Environmental Initiatives
New York City (NYC)
Water Quality
Water Quality
The water quality in New York harbor is better today than it has been in
over a century thanks to billions of dollars NYC invested in the sewer
system and wastewater treatment plants. The NYC water supply system is a
unique network of reservoirs, aqueducts and water mains. Although the
city has abundant water supply for the foreseeable future, water quality
and supply network face some serious challenges.
Some of the critical elements of the city's water supply system cannot
be taken out of service for long term repair and maintenance. Also, as
development continues to impinge on the upstate watersheds, the city has
to make great efforts to protect source waters.
Since the Clean Water Act was established in 1972, the city has spent
over $35 billion to improve its water quality. These expenditures
resulted in enhanced sewage handling and treatment while decreasing the
level of pollution, bacteria and water-borne litter and debris. The city
has also improved the capture rate of combined sewer overflows (CSOs)
from approximately 18 percent in 1980s to 73 percent today. The amount
of sanitary waste in CSOs has declined from 30 percent in 1994 to 12
percent in 2008, which means that current overflows primarily consist of
rainwater. Since PlaNYC was adopted, the city has invested additional $2
billion to further improve wastewater treatment.
The result of these efforts is that the water quality in New York Harbor
is the highest than at any time in the past 100 years and has reached
the point where significant portions of the city's surrounding waters
are available for recreation: over 95 percent of New York Harbor is
available for boating while 14 miles of public beaches in the Bronx,
Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island provide access to swimwaters.
The city monitors the Harbor's water quality by using various measures
on an annual basis. Two of the most universal indicators of harbor
health are the average dissolved oxygen levels and fecal coliform
concentration levels. Sufficient concentration of dissolved oxygen is
crucial for the respiration of most aquatic life forms, including fish
and invertebrates such as crabs, clams and zooplankton. Over the past 20
years surface and bottom water dissolved oxigen levels in New York
Harbor have been above the state standard and continue to rise,
indicating that the harbor is suitable to most aquatic life. Fecal
coliform concentrations are indicators of sewage related pollution. Over
the past 20 years the concentration levels have been below state
standards with occasional spikes attributable to rain events. As a
matter of fact, the biggest remaining challenge today is managing
stormwater, which can overwhelm sewers and cause CSOs that discharge a
diluted mix of sewage and surface runoff to New York City
waters.Currently the city focuses on two types of investments to improve
the overall water quality: hard infrastructure and green infrastructure.
NYC continues to enhance its hard infrastructure.
It expands capacity of existing wastewater treatment plants and is
currently in the process of constructing two new facilities. Those will
capture and hold CSOs until storms pass and then pump them in wastewater
treatment plants. The first, a $137 million Alley Creek CSO-retention
facility in Queens, will store and capture combined stormwater and
wastewater that previously was discharged into Alley Creek and Little
Neck Bay during heavy rainfall. This will lead to increased dissolved
oxygen concentrations, decreased contaminant levels, and fewer plastic
bottles and other litter discharged into the creek and bay. The
CSO-retention facility will reduce the overall volume of CSOs discharged
to Alley Creek from approximately 246 million gallons per year to 112
million gallons per year. It is scheduled to be operational in 2011. The
second, a $427 million facility in Paerdegat Basin in Brooklyn, will
capture 50 million gallons of CSOs from a drainage area of approximately
6,000 acres. Construction of Paerdegat Basin Combined Sewer Overflow
(CSO) retention facility is scheduled to be completed in 2012.
NYC also attempts to shift its future water quality improvement efforts
towards green infrastructure. The efforts will be coordinated by
Sustainable Stormwater Management Plan that was introduced in 2008. The
major purpose of the plan is to identify opportunities to use vegetation
and permeable surfaces to keep water out of the city's sewer system.
Controlling stormwater at the source provides cost saving opportunities
versus investing in hard infrastructure. It also offers other benefits
like improved air quality and cooling effect. The city has currently
launched over 30 sustainable stormwater pilots to test some of the green
initiatives in stormwater handling.
NYC also makes strides to protect and restore wetlands within the five
boroughs. Wetlands are invaluable natural creations that filter
pollutants, protect from floods and provide wildlife habitats. The city
has already carried out field inspection of 373 acres of properties in
all five boroughs, acquired a 9-acre property in Jamaica Bay's Broad
Channel that directly adjoins to the Big Egg Salt Marsh Complex,
acquired a 3-acre privately owned waterfront property in Rockaway and
secured $20 million federal funding for the restoration of 38 acres of
wetlands and natural grasslands in Paerdegat Basin.
The NYC water supply system is a complex infrastructure that was mostly
built before World War II. Much of this infrastructure hasn't been
clodsely inspected since opening. The current water supply network is
comprised of Croton, Catskill and Delaware- the three systems that
provide drinking water to the City and upstate communities. Without the
ability to take portions of the system offline for maintenance and
repair, its long term reliability can be challenged. The water supply
network also faces constant pressure fromdevelopment proposals near the
drinking water sources.
Over the next ten years the city is planning to spend $6.7 billion to
upgrade the network and protect the quality of drinking water. These
capital expenditures helped NYC to achieve a 15 percent control over the
watershed through direct ownership or conservation easement. Another 19
percent is controlled by the State of New York. The city also invested
$24 million to construct new wastewater infrastructure in communities
with substandard septic systems and to help watershed homeowners repair
or replace failing septic systems.
Major projects are underway to improve the quality of drinking water - a
new water filtration plant for the Croton system and an ultraviolet
desinfection plant for the Catskill and Delaware systems are scheduled
to open in 2012 and 2013 respectively.
Another critical objective identified by the city is to create a
reliable back up system for NYC's aging network. Creating redundancy for
the aqueducts will allow the city to conduct crucial repairs without
interrupting water supply. Some of the major repair work is planned for
the 85 mile long Delaware Aqueduct - the longest continuous tunnel in
the world. The Aqueduct has been having steady and continuous water
leaks since 1980s. These water leaks cost the city 10 to 36 million
gallons of water per day. Eliminating them is essential since the
Delaware tunnell supplies 50 percent of NYC's water.
NYC's other priority is to modernize in-city water distribution.
Construction of Water Tunnel No3 is one of the largest capital projects
in the city's history - its total cost is estimated at $6 billion. Begun
in 1970, Water Tunnel No3 is expected to be fully operational by 2020.
The completion of this project will allow the city to carry out a much
needed analysis and repair of Water Tunnels No1 and No2.