Introduction
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This is the third of five reports analyzing the New York City Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP's) performance in safeguarding the City's drinking water supply and implementing the terms of the 1997 Watershed Memorandum of Agreement) This report examines DEP's aging infrastructure, including the potentially devastating consequences of leaking aqueducts, contaminated gatehouses, and other water quality and quantity concerns.
Executive Summary
Over nine million New Yorkers living in New York City, Westchester, Putnam, Orange, and Ulster Counties enjoy clean, unfiltered drinking water from the Croton, Catskill, and Delaware watersheds.'- The 6,000-mile network of pipes, shafts, and subterranean aqueducts carries an average 1.4 billion gallons of pristine water each day from 19 upstate reservoirs. The City water delivery system is a remarkable engineering achievement and the single largest man-made financial asset in New York State. But the City's reservoir infrastructure is in a state of disrepair that threatens its capacity to protect the City's water supply.
Four decades ago, the City of New York was known as the Mecca of basic civil engineering and water delivery, and the City water supply was regarded among American civilization's proudest engineering accomplishments. The brilliant engineers of DEP's halcyon days have departed and the City is left with an ossified, worm-eaten engineering staff, which presides over the gradual deterioration of the system. Their greatest energies seem to be devoted to protect-ing perks and positions, pursuing whistleblowers, and keeping the public in the dark about important issues affecting community health and safety. Instead of taking the necessary steps to restore DEP's prestige and safeguard the City water supply, DEP leadership in the agency's LeFrak City headquarters in Queens and the upstate supervising engineers, who know the condition of the system, seem to be counting their days to retirement, hoping they make it before the dike bursts.
'This report is part of a series of Clean Drinking Water Coalition reports authored by Riverkeeper. The first report, released in February of 1999 and entitled "Cops in Cuffs," outlined the City's failure to adequately staff and support the Bureau of Water Supply Police, DEP's enforcement and security arm. The second report, released in November of 1999 and entitled "Watershed for Sale," examined DEP's Bureau of Water Supply, Quality and Protection's Engineering Section, the branch of DEP charged with, among other things, reviewing new development proposals to ensure their consistency with water quality and regulatory controls.
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The City's water comes from three, component systems of 19 reservoirs and 3 controlled lakes in Westchester, Putnam, Ulster, Greene, Schoharie, Delaware and Sullivan Counties in upstate New York. Under normal conditions, the Delaware System supplies 50% - 80% of the total water used, the Catskill System supplies 20% - 40% of the total water used, and the Croton System supplies the remaining 10%.This report is in four sections, each covering a critical subject area affecting the performance and security of the City's water supply. Each section describes a looming crisis with the potential to interrupt the flow of high quality drinking water to City consumers and thereby jeopardize public health and safety.
Part I of this report deals with DEP's chronic failure to ensure adequate maintenance of the water supply infrastructure; some DEP facilities are literally crumbling into ruin. Part Il describes a serious leak in the Delaware Aqueduct, New York City's newest and most important water supply tunnel. Part III examines how poor maintenance and outdated, malfunctioning equipment have caused numerous toxic spills at key water supply facilities. In some cases, mercury, PCBs, lead, and other chemicals have entered the drinking water supply. Part IV of the report describes another growing threat to our water quality; increasing levels of suspended solids (turbidity) in our drinking water pose a real public health threat.
This report documents serious flaws in DEP's management of the water supply infrastructure and offers concrete and workable recommendations for reform. In general, DEP needs to provide meaningful support to its field personnel, to fully fund maintenance and repair programs, to begin immediate repairs to the Delaware Aqueduct, and to ensure that toxic materials can never again threaten the City's drinking water supply.
source: 9apr2008
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