Transcript: Mayor Adams Provides Update on Steam Pipe Leak

December 27, 2023

Watch the video here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ1FszGYZyQ

Mayor Eric Adams: Good evening. I'm joined here by Commissioner Iscol and our entire first responder team. I guess no one wants to come home and see lights and cameras on their blocks when you arrive home late at night or even early this morning.

We are here in Midtown right now to update all New Yorkers on the steam leak that occurred early this morning. It happened around six a.m. this morning. A steam pipe owned by Con Edison ruptured right here in Midtown East, and our first responders and emergency crews rushed to the scene and worked with the partners at ConEd to turn off the line.

Commissioner Iscol has been briefing me all day, he has been the team leader here for us and has been really coordinating the efforts that are on the ground. And we just really want to thank the Office of Emergency Management, the Department of Environmental Protection — Commissioner Rit Aggarwala is here as well — NYPD, FDNY, Con Edison, DSNY and MTA. They have been working together in a coordinated effort to deal with this situation we had to deal with early this morning.

The cause of the leak is still under investigation, and as soon as we get updated we'll make sure we make a public announcement. We've also asked residents in the area to keep windows closed while we clean the streets, and to minimize pedestrian traffic.

We don't have any reported injuries, thank God, and we're going to continue to monitor the situation and area hospitals. We have been conducting air quality testing with Con Edison to determine whether there is any asbestos in the air. Initial testing did not show elevated levels of asbestos, and out of an abundance of caution, our emergency management team has been providing N95 masks to residents in the area. I want to thank the NYPD for also assisting in this operation.

Again, out of an abundance of caution, we recommend New Yorkers living in the area wear masks and stay indoors while we complete the cleaning. I know many residents in this area are anxious. You know, anyone could be expected to be anxious seeing all this activity that's taking place.

But the first responders and our team and our other agencies responded appropriately and accordingly in a timely matter to get this under control. And New Yorkers can always stay on top of these issues by going to nyc.gov/notify or calling 311 or downloading the mobile app, this way you stay on top of incidents such as this.

I want to turn it over to Commissioner Iscol and really thank him for his immediate response and coordinating this on the ground. Commissioner?

Commissioner Zach Iscol, New York City Emergency Management: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. You know, one of the things, every time I'm out at one of these scenes with the mayor, one of the things he mentions consistently every time is how lucky we are to have the men and women who work for this city. And they have been out here all day starting early in the morning responding to this incident, making sure that we're taking every precaution that we needed to to keep people safe, cordoning off the area, escorting residents, business owners in and out, providing masks, doing all of that work.
ConEd, it's been great working with them today. Have got an amazing team leader out here with Hugh Grant who's really been doing a great job with his team. So, right now, we're shifting into sort of the next phase of operations. First off today we've really been trying to get a handle on the scope of the problem. That involved, as the mayor said, air quality monitoring. Every test that we have run so far, the preliminary results have been that it has been negative for asbestos in the air. The weather is certainly helping. The light rain today, the rain that we're going to have overnight will also help.

But we do have a pretty big area that we need to clean. It extends from Second Avenue, in some areas it's close to Park Avenue… I'm sorry, 53rd, 52nd, and 51st, and then a few doors down on the east side of these streets. So, it's a big area that we need to start cleaning up.

We have started clean up operations starting with Third Avenue, that's being led by ConEd and their contracting teams. We expect these operations to take at least a few days, possibly more, just because it is a big area. But as we go through as we see what the results of the rain are tonight, we'll continue to assess how much more work there is to be done. With that said, are we taking questions?

Question: [Inaudible.] Are residents able who were not here this morning, a lot of people coming back from holidays and [inaudible] are they able to get back into their residences; if not, how soon and what advice do you have for them?

Commissioner Iscol: Everybody right now can get back into their residence. PD is escorting people in who have business in the area and who live in the area. So, they should have no issue getting back to their homes.

Question: Will the FDNY [inaudible] prior to the rupture and if so did they observe the pressure building and did they warn ConEd about [inaudible].

Commissioner Iscol: Yes, I'll have to defer to FDNY. Sorry?

Mayor Adams: Did you hear the question?

Assistant Chief Kevin Woods, Fire Department: Yes, I heard the question. I don't have that information right now at hand, but today we did respond in approximately four minutes. The FDNY performed life safety measures, we sheltered in place and we secured a perimeter. Right now all FDNY operations are complete and we no longer have units on the scene but we're continuing to work with all of our agency partners.

Question: Was there anything [inaudible] to say or might be able to tell us about [inaudible] alleviate the pressure prior to [inaudible].

Commissioner Iscol: Do you want to take that? Did you hear that?

Hugh Grant, Vice President, Steam Operations, Con Edison: I'm sorry, could you please repeat your question?

Question: What was done to try to alleviate the pressure prior to the rupture?

Grant: So, initially, we had a call in regards to a vapor condition on the location. While we responded and were on site, that condition worsened and ended up with a release of steam. It's not a rupture, it's a release of steam on one of the auxiliary pipes on the steam system.

So, the investigation will be done to understand the root cause and we will further investigate from that, but right now that's what we have. We have crews on site, we have resources on site working 24/7 in regards to the clean up activities. Safety is paramount.

We have been partnering with the agencies. Commissioner Zach and team and all the agencies have been great partners. We continue to partner with the agencies with safety being paramount with a 24/7 response with adequate resources so we can do this safely. We want to say special thanks to the members of the public and our customers for their patience and understanding. We'll continue to work through this safely.

Commissioner Iscol: Thank you all so much.

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