Transcript: Mayor Adams Launches Final Phase of Historic Project to Secure Future of New York City's Water Supply

September 30, 2024

Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi, Operations: Good morning, everyone. I'm Meera Joshi, deputy mayor for Operations. I'm also from Philadelphia, so the way I pronounce water may offend some, but I just want to get that out at the very beginning.

Thank you all for joining today. This is a remarkable moment in history for New York City. It exemplifies the magnificence of our city, the complexity of our city, and how it runs, literally runs. We have the best water system in the country. We have the best water in the country. Our system was built in the 1800s. The water is cleaned by gravity and nature, and it allows New Yorkers to enjoy a billion gallons of water every day.

Its only flaw is that it has a small leak, especially the Delaware Aqueduct, the largest tunnel in the nation, 85 miles long. But it's not as simple as fixing your faucet. There's 19 reservoirs that make up our system, three lakes, and all of them working together. So it's taken 20 years of planning, 20 years of engineering, 20 years of engineering genius to bring us to this moment. And just like our water, New York City will keep on running. So I now would like to present the leader, Mayor Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thanks so much, Meera and Rit. Whenever Rit is around, we know that some good things are going to happen with our environment in general, but specifically our flow of water in this city.

Listen, our tap water is the envy of the entire globe. Even during UNGA, many people talk about how clean and fresh those who were national leaders, international leaders talked about how clean and fresh our water is. And I think D.M. Joshi sort of downplayed when she talked about a leak. It's not a typical leak. We talk about a billion gallons of drinking water every day in New York City. But for the past 30 years, the Delaware Aqueduct, the largest tunnel on the globe, has a leak. And that leak is real. 35 million gallons of water every day leaking into the ground 1,000 feet below the surface. When you think about it, it is enough to fill 50 Olympic-sized swimming pools every day or nearly 20,000 Olympic pools a year. It's a lot of water, major problem.

But today, we're launching the final phase of a two-decade project to fix the leak and secure the future of the water supply, connecting a bypass tunnel along the Delaware Aqueduct. This is a great achievement we should all be proud of. This aqueduct, this tunnel, lies 600 feet beneath the Hudson. When you stack up two Statue of Liberties on top of each other, that's the type of depth we're talking about. And the diameter, you can drive an 18-wheeler through it. That's the amount of water that is coming through.

And it's 2.5 miles long and cost more than $2 billion to build, making it DEP's largest ever repair project. And over the coming months, our team of engineers at DEP will drain the aqueduct and connect both ends of the bypass tunnel to the main aqueduct. I hope we're taking a lot of video of this, because this is really exciting. New Yorkers should know that your water is going to taste a little, slightly different. Some of you are not going to pick it up, but you will. But it is still drinking safe. They have a little sample here for me. I can't taste it. You're not going to be able to detect it. Some New Yorkers will, but it's still perfectly safe, good water.

We're using a new purification system with granular activated carbon. It's similar to what you see in the water pitchers that you use at home. This way, you can make sure you get good-tasting, clean water. This is what the types of projects that are important. And really, hats off to the previous administration. It's a continuation that we are going to do the final part of the project. But everyone was on board. We knew we had to get it done, and get it done is what we accomplished. Great job, Rit. Great job, D.M. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: And as our mayor often says, we build on the work of those that came before us, but also in making it happen, the final act. We have an incredible leader, our DEP commissioner, Rit Aggarwala.

Commissioner Rohit Aggarwala, Department of Environmental Protection: Thank you, mayor. Thank you, deputy mayor, for your support for this project and your commitment to DEP's broader mission day in and day out.

At DEP, we take our responsibility to deliver clean, safe, delicious drinking water for nearly half the state's population very seriously. We do this every day. In no project is the pride and excellence of our workforce more evident than in this project, which is 20 years in the making. As the mayor and deputy mayor noted, New York City has the best quality and best-tasting water in the world. That is not an accident. It's the result of centuries, 180 years of superb engineering and planning by people who had an eye for what the long-term potential of this city could be.

New York City would not be what it is today without the Delaware Aqueduct. In fact, the map of the watershed that's in the room next door was created for the 1939 World's Fair. That's why this repair project is such an amazing feat and engineering marvel. There's a lot that goes into these achievements that people don't see every day, and I want to highlight some of that. First, I want to thank our entire workforce, 6,000 New Yorkers who work hard every day to provide and manage a critical ingredient of life as we know it. Thank you.

Most of the city never thinks about this work, but whenever you turn on a faucet, take a shower, flush a toilet, or run the washing machine, that is only because of the work of the people who work at DEP. We have employees who have dedicated their careers to this project, and I want to particularly thank Paul Rush. Paul over here is our deputy commissioner for Water Supply. He's been deputy commissioner for 18 years. He's been with DEP for 30 years, and I like to think of him as New York City's chief mixologist, because his job every day, quite literally, is to determine which reservoirs we're going to draw from and create a blend of that water that maximizes taste and safety and reliability and all of the things that come out of the 100,000 tests that we run every year on our entire water supply. I also want to thank Deputy Commissioner Ana Barrio. Anna's over here. And Sean McAndrew. There's Sean, who oversees the engineering design and construction of this project. And finally, DEP has our own police force, our environmental police officers, of whom we are extraordinarily proud, and they protect our infrastructure every day.

It's taken us 20 years to plan for this project because the scale of this project is so massive. As the mayor said, tractor-trailer through the Delaware Aqueduct, which is 600 feet below ground and, as he said, is 85 miles long. It's a big project, but I want to assure New Yorkers that we are ready for this, and we have planned for every scenario. We have ample water reserves to last us the duration of the project. We're doing this project over the winter because we as a city use less water during the winter than we do during the summer. We have backup plans for basically every scenario. If worst comes to worst, we can stop work on the project, reconnect the existing aqueduct, and while that would cost us time and money, we would be able to go back to our current water supply, leaky as it is, without too much trouble, and that's our ultimate insurance policy if we needed to do it.

There are some of our backup plans that we can talk about and some, I hope you understand, we can't talk about for security reasons. We are working with our state and federal partners. We work very closely at every level, both in terms of health and water quality and in terms of security. During this project, our entire water supply will meet every existing state EPA and health requirement, just as it does every day. We will be testing our water supply constantly throughout this project, just as we do every single day, and all of our water is appropriately treated with a combination, depending on where it comes from, of chlorine, ultraviolet light, or filtration.

As the mayor said, there may be some slight variation in taste, which at the end of the day has to do with minerals and other trace elements in the water, and I would note, just as different brands of bottled water taste a bit different, so do our different reservoirs. And I would urge you please not to use this project as a reason to drink bottled water. As the mayor has pointed out in the past, our water costs about a penny a gallon. It is New York's greatest bargain, and it is absolutely the safest and healthiest choice for your family, and we should drink as much of that and as little of bottled water as possible.

Finally, I want to thank our neighbors and customers. Among the people who will be impacted by this project are our neighbors in the upstate watershed, where we have our 19 reservoirs. They have been true partners, and we are proud to work with them. And of course, our customers, 8 and a half million in New York City and 1 and a half million in the upstate suburbs. Thank you for putting your faith in us to deliver clean, healthy, and delicious water day in and day out. Every time a patron in a restaurant chooses tap over bottled, we know that people are making the right choice for the environment. We know that people are making a vote of confidence in the work that these great city workers perform, and I am grateful for that.

It's a privilege to be here. It's a real privilege to do this work. And on a personal note, I just want to remark, the mayor mentioned the long timescale and the work we do building on previous administrations. I was in this building in December of 2006 when Mayor Bloomberg launched PlaNYC, and it was the first time that the city had spoken publicly about the issues facing the Delaware Aqueduct. So that was 18 years ago that I've been involved in this, and we started talking about it publicly in this building. So it's nice to be back to do so. But it's a great example of how three successive administrations have stuck to the fact that we need to invest in things like this critical piece of infrastructure that will not only serve us and our children, but frankly, this is a project that will be serving New Yorkers 100 or 200 years from now. And so it's a real privilege to be involved in it and work with these marvelous people. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: Infrastructure is an endurance sport, for sure. Next, I'd like to bring up Councilmember Gennaro, who leads all of the issues in the Council on environment, climate, and obviously water. Thank you.

City Councilmember James Gennaro: Thank you, Madam Deputy Mayor. Yeah, this has been a long time coming. I started with the Environmental Committee in the Council back in 1990 as staff of the committee. And this started... You know, we started talking about this, I became chair, I was elected to the Council in 2001, started in 2002, and from the get-go we've been talking about this issue, and I'm very grateful to be part of it now back as chair of the committee, working with the mayor and Rit and the deputy mayor and good people like Paul Rush.

I want to reinforce Rit's message, drink not of the bottled water. We don't need that. We've got the best stuff. I've got my little container right over there. I put it out of sight. But always try to stay hydrated, and you should, too. And this is… And there's so many wonderful things that we could talk about about the watershed, but I won't. We still are… We are going to maintain our Filtration Avoidance Determination. This is one of the few unfiltered… Well, part of it is filtered, but the main part of the system is unfiltered. Very few watersheds in the country have that level of purity that they can sustain that. Most watersheds that are… That look for this kind of exemption to not filter are not granted that. And, you know, New York City really led the way way back in getting that Filtration Avoidance Determination. I am going to do that hearing on that. We're going to do that. So make sure we, you know, keep that going.

I have nothing but praise for, you know, the mayor in his management of all of these things. I'm going to do that hearing on that. We're going to do that. So make sure we keep that going. We're going to do that hearing on that. I have nothing but praise for, you know, the mayor in his management of all things environmental. My great colleague, Rit, that I go back many, many years with. The great deputy mayor and my good friend, Paul Rush. Very happy and privileged to be here on this occasion with the mayor and Rit and all the people who really make this happen.

Mayor Adams: Rit, you're going to be able to answer… This is… Is this a picture? Why don't we show this picture? Explain that.

Commissioner Aggarwala: So this is what's going on. So this is the existing aqueduct that was opened in 1944. Over the last six or seven years, we've drilled a bypass. There's two shafts here. And what we're going to be doing over the next six months is actually connecting them so that the water flows through the new tunnel, which is not leaking, and never will, thanks to the great engineering work of people like John. And during that period, that's why we have to use alternative sources.

Mayor Adams: What material is that new pipe? What is that material? You know what material it's made out of?

Commissioner Aggarwala: It is. So, Paul, you can correct me, or Sean if I'm wrong, but we drilled a 21-foot diameter tunnel. The tube itself is 14 feet in diameter. Am I getting this right, Sean? Which means we've got 3 1⁄2 feet of casing, and that's a combination of layers of cement and concrete, steel, and an interior liner. This thing is not going to leak.

Question: I was curious. I noticed over the last few years in the city record listings, there seemed to have been an increasing amount of acreage being acquired by the city around the watershed. Was it in preparation for this, or was it just sort of a normal acquisition of land around the watershed?

Commissioner Aggarwala: That is entirely normal. And, in fact, our acreage acquisitions have gone down over time. As the chairman mentioned, the Filtration Avoidance Determination, which dates back to 1997, requires us on an annual basis to make offers and acquire land. And we own a tremendous amount of land, but it's one of the reasons that we can rely on nature to keep our water clean.

Question: When might we be tasting the different brand of water? And why are the trace minerals and trace elements different when they go through the bypass as opposed to the existing aqueduct?

Commissioner Aggarwala: So just to be clear, it's not about the bypass. Once the bypass is in service, the water will taste basically like it does today. Each of our 19 reservoirs has a slightly different flavor just because the land around it is slightly different, right? And so the minerals, the clay, et cetera, in the water is going to be different.

And again, this is, you know, if you get a bottle of Perrier and a bottle of Pellegrino, they taste different because where they come from is different. And it's exactly the same. It's not an indication of something being wrong with the water any more than a bottle of Pellegrino is bad because it doesn't taste like Perrier. It's not an indication of that. It is literally just kind of the terroir, if you will, of where the water is coming from.

And to your question about when, I'd say it's sometime over the month of October. It is not so much a massive turn on the switch. In fact, there were two weeks or a week and a half or so in September when part of the city was drinking only Croton water and all of the city was drinking some Croton water. And we got a grand total of maybe 20-some-odd additional phone calls concerned about taste and odor. And at the end of the day, nobody noticed. About 10 months ago, we did a similar shutoff. We were kind of worried that people would taste a difference. Nobody noticed. That's a testament to, as the mayor described, we've got basically this giant Brita filter at our Croton filtration plant, and it works really, really well.

And then there's another source where we're putting some Delaware water into the Croton system, and then some Croton water into the Delaware system, into the Kensico Reservoir. That's going to be blended, so it'll be kind of gradual. So again, I don't know that that many people will actually notice a difference. It is just possible, and so we want to make clear to you all why and what's going on in case people do have concern.

Question: Hi. For Univision, I was wondering about the water purification system. Is that something that is normally checked, or how is the maintenance, and how do people know that, in fact, the water is staying purified? Because those are the questions that we hear from people. How do I know this is going to be like this?

Commissioner Aggarwala: Well, look, let me restate. We have three labs, and from every step in the way, from each reservoir itself, some of the streams feeding our reservoirs, each of our facilities, down to, you may have seen, we have hundreds of these silver things on the street that say New York City Water, and those are literally a faucet that plugs straight into the water main. We take samples. We run 100,000 tests on our water every year.

And so the fact is, every New Yorker can be confident that the water has been treated appropriately. We have to comply with New York State Department of Health regulations, and we do so rigorously. I get reports on this every single day. That is the data that Paul and his colleagues use to look at which reservoirs actually have the cleanest taste or what have you on a given day and dispatch that water preferentially to the city. So no New Yorker has to worry about whether the system is functioning. It always functions, and we are always treating the water appropriately.

Question: My question is, you know, there's all these storms going around in the rest of the country. What happens in that type of case? You mentioned the old leaks, but can this handle if there is a flood or if there's a surge of water? How does that work?

Commissioner Aggarwala: Yes. Look, I mean, intense storms are a risk for our reservoirs, as they are for any surface water system. But one of New York City's great strengths is that we have 19 reservoirs. And again, that ability that our Bureau of Water Supply has to dispatch different reservoirs means we can avoid any where there might be a localized problem. And the thing that we know is that over time, if you just wait a couple of days, the impacts of a storm will dissipate. And we have the luxury, unlike most systems, because we have multiple reservoirs, that we can just literally turn a reservoir off for a few days, let it settle, and then it's back to normal. So, yeah, so I would leave it at that. We are going to be in good shape through this process, no matter what comes our way.

Mayor Adams: Where's the room we're in? In there? Okay. I'll be there in one moment. Trust me. It will be quick.

Question: We know that the governor has the power to remove you from office. Have you talked to her about this, or has she called you to talk about this?

Mayor Adams: I spoke to the governor several times, and we had a great conversation. She acknowledged the great things that we've done together. Everything from transit, crime, to some of the very complicated things. And, you know, the goal is to continue to show that we're going to continue to move in the right direction, and we're doing that.

And you know I never go into private conversations. That's why people enjoy having conversations with me, because they never hear it again. I'm excited about continuing being the mayor and doing the work that I've done in the last two years and ten months.

Question: Did she tell you something about [inaudible] that you have to ask [inaudible] your resignation?

Mayor Adams: To do what?

Question: Did she ask? Did she tell you something that she's going to ask for your resignation or something like that?

Mayor Adams: No, she did not.

Question: Sir, you have elected not to resign in the face of the allegations against you. And I'm sure, knowing you, you feel that the reasons for that should be self-evident. It should be obvious why you wouldn't resign. But there are people who are calling for you to resign. Can you take a moment and explain to us your reasoning for why you're not resigning?

Mayor Adams: Well, okay. You said there are people who are calling for me to. But are you going to acknowledge there are people that are saying, Eric, hang in there. So we have to… This is New York. You know, you guys have heard me say this throughout my time in office. 8.3 million people, 35 million opinions. And so the countless number of people who have called me, texted me, stopped me on the street, and say, listen, do what you're doing, Eric. Keep doing what you're doing.

You brought this city back. You dealt with the employment issue that we had in this city. You dealt with the inability of NYCHA getting high-speed broadband. You dealt with the improvement of education from dyslexia screening to all the other things. You brought down crime from a 40 percent increase when I took office. You removed thousands of guns off our streets. You brought tourism back. Our subway system had the lowest number of robberies in the history, recorded history of this city. August was one of the safe shootings in the recorded history of this city.

So when you say, why shouldn't you leave? I got a job to complete. This is a resilient city. And the spirit of this city and that resiliency is important. There's not a New Yorker that's not going through a terrible period or a tough time. No one wants to go through this. But the reality is, it's not about quitting. It's about stepping up and continuing to deliver for the city. The attorneys will handle the legal aspect of it. I'm going to stay focused. And you heard me say it over and over again. Stay focused, no distraction and grind. All of y'all hear that in your sleep. Because that's what I have to do.

Because if I send the wrong message to New Yorkers, that tough times mean you disappear or you abdicate your responsibility, that's the wrong message. I've done nothing wrong. Time will prove that. And people will look back on this moment and say, we're glad we gave this mayor the opportunity to do the work he's doing. What's going on?

Question: Good afternoon.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: I'm good. How are you?

Mayor Admas: Good.

Question: Given the accomplishments that you just mentioned, what are your thoughts on the potential for this case to negatively impact your legacy?

Mayor Adams: My legacy, and the legacy of the 300,000-plus New Yorkers that inherited a city that was filled with COVID, 217,000 migrants and asylum seekers, uncertainty around public safety and many of the other things that we're doing, like patching up the tunnel, the finish leg of that.

That legacy is going to be intact. I think when people look back on this administration. and see what we have done for those 40,000 children that went through our education system, the lives that we've saved, and how we really turned around the economy. Bond raters just, I don't know if many people are aware of that, the bond rate is that raised our bonds, they just doubled down on it and say this city is moving in the right direction.

The legacy is going to be clear, and the best picture of that legacy is when y'all read my book. You're not going to believe what life has been for two years and ten months. This is going to be a bestseller, get that best bottle of wine that you have, and those of you who are into cannabis, you can roll a joint and just sit down and read my book because you are going to be really amazed what life has been for two years and ten months.

Question: Mr. Mayor, I understand that you don't share the content of your private conversations, but the governor this morning said that she is hoping that you can correct the case, those are her… Right the case. What can we expect from you in the coming days to prove to Governor Hochul that you are fit to stay in office?

Mayor Adams: You know, hold on. When we make movements and announcements, we do so. I got a good team, and the team has been sitting down. We're very conscious of the moment that we're in. Our heads are not in the sand. We're very conscious of the moments that we're in and what we must do moving forward to continue the success that we have.

But it's important for Rit Aggarwala, his team, D.M. Meera Joshi, D.M. Williams-Isom, Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, and Ana Almanzar, who are the four important pillars. It's important for them to tell their troops, we have work to do. Let the attorneys handle the legalese. We have work to do, and that is what we're going to be focused on. And I've been meeting with you. I've been meeting with the team throughout the week and saying, listen, stay true to the work that we have to do. Hey, Michael, can I have some of that water? All right, we're going to do one more.

Question: Mayor Adams, you've made the point before that government does work when you have relationships with your constituents and they bring things to your attention that you go and it's your job to get those done.

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Question: What would you say to members of your administration, and including members of the Police Department, about that relationship, whether there are boundaries in terms of what is exchanged in that relationship, what are the limits after which it starts looking bad?

Mayor Adams: I didn't get that. That was a little too complicated for me.

Question: [Inaudible] relationship, for instance, are coffee or meals? What is the city's rule when it comes to when that relationship kind of tilts into something that the city might not look favorably upon, even though they're trying to gather information that's important to the constituents to act on?

Mayor Adams: I must be slow this morning. I still didn't get it.

Question: You said before that part of your relationships in the community was for your constituents to tell you what they need to have addressed, and it was your job to go and address them. Is there a part of that interaction that you would give guidance to, whether it be police officers or members of your administration, that isn't appropriate in those interactions? Whether it's gifts or, you know…

Mayor Adams: Yeah, listen, we have… What's good about this city, there are rules and procedures that if something is done inappropriate, we have, you know, COIB rules and other rules, and we should follow those rules, you know? And, you know, I think the overwhelming number of our employees do that every day, and if they don't, there are procedures in place to hold people accountable.

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