Is New York Losing Steam?
by Sandy Ikeda
Sun, 20 Jan 2008 at 5:51 PM
One of the unique images of New York that I had growing up in the Southwest came from movies and television shows with scenes of steam mysteriously seeping up from the streets. Much later I learned that these wispy trails were actually bleed-off from some 100 miles of steam pipes networked under the city streets.
That steam is today generated by seven Con Edison plants (five in Manhattan and one each in Brooklyn and Queens) that serve around 2,000 buildings located mostly on the East Side, Midtown, and Wall Street. (Source: The Encyclopedia of New York City and The Works: Anatomy of a City.) Evidently this has been an efficient way of heating and cooling on a large scale since the 1880s. I don't know why, but even after living here for more than 20 years this practice still seems a little strange to me.
It may not last much longer.
A recent article in the Daily News reports that after last summer's steam-pipe explosion, which resulted in one dead and two seriously injured, state utility regulators are considering shutting down the system. The two survivors are suing Con Ed for the terrible injuries they suffered in the accident.
Those pipes lie between 4 and 15 feet deep in most places. The problem is, the kind of explosion that occurred last July 18th could happen anywhere at any time along the aging pipe grid, the oldest parts of which are made of iron. (The most recent bad accident before last year killed two workers near Gramercy Park in 1989.)
According to the article, however:
"Steam makes up just 5% of Con Ed's business, but the utility said shutting down its pipes would be unthinkable. 'This is the largest steam system in the world,' said Con Ed spokesman Bob McGee. 'Doing without the steam system in New York's energy mix would be like commuters doing without the subway.'"
Hmmm… Even though the subway vitally affects a great many more New Yorkers, if subway tunnels became a demonstrated threat to spontaneously explode, maim, and kill, would doing without it, or making drastic changes to it, be so "unthinkable"?
Still, should we lose the steam system, as we have the old dockyards along the City's waterfront, we will have lost yet another part of iconic New York. It may be inevitable, but it would also be a little sad.
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