Yesterday's Massive Storms A Reminder Of Major Sewer Problems Across NYC Metro Region

Yesterday's deluge of rain as a cold front came through to break a 4-day heat wave was welcomed by many, although the rain may mean a washout at local beaches this weekend.

You see, much of the region - especially New York City - has combined sewer systems. That means that street water runoff mixes with sanitary sewage (toilet waste). On a normal day, this will get processed at sewage treatment plants and the waste wont make it into the area's waterways.

Yesterday's rainfall was anything but a normal day. The rainfall meant that much of the sewage bypassed the treatment plants and went directly into the area's rivers and waters:



That's from the 79th Street Boat Basin on the West Side. Hundreds of millions of gallons of untreated sewage went into the area rivers yesterday.

Now think about where you'll be swimming this weekend. Area beaches are likely to have closures due to high bacteria counts.

It doesn't have to be this way. Sanitary sewers should be separated from the runoff sewers, but that takes time and money. It gets short shrift because out of sight is out of mind - and who thinks about where their poop goes after it goes down the toilet.

We should - because the existing system across large parts of the country need to be improved to improve water quality and protect tourism opportunities for shorefront communities.

Why Infrastructure Matters

Ever wonder where your drinking water comes from and how the water utilities set the rates that they do? Well, the Record put together a comprehensive report about Northern New Jersey water providers, and the resulting picture shines a light on the gross negligence carried out by these providers.

For far too long, the water providers, including United Water and Ridgewood Water and Ho Ho Kus water, ignored leaking water pipes unless they caused major disruptions (water main breaks), and that's cost everyone.

It's cost the providers because they're now drawing more water than allotted. They're treating more water than they can bill for. And it's costing rate payers because they're now on the hook for having to deal with the utilities' failures to deal with leaks for years on end.

No other industry would allow leakage (or shrinkage in a business setting) of 30%, let alone 20% or 15%, and yet that's what Ho Ho Kus water did.

Last year alone, United Water could not account for 26 percent of the water it treated and pumped. That amounts to 10.6 billion gallons, enough to fill the Oradell Reservoir three times over. “United Water has a lot of leaks in their system. It’s one of the leakiest systems I know,” said Robert Kecskes, a retired water supply expert for the state Department of Environmental Protection.

But United Water isn’t the only supplier with losses significantly above the industry standard of 15 percent. In 2011, Ho-Ho-Kus couldn’t account for 33 percent of the water it pumped and treated — one of every three gallons — according to state documents. Oakland lost 28 percent, while Ridgewood Water lost 20 percent. In fact, across the nation, water utilities lose billions of gallons of drinking water each year because of their aging infrastructure.

Some of that water gets used — when water mains are flushed or firefighters open hydrants. In addition, some utilities rely on old and faulty meters, which fail to detect all customer consumption. But experts say the bulk of the unaccounted water is wasted, spewing out of burst water mains or dripping through holes in corroded pipes or leaky joints.

One of the state’s worst loss rates occurred in Camden, where a 2009 state audit found that 45 percent of the drinking water couldn’t be accounted for. That figure was “more comparable to that of cities in developing countries,” the audit said. United Water, which operated the system at the time, blamed the losses on “leaks in the city’s aging pipes.”

Lost water is a serious issue in North Jersey, where drinking water is an increasingly scarce resource. Utilities are caught between the clashing realities of rising demand and chronically low reservoirs. The watershed is under so much stress that some utilities have been forbidden by the state from drilling new wells in their search for more water.

It's going to take billions of dollars statewide, and hundreds of billions to improve the state of water delivery across the nation. That's an infrastructure project worthy of serious investment - since everyone relies upon a safe water supply.

New York City is undertaking a multi-decade Water Tunnel 3 project so that they can build a redundant water supply system and check the other tunnels for leaks for the first time since they were built; neither of the other tunnels have been taken out of service since they were built because millions of New York City residents rely upon the water supplied. The City understands that it's losing millions of gallons a day from leaks, and the new tunnel is a first step at remedying the problem. They're also in the process of dealing with other leaks in the system with additional tunnel construction.

And that's only on the water delivery side. Transmitting and treating sewage is the other end, and that system is also broken around the nation. Far too much ends up in waterways without being treated, including in New York City where a combined sewer system means that rainfall can overwhelm treatment plants and shunt hundreds of millions of gallons of water into the waterways fouling them on a regular basis.

That needs to be fixed - and the problems aren't limited to New York City. It's just that New York City is among those places where the problems have been identified and solutions are being considered and implemented on a decades-long pace that should be accelerated.

Sewer Replacement To Disrupt Traffic Around Fulton Center and Lower Manhattan

Lower Manhattan has some of the oldest infrastructure in Manhattan since it is home to some of the oldest portions of the city. That infrastructure needs to be maintained and upgraded from time to time, so it's not surprising that the DEP needs to undertake a 48-month sewer replacement project on Broadway from Ann Street down to Rector Street. If those blocks sound familiar, it's because the Fulton Street Transit Hub (now called Fulton Center) is nearing completion after years of construction, and John/Dey Street is a nexus of construction (for Pace dorms and Fulton Center work). Just a block away, the World Trade Center construction is slowly rebuilding the site.

In other words, it's yet another multi-year construction project that local residents and businesses will have to contend with.

City officials told residents at a meeting Tuesday night that two lanes of Broadway would stay open at all times, said Ro Sheffe, chairman of Community Board 1's Financial District Committee.

The officials also said the work would begin with the two-block section of Broadway between Ann and John streets, moving south after about 18 months, Sheffe said. The city initially planned to start at Rector Street instead and move north, but the old water pipes are causing leaks at the Fulton Center so that section needs to be fixed first, Sheffe said.

Residents at Tuesday's meeting were unhappy to hear about such a large and potentially disruptive project.

"It desperately needs doing and we all recognize that," Sheffe said. "But we've been beset by construction for 10 years down here, and to hear about four more years is very upsetting."

Other major water main projects Downtown, such as those ongoing on Hudson and Chambers streets, drew complaints from residents and business owners who said the work was noisy and unsightly and caused traffic problems.

The DDC officials promised Tuesday night to have traffic control officers on Broadway during the entire four years of the project, Sheffe said.

Considering that the World Trade Center construction will drag on for at least another half decade, the area wont finally be able to free itself from the gauntlet of construction sites along major thoroughfares for at least that long.

But, when the projects are done, the area will have new infrastructure, new access points for the subway system, PATH, and new class A office space, plus new retail and residential opportunities.