Town of Harrison Street Cleaning

The Harrison Department of Public Works (DPW) sweeps the streets of Harrison once a week.  Their motto imprinted on their street sweeper is "Keeping our community clean". The DPW plays an important role in keeping Harrison Streets clean.  The tradition of cleaning Harrison’s street goes back decades. Some residents think that Street Cleaning is a way for Harrison to make some additional revenue for the town.  Although Street Cleaning started as a way to get litter off the streets it still serves the same function but it is an essential service mandated by New Jersey State Environmental Protection Law. Fines for Failure to Move Your Car for Street Cleaning does generate money for the Town of Harrison but it is not the primary reason Street Cleaning is done on a weekly basis.

The Town of Harrison DPW keeps records of street cleaning operations throughout the year and files a report with the New Jersey Environmental Protection Agency (NJDEP) to certify that it is complying with the Sewer DEP permit.  In simple terms, the NJDEP makes sure that litter does not go into the stormwater sewers in town and into the Passaic River. 

There are other systems to catch litter including soda cans and other litter from getting into the sewer catch basins.  The Catch Basins are in your local corner Sewer drain.  Years ago Harrison’s sewers had a wide opening that allowed debris from the Street to go into the Sewer system to be deposited in the Passaic River.  The Town of Harrison (along with other towns) had to install Storm Water Sewer inlets that did not allow soda cans and other large debris to go into the Storm Water Sewer pipes.  So that is why after a big storm, your corner sewer has a collection  of soda cans, plastic cups, and other debris blocking the sewer inlet. The weekly Street Cleaning gathers up the debris and litter that would otherwise go into the Storm Water Sewer system and end up in the Passaic River.

At one time, the Passaic River served as Harrison’s water source.  It was also the source of pristine water used in local breweries in Harrison and neighboring Newark.  Unfortunately, the Passaic River’s water is no longer pristine and has not been pristine for several decades.  Nobody should drink and/or eat fish from the Passaic River. You are actually prohibited from fishing the Passaic River but that does not stop persons from fishing.  The History of the Passaic River will be a story for a future blog post.

So when you run to your car to avoid a Street Cleaning Parking Ticket, remember that you are running to protect the Environment. You are also running to protect the positive balance on your Checking Account.

Just in case you are interested.  The Ordinance in the Town of Harrison provides that once the Street Cleaner passes you can park your car.  You don’t have to stay off the street between the posted hours for example Tuesday from 9 a.m to Noon Time.  If the Street Cleaner passes at 10:30 a.m., you can park your car at 10:31 a.m. and the Parking Enforcement Officer will not issue you a Street Cleaning Violation ticket.

The Town of Harrison has a state-of-the-art Street Cleaning machine, a Ravo Street Sweeper. PSE&G announced that it was purchasing a Ravo Street Sweeper to sweep the Streets from the dirt caused by its gas pipe replacement project in Harrison. According to the manufacturers of the RAVO 5 iSeries, the RAVO 5 iSeries is the absolute best compact mid-size street sweeping machine in the world. Its robust and recognizable appearance has been a common sight in cities all around the world for many years. Every detail of the 5 iSeries was developed with one thing in mind: a clean street in one pass, no matter the season or conditions, urban or rural, sand or leaves, desert heat or arctic cold, highways or bicycle lanes. We agree. 

Join the Your Harrison Community on our Discussion Board.  Tell us about your Street Cleaning Story.