Threat Seen to City’s Water Supply
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Warning of a “potential catastrophe” in New York City’s water supply, State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli accused the city today of failing to repair damage to an aqueduct that provides more than half of the city’s drinking water, even though it has known of the problem for 19 years.
Up to 35 million of the 1.2 billion gallons of clean water consumed by New Yorkers each day are lost due to leaks in the Delaware Aqueduct System, according to an audit released today by Mr. DiNapoli. The Department of Environmental Protection has known about the leaks since 1988 and has no plan to address a potential tunnel collapse, according to the report.
“But this is more than just lost water; it’s a potential catastrophe,” Mr. DiNapoli said in a statement yesterday. “If the leaks in the tunnel lead to a complete collapse, New York would lose half its drinking water supply in an instant.”
He added: “Repairing the tunnel will be costly, but not as costly as shutting down half the city’s water supply.”
A consultant hired by the DEP department estimated the likelihood of a tunnel failure had increased and now stands at between .01% and 1%, the audit says, noting that the preferred risk level is .01%. The audit also found that the volume of water leaking from the tunnel is growing. In 1992, between 15 million and 20 million gallons were leaked each day.
The comptroller’s audit further notes that the DEP has spent more than $28 million on engineering consultant services since 1998, but has not consistently followed their recommendations.
A spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection, Michael Saucier, said in a statement today that Mr. DiNapoli “erroneously states that the risk of failure for the Delaware Aqueduct has increased” and mischaracterizes the audit’s findings.
Mr. Saucier said evidence indicates that the tunnel is stable and noted that the Bloomberg Administration has made it a priority to repair the leaks in his roadmap to prepare for a million new city residents by 2030, PlaNYC.
The DEP has started “the process of repairing” the aqueduct, he said, and is designing a long-term repair strategy. The department is scheduled to update its emergency tunnel plan by the end of the year, Mr. Saucier added.
