New way to battle Camden flooding

Saturated mulch sank two inches when Rowan University graduate student George Lecakes stepped onto the playground at Von Nieda Park in Camden. The stench of sewage rose in the air.

"It's one thing for a grassy area to be flooded, but this is a kids' playground," Lecakes, 26, of Haddonfield, said last week during his engineering team's weekly survey of the Cramer Hill neighborhood's failing storm-water system.

The students poked clogged drains, photographed houses, and surveyed streets - gathering data to help the university's virtual-reality supercomputer seek remedies to the neighborhood's perpetual water problems.

Camden's Cooper's Ferry Development Association engaged Rowan in March for about $70,000 to help figure out how to spend a little more than $1 million in state and federal grants to control flooding in a 50-block area.

Cramer Hill's isn't the only antiquated infrastructure on Camden's project list.

Last month, the city received $13 million in federal stimulus money to upgrade aging drinking-water lines, valves, pump stations, and a wastewater plant in Fairview and other neighborhoods.

Industries interested in moving to Camden have turned away because of poor water pressure and quality, said U.S. Rep. Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), who helped secure the stimulus money.

"It's an ancient system that doesn't serve anyone's needs," he said. "While the stimulus money is welcome and will create 300 to 400 construction jobs, it doesn't come anywhere close to solving the problem."

Likewise, Cooper's Ferry didn't attract enough grant money to solve Cramer Hill's entire problem, so "we wanted to best direct the few dollars we had," said the nonprofit's president, Anthony Perno.

With the data, Rowan's Cave Automatic Virtual Environment can run scenarios on possible fixes. What if these pipes were replaced? What if those drains were repaired?

The university acquired the $750,000 system through federal and military grants to model solutions for the Navy and NASA. It's based at the South Jersey Technology Park in Mantua, but Rowan plans to install a smaller version at its Camden campus.

"It's pretty awesome," said Manuel Delgado, president of the Cramer Hill Community Development Corp. He, a half-dozen residents, and students from Camden's LEAP Academy attended a demonstration last week.

Cooper's Ferry and the Cramer Hill Community Development Corp. are working on a redevelopment plan - "Cramer Hill Now!" - that was officially presented in March. The 182-page report identified flooding as one of the neighborhood's worst problems.

Heavy rain "really shuts down the whole neighborhood, river to rail," Delgado said. Major storms cause sewer backups in basements of homes adjacent to Von Nieda Park.

Amid many lovely gardens and houses undergoing repair, the university's 10-member team has discovered "third-world conditions a stone's throw from Philadelphia," said Shreekanth Mandayam, chair of Rowan's electrical and computer engineering program.

Storm drains are clogged with silt and trash or overgrown with weeds and grass. Under the streets, pipes dating to the early 19th century are likely cracked, he said.

The system "is long past its useful life," said Andrew Kricun, deputy executive director of the Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority.

At the request of the state Department of Environmental Protection, the county MUA is conducting a citywide study of Camden's flooding problems. A draft report was just completed, Kricun said.

A big problem is the city's combined system - common in the 19th century among large cities such as Philadelphia and Boston. Of Camden County's 37 towns, Gloucester City is the only other that still mixes storm water and sewage in one large pipe. Permits aren't issued for that kind of system today, experts said.

"When it rains, if the system overflows, it floods sewage everywhere," Mandayam said.

Surveying Cramer Hill's topography and photographing houses and vacant lots, students working two days a week since summer have collected about 60 percent of the data needed to recommend improvements.

"As soon as you mention the flooding, neighbors will tell you exactly where the worst spots are," said Shawn Murray, 19, a junior electrical and computer engineering major from Williamstown.

Von Nieda Park becomes a lake on rainy days because of its history and low elevation, neighbors and officials said. It's named for Camden's 1935-36 mayor, Frederick von Nieda. A longtime Cramer Hill activist, von Nieda lobbied the city for 40 years to fill in Baldwin's Run, which he considered a mosquito-laden swamp and health concern, according to historical accounts. The park was created shortly after his death in 1950.

Now water flows downhill, back to what was the creek bed, Mandayam said.

"One should not have built a park there," he said.

Perno said he hoped Rowan's modeling would help the city develop a long-term plan to improve its water system a little at a time.

"The argument has always been that if we can't do it all at once, we can't do it," Perno said. "Now, technically, we might be able to design it all at once, but find sizable chunks to replace it over 20 years."

Cramer Hill Now! also may use the data to analyze traffic and safety problems, especially on River Road, project partners said.

Seeing plans represented with three-dimensional images creates strong advocates, Delgado said. "It's just a great visual tool."

Mandayam has even bigger plans. "If we can do this for one city, we can program for any city."