Transcript: Mayor Adams Elevates Drought Level to Warning, Pauses Delaware Aqueduct Repair Project, Orders City Agencies to Implement Water-Saving Measures and New Yorkers to[...]

November 18, 2024

Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi, Operations: All right, good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us to go over our current conditions and what it means for the city and what actions our city agencies are taking to protect New Yorkers.

The fires that have burned from Brooklyn to the Bronx and in northern New Jersey are a stark reminder of the extreme weather that we're having and that it knows no boundaries. But neither do New Yorkers. Time after time, New Yorkers step up to help each other out and to help our city. Today's drought conditions are no different.

We implemented a drought watch earlier this month, and now we're asking all New Yorkers to do their part. By taking water-saving steps, simple ones, as simple as just taking a shorter shower, we're protecting our city in the most fundamental way possible. And we are in this together. The city itself is taking a range of steps to protect the city from the more serious impacts of the drought, not just for today, but for six months down the line, when our pools need to be full and our trees need to be watered to keep New Yorkers cool in the ever-hotter New York summers. So today, we're looking to the future and ensuring that no matter what, New York has the water reserves it needs to go forward. And next, we'll hear from our mayor, Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thanks so much, deputy mayor. And it becomes a reality, as I was speaking with Commissioner Aggarwala, to see the actual decrease in water in our reservoir, how this is a real issue. It's hard to believe that we'd be talking about brush fires and droughts in New York City.

But the reality is that this past October and November saw the second longest rainless streak in city records, dating back to 155 years to 1869. I want to also thank MTA head, Janno Lieber, who's also joining us at this time.

But as you can see from the pictures over my left shoulder, our reservoirs are nowhere near where they should be. And our city and watershed continues to experience significant precipitation shortages. And today, I'm upgrading our drought watch to a drought warning and ordering our agencies to immediately implement water-saving measures. A drought warning is the second of three levels of water conservation in our city. And I want to be clear on this. This is not normal, and I'm pretty sure if you're outside, you may enjoy the beautiful weather in November, but the reality is climate change is real and is impacting our city. And while we cannot make it rain, we can take actions to reduce the risk of drought emergencies in our city.

The city is leading by example on water conservation, and our city vehicles may look a little dirtier, but if we could take small steps, we could have a major impact. We're asking New Yorkers to do their part as well and continue to save water wherever and whenever possible. Every New Yorker can help by, as the deputy mayor indicated, simple things like shorter showers, while you're brushing your teeth, don't let the water run. But also there's some amazing tips on the DEP's water savings website. New Yorkers can visit DEP's water saving tips to find out more.

If we pull together and save water together, we'll be able to ride this through. And we can avoid a more serious drought that will require further restrictions in the city. In addition, as an additional measure to mitigate the risk of a drought, we are pausing the Delaware Aqueduct repair project, something that we announced a few months ago in Queens and, we don't want to do this, but we have to make sure it's done correctly. We will restart the Delaware Aqueduct project as soon as possible so we can stop the 35 million gallon daily leak and secure the future of our water supply. But with as little rain as we received this fall, and subsequently lower than expected water reserves, we have to press pause on the project now.

New Yorkers should not underestimate the dry weather and what it means. Last week, we saw a series of fires, as well as what we saw happen and take place in Prospect Park. We've seen brush fires in Manhattan and Marine Park all week. The fire risk is high and the fire risk is real. We have already taken action to keep New Yorkers safe, including banning grilling in our parks, and I'm urging all New Yorkers to take common sense steps to prevent brush fires going forward, including removing litter and leaves from sidewalks and disposing of cigarette butts and matches properly.

I really want to thank the team, the MTA, DEP, NYCEM, and the FDNY for coordinating our citywide effort to prepare our city. As I stated, climate change is here, it's real, and we're going to fortify the city to be prepared for it and how to respond accordingly.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: Thank you. As we mentioned, this is not a city impact, this is a regional impact, and so we do this work in connection with our partners on the state level and the governor's office, and I'd like to welcome up DHSES, that's got to be the best acronym ever, Deputy Commissioner O'Leary. Thank you.

Deputy Commissioner Terence O'Leary, Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services: Good afternoon. So I'd like to start by thanking the mayor and New York City for their partnership in responding to this drought. We've been working on the state level closely with the Department of Environmental Protection here in the city to coordinate our response to this drought, and the drought is real and its effects are real. We've already seen that upstate.

New York State has been responding to over 15 wildfires in the last two weeks alone, including the Jennings Creek fire, which is one of the largest in New York State in the last 30 years. Currently, the fire is about 5,200 acres, including 3,100 acres in New York. On Monday and Sunday night, we evacuated over 270 households in response to this fire, which burned all the way to some people's backyards. I'd like to thank many members of the New York State Fire Service. Over 420 fire departments responded with over 1,300 firefighters to help combat this fire.

In response to this drought, the Department of Environmental Conservation is declaring a drought warning in 10 counties and New York City. Those counties outside of New York City are Delaware, Dutchess, Green, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Schoharie, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester. What this declaration means is that the Department of Environmental Conservation has seen the groundwater supply as well as stream flows decrease to such a level, when combined with the lack of rainfall, that we need to start working with our partners upstate to conserve water.

What the state will do is the Department of Environmental Conservation will continue to monitor stream flows. They will continue to monitor well water and other groundwater sources. They will work with upstate partners to make sure that their wells are working. If they're not, they will work with them to find out why they're not working so that we can see just how bad the drought is.

The State Department of Health will work with municipal water suppliers, those that supply over 3,000 customers, to make sure that those municipal water suppliers are starting to look at conservation plans. They should be working with their large customers to make sure that they're conserving water. They should also be making projections to see, if the weather does not change, how long can they continue to supply water at the current rate for.

In addition to this, the governor has declared a burn ban statewide that bans the burning of debris and brush throughout the state. It also bans uncontrolled campfires, as well as uncontrolled fires which are for the purpose of cooking. There are some exceptions for controlled campfires, but if you're going to have a campfire or do something within the bounds of the burn ban, be prepared. You'll be surprised just how fast a campfire can get out of control. So make sure you have water available. If you can, have a shovel with you. Be prepared for the fire to jump the bounds and to spread very, very quickly.

The upcoming weather should help a little bit. We're hopeful that an incoming storm on Wednesday and Thursday will bring some rain and relief, both to New York City as well as upstate New York, but it's not going to be enough. What we need are New Yorkers to make sure that they are thinking about the ways to conserve. You heard the mayor already talk about ways to conserve water. We need each and every person to do their part until we get the weather and the rain that we need here.

With that, I'd like to say thank you for the partnership to the mayor and to our partners in New York City government, including the New York City Office of Emergency Management, which stays in constant contact with us to make sure that we're sharing resources, sharing information, and that we're handling this, not only as a city and not only as a state, but together. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: Thank you. And our city agencies are not the only government entities in New York City that are taking extreme steps now to save water. Next up is our MTA CEO, Janno Lieber, to talk about how the MTA is taking water conservation measures.

Janno Lieber, CEO and Chair, MTA: Thank you, deputy mayor, and thank you, Mayor Adams, for your leadership. I'm glad to be with you to share an update on the MTA's strategy for managing our part in this prolonged drought. Obviously, reducing water consumption, as everybody has said today, is priority one.

So we're going to reduce our fleet washing of Long Island Railroad and Metro North trains, as of now. The subway's Department of New York City Transit is also cutting back on washings dramatically. We're going to prioritize leaks in tunnels and stations, and our buses will now be washed less frequently. I know that [inaudible] may say that they didn't know MTA buses were washed at all, but I'll tell you, every day our riders appreciate the fact that we do look after that side of the business.

Our employees have been placed on a high alert for fires within the system, and this is real. Mayor and I grew up in a New York where the subway had track fires all the time, and we're doing a lot to reduce that risk by picking up garbage and cleaning more aggressively. But in addition, above ground, our bridges and tunnels personnel are going to be actively inspecting all of our sites to make sure that hazardous materials are properly stored under and around facilities and crossings. Likewise, the MTA construction development professionals are going to make sure that construction sites don't have any hazardous conditions that could lead to fire starts.

Listen, we have protocols in place to quickly extinguish anything, any fire that gets started, whether it's on tracks or in electrical substations or in above ground areas. And every step of the way, we are building on our extraordinary collaboration and cooperation with all the city partners. The Mayor's Office, the Fire Department, the Police Department, the Office of Emergency Management. These are all partners on a daily basis and not a new thing for us to work with them constantly.

And as always, we encourage folks to stay updated by checking social media, our apps, our digital screens and stations. They'll have real-time information. And there is a service alerts. If you want more information on that, you can go to the MTA website and sign up for a service alert. I won't go through the website, but it's there right on the MTA website, mta.info, for folks to get it. So we're ready to do our part. And as the mayor and the governor lead us through this emergency situation, we're going to be looking for collaboration and upgrading if necessary. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: Next, we'll speak, we'll hear from DEP Commissioner Aggarwala, who runs a very complex and important agency and as he will explain, covers every facet of water in our city.

Commissioner Rohit Aggarwala, Department of Environmental Protection: Thank you, deputy mayor. Good afternoon. I'm Rohit Aggarwala, commissioner at the Department of Environmental Protection. Just a couple of facts and figures to start us off.

Today our reservoirs are at about 60.1 percent capacity. Usually at this time of year, they are above 79 percent capacity. That's an indication of how far down we are. Over the last 10 weeks, we have had 8.23 inches less rain than in the average year, over just 10 weeks. So this drought has come on fast, it has come on furious, and that's why the last six weeks have been the driest on record.

As the mayor said with this drought warning, we will now be requiring city agencies, as well as our partners like the MTA and the Port Authority, to change their practices and as Jamno just pointed out, this is going to lead to some visible changes in the way that the city looks. We'll be limiting the use of water in city parks, for example, and I'm sure Commissioner Donoghue will talk about that in a moment. We're going to be increasing, as we've already done at DEP, all of our ongoing efforts to identify and stop leaks throughout the system, and DEP's public affairs team will be working with the Department of Education and other schools to provide curriculum material to help teachers teach students about water conservation.

As the mayor said, we made the very difficult decision to stop work on the Delaware Aqueduct repair. It's only six weeks ago that we announced it, and at the time in September, all of the forecasts, including that from NOAA, that the federal government forecasted a wetter than average October. And that forecasted wetter than average October, on which we based our decision to proceed, which of course turned into a record dry October and the drought that we are now in. We can only do this repair work during the winter because water consumption is down compared to the summer during the winter, and so unfortunately this means we will be postponing that work by at least a year until next October.

And of course, it's also worth noting that given that the weather has been so much warmer than it normally is, in addition to the risk of fire, one of the things we've seen is that our average daily water consumption is higher than it normally is at this time of year. And it's one of the reasons that we need so much help from New Yorkers. So even though the drought warning does not lead to mandatory restrictions on what the general public does, as the mayor said, we need all New Yorkers to help us.

A couple of things that I would add to what's already been said, DEP does have a leak notification program that anybody with a water account can sign up for, whether it's an apartment building, a business, or an individual homeowner. You go to our website, as the mayor said, nyc.gov/savewater, and you go to your My DEP account, and it will actually send you an electronic notice if your water use goes up in a way that is inconsistent with the past. So if your toilet is running or if there is a leak in your house, it will send you an email. It will let you know that there is a leak going on. And usually that's a great way to save money, because we want people to save money. But right now we need New Yorkers to pay attention to those leaks.

In addition, we, as the mayor said, we need to ask you to take shorter showers. Don't run the water while shaving. Don't use your toilet as a wastebasket. Each unnecessary flush can waste up to five gallons of water. And please, again, don't put off those repairs. If you have a leaky faucet, if you have a running toilet, please get on that now to help your city and help all of us. We'd also like to ask people, where possible and where consistent with the current rules, to sweep your driveways. Don't power wash your driveways, just to get some leaves off of them. And one thing that I'd like to ask is please be on the lookout. If you see an open fire hydrant, call 311 immediately. An open fire hydrant is one of the biggest ways that we waste water in New York City.

I've been really grateful, both the general public and colleagues around city government have increased the number of notices they've given us. There was one day over the last week we had 100 phone calls alerting us to open fire hydrants, and we immediately dispatched a crew to go close those. Again, we are not at a drought emergency yet. And one of the reasons that we are doing all of this at the city level and that we're asking New Yorkers to help is so that we can postpone as long as possible when those much more significant restrictions on the general public come into play. But it will take a city, and this is real, but I want to thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, deputy mayor. And thanks to the state as well for their partnership.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: Thank you. Brush those leaves into a paper bag because that helps us deter fires. But also, we have a citywide organics program that rolled out this fall, and so you've got a great place to leave them on the curbside. Next to speak about how we are combating the new rash of fires that we're seeing throughout our city and mostly in our parks is our FDNY Commissioner Tucker.

Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker: Thank you, deputy mayor, and thank you, Mr. Mayor, for this leadership. We at the FDNY use and need water to fight fires, and so this move is very important to us after a very dry October and November.

The FDNY has extinguished over 300 brush fires, and we obviously use water to do that. We need water to do that. And so this move is giving us pause, and it's keeping New Yorkers safe. So thank you to everyone behind me and to you, Mr. Mayor, for that.

It's part and parcel of a bigger plan that the mayor has led us on, which is to understand where these brush fires are coming from, investigate them, and hope to thwart them on a going forward basis. We have started a task force to have highly specialized fire marshals, fire inspectors, and firefighters, not only working with the city agencies behind us, but also with our state and federal colleagues at the U.S. Fire Administration to share best practices.

As I said, more than 300 brush fires ignited this month, and every single one of them have been put out. There's a small one burning right now in Queens, which is under control, but we expect to see small pockets of fire until we get some significant rain, which hopefully we'll start to see at the end of the week. But I just want to thank all of our partners in this effort. Again, the FDNY needs water to fight fires, so Mr. Mayor, thank you for your leadership on this. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: And taking care of the city's backyard in these difficult times is our Parks Commissioner, Sue Donoghue.

Commissioner Sue Donoghue, NYC Parks: Thank you, Deputy Mayor Joshi, and thank you, Mayor Adams. As we're seeing all over the city, these dry conditions are leading to an increase in brush fires throughout our natural areas. We at the Parks Department are drawing on our expertise and more than 40 years of experience caring for our urban forests.

We're working hard to keep our natural areas safe and to ensure a healthy recovery for these critical ecosystems. We regularly maintain our natural areas by removing overabundant species like mugwort that can cause brush fires to spread faster and burn longer. And we're working with our partners at FDNY to inspect and remove known tree hazards along paths and trails, as well as along heavily trafficked perimeters.

As the mayor mentioned, we have banned grilling in our parks, and there's never smoking or open flames allowed in parklands. We will also continue to monitor tree risk and to quantify the impact of these brush fires. And we're prepared to help our forested areas recover by filling canopy gaps that might arise from mature tree loss and restoring vegetation closer to the ground.

These conditions present a challenge for our natural areas, but we're well equipped to limit the impact of these conditions and to help these vital green spaces recover. And we urge all New Yorkers to help us by taking these drought guidelines seriously for the safety of our communities and to protect our critical natural areas. I want to also thank FDNY, the Office of Emergency Management, all our city agency partners for their incredible collaboration for keeping our green spaces safe.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: And next, we'll hear from the coordinator of all of the agencies on an emergency basis, NYCEM Commissioner Zach Iscol.

Commissioner Zach Iscol, NYC Emergency Management: Thank you, Deputy Mayor Joshi, who is our real quarterback throughout all this, and Mr. Mayor for your leadership. We really do live in an age of extreme weather, and it's really important for all New Yorkers to be prepared.

Just to give you a couple statistics, in the 1970s and 80s, in terms of heat, we would see about 12 days on average with temperatures above 86 degrees. Last couple of years, last few years, we're close to 30 days a year with those types of temperatures. Flash floods in the mid-1980s, we had about 30 flash floods a month across the United States. We're now seeing 80 to 90 flash floods a month across the United States. In the 1980s, we saw about $8 billion disasters a month. Last year, we had over $23 billion disasters a month, FEMA disasters a month. And now we're dealing with this drought caused by dry weather, which has increased the risk of brush fires and created additional issues like poor air quality.

As you heard from my colleagues, the city is doing a lot to deal with the drought through water conservation measures and its impacts, like dealing with brush fires around the city. I am incredibly grateful for our partners at DEP, the FDNY, our other partners at the state, partners like the MTA, who are doing their part to keep New Yorkers safe. It's incredibly important that New Yorkers also do their part.
Number one, you can help the FDNY by reporting smoke fires or dangerous situations by calling 911. You can help us conserve water through some of the tips given to us by our partners at DEP. And then also, it's really important that all New Yorkers are monitoring air quality and taking the necessary steps to protect yourself and your loved ones.

As you are well aware, fires create smoke. This can cause hazy skies that can impact our health. Even if you can't see the fires nearby, you might experience the effects, eye irritation, coughing, difficulty breathing, even chest pain. Some New Yorkers are more susceptible to others to smoke, especially those with existing heart or lung conditions, older adults, folks who are pregnant or have weakened immune systems, children, those experiencing homelessness or lacking access to health care.

When the air quality index is at unhealthy levels, there's a number of ways you can protect yourself. Avoid strenuous exercises, stay indoors as much as possible, close your windows and doors to keep smoke out, and use air purifiers if you have one. When outdoors, especially for extended periods of times, you can wear a well-fitted N95 or KN95 mask. The city has made them available at all precincts and at your local libraries. They're available for the public. And of course, please seek medical attention if you experience symptoms like shortness of breath, dizziness, or chest pain.

For those of you that grew up watching G.I. Joe, you're familiar with the PSA, knowing is half the battle. It is important for all New Yorkers to stay informed and to know what is going on. Air quality in particular can be very difficult to forecast. A lot of these brush fires can have very localized effects. You can stay abreast of air quality through the weather apps or by going to www.airnow.gov. You can also get more information about protecting yourself and loved ones at nyc.gov/fireandsmoke. And please do not forget to sign up for notify NYC, our city's public communication system for emergencies, where we put out alerts for all sorts of emergencies, including about fires, droughts, and air quality. It's available in 14 languages, including American Sign Language. Thank you all so much. And back over to you, Deputy Mayor Joshi.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: I think we're ready for questions, right?

Question: [Inaudible.]

Commissioner Aggarwala: Well, now that we're in it- so there's watch, which we were in now we're in a warning and then there's emergency. It's hard to say just how close we are. You know, there is a little bit of rain on the forecast. It's not enough to end the drought. I think we'll reassess in a week or two.

Some of it will simply depend on how much we as a city can bring our water down because a lot of it depends on how much water is left or the, the, the way we determine when we need to go into an emergency is a combination of how much water is in the reservoirs, what's in the forecast and what's the consumption pattern that we're seeing. And so we project that ahead.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: And that's a great question, particularly since we're in a region where we don't focus on droughts, brush fires. We have a tendency to be creatures of habits and running in the water while we're shaving, having a shower run as we get ready to get in it. We have a lot of habits that we have to break and we're asking people to undo their muscle memories and start to understand this is extremely serious.

And I believe that the visualization that we are showing to see what our water supply looks like. And I think that what Commissioner Aggarwala and his team is doing about really having our young people- they are great at going home and telling their parents, "Hey, don't you know, we're in a drought, why are you doing that?"

And so it's the combination, it's a holistic approach and it's more than, as I have been educated on this issue, it's not just rain, but where you get the rain, we need the rain up in our reservoirs. And so I think your question is the right question. We're going to have to change our habits because conservation is important, right now.

Question: How much of the rain deficit are we in? What would it take in, would you say, in inches to declare, to lift this water requirement?

Mayor Adams: I think Commissioner Aggarwala, he used the analysis of how much rain we need. So why don't you share?

Commissioner Aggarwala: Well, if you look back at what normal patterns are over the last, from the beginning of September, we've had 8.23 inches less rain than an average period from September 1st to today. I think it's a little bit difficult exactly how much of that we need, but we basically- we've got an eight inch deficit. We've got to make up before things go back to normal.

I mean, and just by way of reference, Hurricane Ida, I believe was a seven inch rainfall. I think I'd have to check that. But so that's eight inches. That's a lot of rain.

Mayor Adams: We don't want Hurricane Ida. Let's be clear on that. But we need a lot of rain. Okay.

Questions: What kind of safety plans should be in state for the possible threat of a wildfire? And would you say that this is a kind of situation where a grab-and-go bag would be needed and what should be in that grab-and-go bag?

[Crosstalk.]

Commissioner Tucker: Thank you for that question. We're going to split it into two parts. I want every New Yorker to know that the FDNY is prepared to respond to every call for service that is made. And we have responded and successfully extinguished over 300 brush fires of varying sizes. Obviously, the picture that was a little viral about Prospect Park and scary was a more serious fire and we've got ample resources to handle that. And we are going to continue to do that. But we use water to fight fires. And today, the mayor is taking a leadership role on asking New Yorkers to conserve water so that, for example, we have it available to fight fires.

Commissioner Iscol: Short answer is yes. Every New Yorker should have a go bag. I really appreciate that question. But every household is different. I have a wife, four kids, three rescue dogs, occasionally my mother-in-law is staying with us. That's very different than somebody who might live by themselves, older adults. You might have different medication needs.

We have great resources on our website, nyc.gov/readyny, where we provide toolkits for people to design a go-bag that works for them and their families. But essentially, you should plan on having what you need to sustain yourself for about 72 to 96 hours.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Commissioner Iscol: I have not checked the AQI monitors in the last few hours, but it's very easy to monitor. There are no warnings or advisories in effect, which is- they're produced by our partners at the State Department of Environmental Conservation. But again, it is very, very difficult to forecast air quality.

Generally, they do those forecasts about 24 to 48 hours in advance, both for particulate air quality, but also for other types of ozone air quality issues that we can have in the city. So what we're encouraging New Yorkers to do is to make sure you're monitoring it through airnow.gov, through the apps, because from the wildfires in New Jersey, upstate, even brush fires, based on the winds that can come in and out of the city very quickly, just as when we have household fires of you have a building fire, one of the things we always alert New Yorkers to is that there could be air quality issues from a regular building fire as well. So it gives you real-time monitoring from the monitors that are around the city.

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