Creating a water filtration system a priority, DEP commish tells BOMA

Real Estate Weekly, July 2, 2003

Clean, fresh drinking water has not been a problem for New York in the five centuries of its existence, and if Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Chris Ward has his way, it will continue to be so for the next century, at minimum.

Creating a distribution and filtration system that will serve the next 50-100 years as well as New York's existing 100 year old tunnels and aqueducts is his top priority, he told 300 real estate professionals at the May 2003 BOMA/NY luncheon.

Often called the champagne of tap water, New York's "always there, always reliable, no surprises" drinking water was one of the three pillars on which the city was built (low income housing density and the world's largest and most sophisticated mass transit system are second and first, respectively), stated Ward.

"But can today's system continue to support growth?" Ward asked. "Mayor Bloomberg has allowed us to ask ourselves...is the current water supply distribute/sewage system up to serving another 50-100 years? The answer? NO! And if we had asked ourselves that same question 50 years ago," he continued, "we would not have the problem we have now."

Supply is the biggest question. New York's largest capital project ever-the building of Water Tunnel #3-is the new multi-phased water supply tunnel bringing water from Westchester through - Manhattan and the boroughs. The first section was competed in 1998, and the focus today is on connecting the Kensico Reservoir to Van Cortlandt Park, which must be built to supply the City with roughly 50% of its drinking water.

Ward estimates this will take 20 years to complete. The second leg of solving the distribution dilemma will be to bring a U-shaped tunnel from 33rd Street and Tenth Avenue to below the United Nations, and making it redundant with the existing 100-year-old tunnel following the same path. The third leg will be the filtering of the Croton water system, a $1.5 billion task.

Perhaps the most unique of all the proposed schemes if the water filtration system Ward said he wants to build under the Mosholu Golf Course in the Bronx, with savings resulting from the underground project going to rebuild parks in the borough. He emphasized that by "greening the city we also provide the city with some of our best air filters-- trees."

In addition, $5 billion will be needed to make sure the system works for the next 100 years. As a result. Ward told the audience of landlords and building managers, water rates will increase, "but we are hoping to keep them within single digits so we do not de-stabilize the city."

What can BOMA/NY do about it? The trade association has already been influential he reminded the audience, in streamlining large account billing (the city sends out 3 million water bills a year) and testifying for the water rate increase cap--which is staying on. "While infrastructure doesn't vote, you, as the keepers of the infrastructure, need to send us your suggestions."

But all is not gloomy, he pointed out. Despite the mothballing of the West Side sewage treatment plant during the city's mid-70's fiscal crisis, the plant has been on-line since 1986 as a highly successful secondary treatment plant. And despite the budget-cutting at City Hall, the DEP actually received more funding over the past year because of the necessity of these public works projects-the likes of which have not been undertaken for a century.