2008 PlanNYC Sustainable Stormwater Management Plan by Alley Creek Watershed Plan Resources Library

Figure 3: Trends in Water Quality - 1985 and 1992

Bronx

Fecal Coliform Bacteria - 1985

nha tt

Fecal Coliform Bacteria - 1992

Queens

Brooklyn

Staten Island

< 100 COUNTS/100 M L

100 - 200

201 - 2,000

> 2,000

Source: NYC Department of Environmental Protection

Ongoing investments in New York City’s sewer system As part of the CSO program, DEP is building detention tanks to store wet weather flow for gradual release to wastewater treatment plants after storms have abated. One, located underneath Flushing Meadows Park, cost $291 million and has the capacity to store 800 millions gallons of combined sewage and stormwater flow annually. It began operating in May 2007. A tank at Paerdegat Basin in Canarsie cost $318 million and will have the capacity to store 1.3 billion gallons of combined flows annually. That tank is scheduled to be in operation by 2011. Finally, in Alley Creek, construction is still ongoing for a $131 million project to construct a 5 million gallon tank and upgrade area sewers. The City also anticipates spending over $1.9 billion on other “end of the pipe” projects over the next ten years to reduce CSOs even further. These projects include facility upgrades, dredging, floatables control, and aeration projects at the Newtown Creek WPCP; pumping upgrades at Gowanus Canal; multiple facility upgrades, dredging, and aeration at Jamaica Bay; floatables control projects at Bronx River; dredging and facilities upgrades at Flushing Bay; and CSO modifications at Westchester Creek. With all of these investments, the City is projected to reach a CSO capture rate of 75 percent.

SUSTAINABLE STORMWATER MANAGEMENT PLAN

These investments are the result of a national policy to control CSOs that is being implemented by states and municipalities under the direction of the EPA and the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC). Given the intractable nature of the problem, the size and complexity of the infrastructure involved, and the long lead times for modeling, design, and construction, this policy will be realized nationally over several decades. Municipalities have to ﬁle Long Term Control Plans (LTCPs) for controlling CSOs to the states for approval; the EPA requires LTCPs to evaluate a range of controls to eliminate up to 100 percent of CSO volume and to meet applicable water quality standards. New York City’s LTCP is due in 2017. In the meantime, the City has worked with NYSDEC to develop plans for sewer and treatment plant investments to achieve existing water quality standards and fulﬁll the requirements of a CSO Consent Order. These are based on the results of detailed modeling and analysis of the water quality impacts of various alternatives that are required to justify the enormous public expense of infrastructure costs. Facility Plans detailing these investments have been submitted to NYSDEC for approval. The Facility Plans contain all of the EPA required elements of a LTCP. These Plans will form the basis for the 2017 Citywide LTCP.

This Plan is a separate effort and is informed by, and ultimately will inform, those regulatory efforts, but it does not replace them. The City is undertaking modeling for source controls in the coming years. The City will work with NYSDEC to evaluate existing information about the effectiveness of source controls and to review the results of those modeling runs. Source controls may prove sufficiently effective to justify reductions in scale or other reconsiderations of storage tunnels and other hard infrastructure set forth in the Facility Plans. Other municipalities have incorporated source controls in lieu of infrastructure as CSO controls. Portland’s Downspout Disconnect program was included in its LTCP, has been adopted by 49,000 households, and reduces annual flow to the combined sewer by over 1.2 billion gallons per year, allowing that city to avoid certain infrastructure investments. As in many large cities, the entirety of New York’s water and sewer infrastructure is funded by revenue it collects through water and sewer rates. To support past and current investments in infrastructure, the Water Board has increased water rates in the City significantly since 1999, yet New York City’s rates are still lower than the national per household average. With each increase, the Water Board has to consider the impacts of rates on the overall cost of living and competitiveness of New York City.