September 14, 2021

Good Morning. I am Vincent Sapienza, the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). On behalf of the agency, I want to express our condolences to the families and friends of the people who lost their lives during the storm. For those who experienced damage and losses to their homes and businesses, we know that recovery is not easy, so we at DEP commit our continuing support.

DEP is responsible for the city’s drinking water supply and the wastewater collection and treatment systems, which include 7,500 miles of sewer pipes that convey sanitary sewage and stormwater. Much of that infrastructure was designed and constructed decades ago, for what is clearly a different climate reality. During the past several years, significant capital improvements have been made using a variety of tools, which I’ll speak about shortly, but obviously far greater investments are required.

I want to point out that it is not the total amount of rainfall during a storm that presents a challenge for this system, but rather rainfall rates or intensity. Occasionally during intense summer storms in New York City, rainfall rates can exceed the capacity of local sewers, resulting in water accumulating on streets and highways. This periodically triggers the National Weather Service to issue Flash Flood Watches and Warnings. The City has a long-standing Flash Flood Emergency Plan, that it routinely activates when storms of such intensity are forecast. Given the forecast we had for Ida, City agencies jointly activated the Plan’s protocols August 30^th.

The record smashing 3.15” of rain that fell within an hour just after sunset was not forecast. That deluge far exceeded the capacity of the City’s sewer system, causing significant quantities of water to quickly accumulate on the ground. But water does not accumulate uniformly, rather it rapidly runs downhill to the lowest geographic point. Major flooding began to occur in those low-lying areas.

At around 9:30pm, the National Weather Service issued the first ever Flash Flood Emergency for New York City. By that time, City agencies were already responding to life-threatening flooding.

Community driveways, which are below-grade alleys behind residential streets that provide access to basement-level garages, were significantly flooded. Many of these garages have over the years been converted into living spaces. While these community driveways are private property, the City is committed to finding drainage solutions to prevent future threats to public safety.

I want to dispel the notion that clogged catch basins were responsible for the flooding. DEP programmatically inspects and cleans 148,000 catch basins to ensure that local streets and highways are drained. We also work in partnership with DSNY and DOT to support removal of litter, which is the primary cause of catch basin clogs. Again, the flooding from Ida was a sewer system capacity issue, not a catch basin issue.

As extreme weather events become more frequent due to climate change, we need to continue making improvements to the City’s drainage infrastructure. DEP’s four-year capital plan includes $2.3B in 278 projects to improve drainage. One major effort is in Southeast Queens, where Mayor de Blasio committed $2B to build storm sewers. High-level storm sewers are another tool that will be leveraged. Unlike traditional deep sewers that are very costly to upgrade, supplementary, non-networked high-level storm sewers can, in some neighborhoods, be added just below the street surface to convey stormwater directly to a nearby waterway.

In partnership with the Mayor’s Office and other city agencies, DEP performed a Cloudburst Planning Study in 2017 that identified preliminary sites for cloudburst design strategies, which integrate stormwater retention into open spaces and streetscapes, informed by Copenhagen’s internationally recognized approach. We have two cloudburst projects in Queens that are in the design phase, one with NYCHA in the South Jamaica Houses and one in the public right of way in St. Albans. We also received funding from FEMA for a feasibility study for a project in East Harlem and we are exploring ways to expand this important program across the City.

Keeping stormwater out of the sewer system is a major objective of our drainage program. And so New York City has implemented the most aggressive green infrastructure program in the country. Over the past several years, we have built more than 11,000 curbside rain gardens and infiltration basins, and implemented many best practices in green infrastructure. We also partner with NYCHA, the Departments of Education and Parks & Recreation, and other agencies to retrofit paved areas with green infrastructure. We have also built more than 70 Bluebelts across Staten Island and have begun to expand the program into Queens and the Bronx. In total there are more than 14,000 acres of bluebelts in the New York City. We’ve also partnered with DOT on a pilot program to install porous pavement along the curb lines of city streets. In addition to our capital projects, we are developing a Unified Stormwater Rule (USWR), which will streamline existing stormwater management requirements for new and redeveloped properties that connect to the City’s sewer system. The unified rule will result in new developments managing more stormwater on their sites.

I want to thank the new leadership at the MTA for recently partnering with us on storm preparation, and I look forward to working jointly to implement additional protective measures. Obviously, none of these upgrades are cheap. Improvements to drainage are currently funded through water bills that New York City residents pay. Keeping water rates affordable while funding major capital work can’t happen without a significant infusion of Federal funding. Finally, I want to acknowledge the work of DEP’s staff. Our teams were out in force before, during, and after the storm. They’ve continued to work diligently to aid communities that have been affected by the flooding, including offering free pumping services to anyone who needs it.

With that I would like to hand it off to my colleague Commissioner Ed Grayson from the Department of Sanitation.