NYC Mayor Refocuses On Water Infrastructure

Water infrastructure has never been the sexiest political issue.

"‘Sexy’ isn't particularly high up on the list of words Americans use to describe infrastructural investments. Very rarely in U.S. history have those two concepts even been featured in the same sentence,” U.S. New & World Report reported.

Nevertheless, water may be heating up as a political issue. At least, recent events in New York City suggest as much.

Mayor Bill de Blasio was deeply criticized this month for appearing indifferent to water infrastructure. But after facing public scrutiny, the mayor swiftly appeared to reverse course, announcing he is adding more money for water infrastructure.

“Last week, Mayor de Blasio learned something interesting: New Yorkers care about their infrastructure. The New York Times reported that the mayor was delaying work on the city’s third water tunnel — a project that Gotham has been building for 46 years, spending $5 billion so far. The good news: When the Times reported the delay, the mayor backtracked,” a New York Post editorial said.

Upon “backtracking,” de Blasio announced that “he was going to add $305 million to New York City’s capital budget to speed up work on Water Tunnel No. 3 so that it would be able to serve Brooklyn and Queens,” The New York Times reported.

“The money will pay for construction of two deep shafts in Maspeth, Queens, that will connect with the tunnel, which is virtually finished. When the work is done, the five million people who live in the two boroughs will have a robust supply of water other than Tunnel No. 2, which was built in 1936,” the report said.

That announcement came after the Times reported that de Blasio was taking his foot off the gas pedal: “Mayor Bill de Blasio has postponed work to finish New York’s third water tunnel, a project that for more than half a century has been regarded as essential to the survival of the city if either of the two existing, and now aged, tunnels should fail,” the initial Times report said.

The mayor claims he never backtracked and that his intentions were misunderstood. “There are times when my team does not do a good job of explaining something,” he told the Times.

Like all U.S. cities, New York relies on aging water infrastructure. "The average age of New York City’s 6,400 miles of sewage mains is approximately 84 years, for example. Its 6,800 miles of water mains are approximately 69 years old," The Atlantic reported.

Water loss due to infrastructure challenges is among the city’s top water problems, according to WNYC and City Limits, in a series focused on New York’s water. A major source of water loss is the Delaware Aqueduct, a massive concrete tunnel built in the ‘40s. The series reported in a close-up on the aqueduct:

“In two places the aqueduct runs through limestone, which, according to Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Adam Bosch, ‘is crumbly and not supportive of tunneling.’ In fact, limestone absorbs water, which is why the engineers at the time decided to line these sections with steel. But, they didn't line them all the way through the limestone sections. Cracks and small holes in the concrete have since developed. What this means is that up to 35 million gallons of water are being lost each day.”

For more on water infrastructure, visit Water Online’s Asset Management Solutions Center.