Wednesday, December 19, 2007

CONTACT:

Michael Saucier / Mercedes Padilla (718) 595-6600

DEP Police Opens New Precinct in Valhalla

New Building Offers Tribute to NY National Guard and DEP Employees

The Department of Environmental Protection today held a ribbon cutting ceremony for its new DEP Police 6th Precinct in Valhalla, NY. This new DEP Police building expands the services of the environmental police in Eastview. The new state-of-the art facility will be dedicated to the New York National Guard for helping to protect the watershed in the beginning of the 20th Century and to the employees of the Bureau of the Water Supply of NYC for protecting the system on a daily basis. The building is the newest and largest of DEP’s East of Hudson Patrol Force, Detective Division, Emergency Service Unit, Executive Staff, Communications Center and Alarm Monitoring Center.

"Having a new precinct in Eastview will bring the DEP Police presence and a long tradition of excellence to the East Hudson," said DEP Commissioner Emily Lloyd. "The DEP Police men and women are consummate professionals who do an excellent job protecting our water supply system. This new facility recognizes their legacy of service and commitment to modern standards."

"As our Police Department celebrates its 100th anniversary, the completion and dedication of this modern facility marks the commencement of a new century of service for the DEP Police Division," said Acting Chief of DEP Police Mark Benedetto. "We look to a future filled with great promise as we also look back and remember those who served before us, many at great sacrifice, to safeguard the water supply system."

DEP will have two dedications during the ribbon-cutting ceremony: the first will be the flag terrace which will be dedicated to the members of the First Provisional Regiment of the New York Guard who during World War I protected the New York City Water Supply System stretching from the Catskill Mountains to New York City and in doing so lost 40 members to sickness and injury.

The second part of the dedication will be the building itself, which will be dedicated to the men and women of the Bureau of Water Supply, Aqueduct and Environmental Protection Police who from 1907 have protected the Water Supply System of the City of New York.

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection Police is made up of 180 sworn Police Officers whose primary mission is to protect the City of New York Water Supply System and Watershed lands. They accomplish this task in rural lands within a 2000-square-mile watershed.

The watershed of the City's 19 reservoirs and three controlled lakes covers eight counties on both sides of the Hudson River – Delaware, Greene, Schoharie, Sullivan and Ulster in the Catskill Region, and Dutchess, Putnam and Westchester Counties east of the Hudson. DEP is responsible for operating and protecting the City's water supply system, one of the largest in the world, which serves nearly eight million residents of the City and one million people in Westchester, Putnam, Orange and Ulster Counties, as well as the millions of tourists and commuters who visit the City every year.