June 5, 2020

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) today announced the completion of a mechanical repair at its Port Jervis Water Resource Recovery Facility in Orange County.

The two-day repair was completed this week. It involved the replacement of a 3-foot-wide bearing that allows arms to spin on a trickling filter. Trickling filters are used in the second stage of wastewater treatment after solids are removed. The trickling filters spray the remaining water onto beds of stone that are covered by zoogleal slime, a thin layer of bugs that clean the water by gobbling up nutrients and gasses.

To replace the bearing, DEP laid plywood atop the stone bed on either side of the spinning barrel. The plywood supported a small gantry crane that lifted the barrel, exposed the old bearing, and allowed it to be replaced. The $70,000 repair was completed by DEP employees with expertise in water resource recovery operations, engineering and electrical work.

DEP owns and operates the water resource recovery facility in the City of Port Jervis in accordance with a 1931 U.S. Supreme Court decree. That decree permitted New York City to build Neversink Reservoir and Pepacton Reservoir on the headwaters of the Delaware River. At the time, wastewater from Port Jervis flowed directly into the Delaware and Neversink rivers. Some worried that the news reservoirs upstream of Port Jervis would reduce flow in the rivers significantly enough to prevent the city’s wastewater from being washed away. That is why the U.S. Supreme Court required New York City to build a wastewater plant in Port Jervis as part of the broader plan to build its new reservoirs. The requirement of New York City to treat Port Jervis’ wastewater was reiterated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954 when it approved the construction of Cannonsville on the West Branch Delaware River. Today, the facility processes about 1 million gallons of wastewater each day. While DEP continues to own and operate the facility and its associated pumping stations, the network of pipes that deliver wastewater to the plan is owned by the City of Port Jervis. Last year, DEP began referring to all its wastewater plants as “water resource recovery facilities” to reflect the important role they play in removing nutrients and returning clean water to the environment.

DEP manages New York City’s water supply, providing more than 1 billion gallons of high-quality water each day to more than 9.6 million New Yorkers. This includes more than 70 upstate communities and institutions in Ulster, Orange, Putnam and Westchester counties who consume an average of 110 million total gallons of drinking water daily from New York City’s water supply system. This water comes from the Catskill, Delaware, and Croton watersheds that extend more than 125 miles from the City, and the system comprises 19 reservoirs, three controlled lakes, and numerous tunnels and aqueducts. DEP has nearly 6,000 employees, including almost 1,000 scientists, engineers, surveyors, watershed maintainers and other professionals in the watershed. In addition to its $70 million payroll and $168.9 million in annual taxes paid in upstate counties, DEP has invested more than $1.7 billion in watershed protection programs—including partnership organizations such as the Catskill Watershed Corporation and the Watershed Agricultural Council—that support sustainable farming practices, environmentally sensitive economic development, and local economic opportunity. In addition, DEP has a robust capital program with $20.1 billion in investments planned over the next decade that will create up to 3,000 construction-related jobs per year. For more information, visit nyc.gov/dep, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.