Paul Rush Deputy Commissioner New York City Department of Environmental Protection before the New York City Council Committee on Environmental Protection, Resiliency, and[...]

December 17, 2024

Good morning, Chairman Gennaro and members of the Committee on Environmental Protection, Resiliency, and Waterfronts. I'm Paul Rush of our Bureau of Water Supply (BWS) at the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). I am here today to discuss the ongoing drought. I am also joined by Chief Operating Officer Kathryn Mallon and Deputy Commissioner Julie Lubin from our Bureau of Environmental Compliance (BEC) to discuss the pieces of legislation on the agenda.

As was announced yesterday, we're happy to share that the drought warning has been downgraded to a drought watch. There has been significant rain and melting snowpack in the last few weeks that have significantly replenished our reservoirs. While storages are still below normal for this time of year, we're in a much better place than we were a few weeks ago. The high-pressure weather system that's been stubbornly parked over our region has finally shifted, allowing regular storm systems to come through. We are now starting to see more consistent precipitation patterns.

The drought we are coming out of is the first we have experienced in 20 years. In part, this is due to increases in precipitation due to climate change and a 35% reduction in water demand through conservation efforts. In 1979, we used about 1.5 billon gallons per day; today that's down to about 1 billion gallons per day today. This reduction in demand is also the result of a targeted investments by DEP, the emergence of water efficiency standards, as well as water conservation measures by good New Yorkers who have steadily reduced the daily water demand-all of which makes our system more resilient in a drought situation.

I should note that when we talk about drought conditions impacting the water supply, we are referring to conditions upstate in the watershed, not conditions in the city. The watershed extends more than 100 miles north of the city. So even if it rains here in the five boroughs, that rain does not help with our drinking water supply.

This year's drought has brought record low precipitation to both areas and across the Northeast region. We saw the lowest precipitation in recorded history in October, despite forecasts of a wetter than average October. In fact, the unprecedented deficit in rainfall we experienced this fall had only a 1% probability of occurring.

Thankfully, NYC has among the most resilient and robust water supply systems in the world. The resiliency and sheer scale of NYC's water supply system provides us with unparalleled flexibility. In a typical fall, the system is filled to around 80% but it can operate safely and effectively even below average levels. Our team diligently monitors the conditions across the system and have been taking actions to ensure that our water supply remained reliable through the drought condition.

Prior to deciding to move forward with the Delaware Aqueduct shutdown this year, we had been closely tracking the forecast. In September, we announced our partnership with the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes (CW3E) to bring advanced extreme weather and water forecasting capabilities to DEP. CW3E is embedded at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, which is one of the most important centers for global earth science research and education in the world.

But forecasts aren't guaranteed. The drought came on suddenly and intensely. A high pressure system camped out over New York and much of the Northeast, which made it difficult for normal weather patterns to break through.

Delaware Aqueduct Repair

Unfortunately, the drought conditions led to our difficult decision to pause the final phase of the $2 billion in repair work on the Delaware Aqueduct, which would have fixed significant leaks to a portion of the tunnel by connecting a 2.5-mile bypass tunnel near Newburgh. In order to initiate that last phase of work, DEP stopped the flow of water from the four reservoirs that feed into the Delaware Aqueduct and increased the city's reliance on the other two aqueduct systems-the Catskill and Croton Aqueduct Systems.

DEP has been actively preparing for this phase of the repair for decades and we have invested hundreds of millions in infrastructure upgrades to the Catskill and Croton water supply systems to ensure that they could effectively meet water supply demand. Nearly $200 million of rehabilitation work was done to improve the flow of water and repair leaks in the Catskill Aqueduct. That work was completed at the end of 2021. The Croton Falls and Cross River Pump Stations were upgraded to increase their size and capacity, allowing us to take more water from the Croton System.

We also completed a connection between the Croton system and City Tunnel 2 in the Bronx, so that water from the Croton system could be provided to more areas of the city. All of these precursor projects allowed us to push more water through the Catskill and Croton systems while the Delaware system was offline, ensuring that we would be able to meet demand.

The final phase of the repair work, which would stem the loss of over 35-million-gallons a day, started Oct. 1. The work was scheduled over the winter because that's when water consumption is typically lowest and inflows from precipitation are the highest. But the drought was too severe to safely continue, so the project was paused.

The Delaware Aqueduct is now back online and supplying water to New Yorkers. We are optimistic that we will be able to resume the repair work next fall. In the meantime, DEP continues to work proactively to reduce water demand and ensure that the system is fully prepared to complete the repairs.

Water Conservation

The increased precipitation over the last few weeks, particularly last week, has significantly increased the volume in our reservoirs. This precipitation allowed us to end the drought warning. And opening the Delaware aqueduct means that, if dry conditions return, we will be ideally situated to face them.

In or out of a drought, no one should waste water. While we have been strengthening our water supply, we are also working to reduce demand. DEP has been working to identify the highest-use customers and has been diligently monitoring water usage records to look for any possible leaks. We have been doing outreach and engagement to alert these customers to check for leaks or to advise on potential strategies to reduce consumption for big users. Since the Drought Watch was declared, DEP nearly 1.8 million linear feet of water mains to prevent leaks, shut over 1,700 open or leaking hydrants across the city, and resolved more than 700 leaks.

New Yorkers are encouraged to identify and fix leaks in their homes and be mindful of wasting water - that will save them money on water bills too. In our changing climate, we need to use our natural resources wisely. Small changes in daily routine can always help, and we've got a website with simple things folks can do to save water in their daily routine. Visit nyc.gov/savewater.

Legislation

There are two pre-considered pieces of legislation being heard today. The first bill would establish a program that transfers liability for certain engine idling violations to lessees of vehicles. We have significant concerns about this bill. We are concerned that relieving truck owners of financial responsibility for idling violations could undermine the strength of the program, particularly the efficacy of the cure provisions that we have been working together to develop and hope to enact in the near future. The cure opportunity relies on the idling penalty to incentivize vehicle owners to install anti-idling technology or invest in electric vehicles. If owners are not responsible for paying the fine, there is no financial benefit to them to make these anti-idling investments. Transferring liability could make sense in cases when an owner has installed anti-idling technology and a driver has disabled it, but we do not think transferring liability is a good policy generally. We have been working closely with the Council and advocates to develop a cure policy. We do not want to undermine that policy before it is even passed. In addition, we are not sure how such a program would work, so would like to understand better what the Council is envisioning. The Law Department is also reviewing the bill and may have additional concerns.

The second bill being heard today would require DEP to create a comprehensive stormwater plan and a stormwater dashboard. These requirements complement some existing planning requirements and new stormwater map requirements set forth in the City of Yes legislation and Intro. 815, which were passed earlier this month. This bill also reflects commitments we made in the 2024 Stormwater Analysis that we released earlier this year. As the Council is aware, DEP has been taking a holistic approach to managing stormwater, which has been increasingly challenging as climate change has brought more frequent intense storms. We plan to develop a comprehensive stormwater plan, so we fully support the goals of this bill, but we cannot commit to the details or the timelines in the bill until we know how this work relates to the stormwater mapping work and until we can ensure that we have available funding. We are happy to work with the Chair on the details of legislation.

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