infrastructure whether it's drinking water or our sewage plants is absolutely critical especially because in the U.S a lot of our infrastructure whether it be roadway or sewers has really been left and neglected for a long time the total cost for these two projects 85 million dollars the FEMA money will cover about a quarter of it saving rate payers a few bucks in Monmouth Beach I'm Brenda Flanagan the NJ Spotlight news [Music]