FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE00-34
July
24, 2000
Contact:
Geoff Ryan
(718/595-6600)
New
York City To Build Kensico Pollution Prevention Facility At Pepsico
Technical Center
Commissioner Joel A. Miele Sr., P.E., of the New York City Department
of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced today that the Department
and PepsiCo, Inc. have reached an historic agreement to build a pollution
prevention facility on land at PepsiCo's Technical Center in the Town
of Mount Pleasant. The project will protect water quality in the Kensico
Reservoir by capturing pollutants in stormwater runoff at Malcolm
Brook, a tributary of the Reservoir. DEP will construct and maintain
the $1,000,000 facility.
Commissioner Miele said, "In a typical rainstorm, water will
wash off pollutants that collect on surfaces into reservoir tributaries.
Materials washed into streams may include organic matter, such as
leaf litter and soil, petroleum products that have dripped from motor
vehicles, the droppings of domestic and wild animals, and pollutants
that settle from the atmosphere. Since Malcolm Brook flows into the
Kensico Reservoir near a chamber that brings drinking water into the
distribution system, it is critically important that we ensure the
water's purity. This facility will be of major assistance in protecting
water quality at the north end of the Kensico Reservoir, so the City
is very grateful to PepsiCo and its management for allowing DEP to
build the facility on its property."
The facility, known as an "extended detention basin,"
will include a "forebay" that captures the coarsest sediments
and allows cleaner water to flow into a permanent pool of water at
the main basin where finer particles of sediment settle out and harmful
bacteria die. To prevent downstream flooding and erosion, embankments
of the basin are designed to contain the volume of water runoff resulting
from a 100-year storm. Additional features of the basin are created
wetlands planted with native wetland plants, which will enhance wetland
functions, including removal of turbidity and significant amounts
of phosphorus, a nutrient that encourages growth of oxygen-depleting
algae. Design of the facility is particularly sensitive to the topography
of the available land area, with the detention basin and created wetlands
planned to complement the pollution removal capabilities of existing
natural wetlands in the Malcolm Brook watershed.
"PepsiCo is committed to protecting the environment wherever
we do business," said Richard M. Detwiler, Jr., Vice President
of Public Relations for PepsiCo, Inc. "We're proud to help support
this important effort to safeguard the water used by millions of people
in our home state of New York."
The extended detention basin project is part of DEP's Kensico Reservoir
Water Quality Control Program, which is designed to maintain and enhance
water quality by reducing the amounts of pathogens, turbidity and
other pollutants that may flow to the reservoir from sources in its
watershed. The program includes construction of additional stormwater
control measures, dredging of silt near effluent chambers, installation
of an underwater curtain wall in the Malcolm Brook cove, extensive
sewer repairs, and the waterfowl management program that has been
in effect since 1994. Additionally, DEP and the communities and corporations
surrounding the Kensico Reservoir have established the Kensico Watershed
Improvement Committee (KWIC), which has developed a plan to prevent
pollution of the reservoir from the corporations on Routes 120 and
22. Another project involving DEP and the communities around the reservoir
is the Kensico Environmental Enhancement Program (KEEP), which develops
programs to raise awareness of the importance of protecting the Kensico
watershed.
Because of concerns about West Nile Virus, storm water collection
facilities around the Kensico basin will be treated with natural bacteria,
Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti), which kills mosquito larvae,
but is harmless to humans.
The New York City Water Supply System serves nearly eight million
residents of the City and one million people who live in Westchester,
Putnam, Orange and Ulster Counties. The source of this water, world-renowned
for its high quality and excellent taste, is a 1,969-square-mile watershed
in five rural counties of the Catskill Region and three suburban counties
north of the City and east of the Hudson River. Ninety percent of
the water in New York City's supply comes from the Catskill and Delaware
Systems, west of the Hudson River, and flows through the Kensico Reservoir
on its way to distribution systems. The other 10 percent comes from
Croton System reservoirs in Putnam and Westchester Counties. The modern-day
Kensico Reservoir has a capacity of 30.6 billion gallons and went
into service in 1915. DEP is responsible for protecting and operating
this surface water supply system, one of the largest in the world.