Beijing Comes to PARSA

Photo credit: PARSA

Plainfield Area Regional Sewerage Authority Director Rob Villee accepts a gift - a commemorative paperweight from the Beijing Opera - from Beijing Drainage Group Senior Engineer and Manager Kuang Nuo.

Photo credit: PARSA

Visitors from Beijing came to the PARSA offices in Middlesex Wednesday to learn more about a flow monitoring system that revolutionized billing for the eight Central Jersey municipalities served by PARSA.

Sewerage from Fanwood, Watchung, Scotch Plains, Plainfield, North Plainfield, South Plainfield, Green Brook and Dunellen passes through the PARSA system on its way to the Middlesex County Utilities Authority for treatment. Villee said the new flow monitoring system settled several questions of flow costs both from the participating communities as well as what was received by the MCUA.

The meeting Wednesday with a translator was facilitated by Teledyne Isco, manufacturers of the flow meter software which is so sophisticated that Villee said a system alarm can be received on his cell phone.

Villee, the authority's director since 1996, said PARSA , with a staff of only seven, was flattered at being selected for the visit. Other sites the group will visit include Atlanta, Orlando, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Teledyne Isco translator Leo Cho facilitated Wednesday's visit.

Villee said PARSA was proud to be selected.

"We're kind of this little, small agency," he said.

Beijing has a population of 13 million, in contrast with Plainfield's struggle to get up to 50,000 in the 2010 census. The information sought in the delegation's five-city U.S. tour is for a new project, Villee said. China is currently facing multiple challenges to modernize.

PARSA is the successor to the Plainfeld Joint Meeting, which formerly served the municipalities for conveyance of sewerage to the MCUA treatment plant. In Plaintalker's eyes, it is remarkable for being a very lean organization in contrast to other authorities.

--Bernice Paglia