December 20, 2024

Projects Advanced to Increase Coastal Resiliency, Reduce Flooding, Protect the Health of New York Harbor, Conserve and Sustain the City’s World-Class Tap Water, and Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Noise Pollution

Photos and Videos of 2024 are Available Here

NYC Chief Climate Officer and Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Rohit T. Aggarwala today released a list of key wins achieved for New Yorkers in 2024. The city made significant strides in bolstering coastal resiliency, mitigating flood risks, preserving the ecological health of New York Harbor, conserving the city's vital tap water supply, and curbing greenhouse gas emissions and noise pollution. These milestones reflect the city’s steadfast commitment to protecting the environment, enhancing public health, and building a more sustainable and resilient future for all residents.

“From day one, our administration has focused on creating a safer, more affordable New York City. In 2024, we continued to deliver on that vision and ‘Get Stuff Done’ for working-class New Yorkers,” said New York City Mayor Eric Adams. “Thanks to our extraordinary public servants, America’s safest big city got even safer this year, with overall crime down and thousands of illegal guns, mopeds, and ghost cars taken off city streets. We passed historic legislation to turn New York into a ‘City of Yes,’ shattered affordable housing records once again, and put billions of dollars back into New Yorkers’ pockets. We broke records for the most jobs and small businesses in city history and moved millions of trash bags off our sidewalks and into containers. But we know that there is even more we can do to continue to uplift working-class families. As we look to the future, our administration remains committed to keeping New Yorkers safe and making our city more affordable for the millions of New Yorkers who call our city home.”

“From responding to an historic dry spell which sent the City into its first drought warning in more than 20 years, to continuing the absolutely critical work of making the five boroughs more resilient to extreme weather and flooding, the Adams administration is committed to keeping New Yorkers safe,” said Commissioner Aggarwala. “Our nearly 6,000 employees work tirelessly to improve the quality of life for all New Yorkers and that includes making critical investments in our upstate drinking water supply and using new technology to crack down on excessive noise.”

Adams administration environmental and public health highlights from 2024 include:

Making Neighborhoods More Resilient to Climate Change

• To protect the Midland Beach neighborhood on Staten Island, construction is underway on a $14.3 million, 3-acre Bluebelt. Once completed, it will accept stormwater from a roughly 111.5 acre drainage area that will help to prevent flooding.
• Cleaned 106 miles of sewers and removed enough debris to fill more than two Olympic-sized swimming pools.
• Completed the transformation of three acres of large concrete roadway medians in the Queens Village neighborhood into green infrastructure that absorbs stormwater and reduces flooding. Additional medians located in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens scheduled for conversion starting in 2025.
• Broke ground on the city’s first Cloudburst initiative at the New York City Housing Authority’s South Jamaica Houses. Focusing on environmental justice communities, Cloudburst hubs include the construction of clustered stormwater management tools, including green and grey infrastructure, to move and store stormwater.
• Began the installation of 7 miles of porous pavement in the Kensington and Borough Park neighborhoods of Brooklyn. Porous pavement allows stormwater to drain through it directly into the ground, which helps to reduce flooding and improve the health of New York Harbor. Additional porous pavement work is being planned for the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens.
• Invested $106 million to protect residents and reduce flooding in Maspeth. The project added more than a mile of new, very large sewers and nearly a mile of new water mains, and it used innovative construction techniques like micro-tunneling to significantly reduce the effects of construction on the local community.
• With partners, completed the first section of East Side Coastal Resiliency ahead of schedule and under budget, a major milestone in the effort to protect more than 110,000 Lower East Side residents, including 28,000 in public housing. A series of floodwalls, berms, flood gates, and raised parkland will fortify the area against future storms and high tides, and protect billions of dollars’ worth of infrastructure and property in the area.
• As part of the Southeast Queens initiative, broke ground on a $52 million drainage upgrade for the Rosedale neighborhood.
• DEP joined the Trust for Public Land to open new Green Infrastructure playgrounds that absorb stormwater and reduce flooding in the neighborhoods of Bensonhurst, Sunset Park, Melrose, Jackson Heights, Two Bridges, Maspeth, Morris Heights, Inwood, and Borough Park. Construction commenced on eight additional green infrastructure playgrounds.
• Partnered with elected officials in Red Hook, Jamaica, Bushwick, Throgs Neck, Rockaways, the Mid-Island section of Staten Island, and the Jewel Streets neighborhood to educate residents about flooding and equip them with tools to protect themselves and their property.
• Broke ground with partners on the $200 million Battery Coastal Resilience project that will protect 100,000 residents, 300,000 jobs, and 12,000 businesses that call lower Manhattan home.
• Introduced the use of slotted manhole covers and new catch basin designs to help facilitate drainage even when a catch basin may be blocked by debris.
• Constructed nearly 1,500 curbside rain gardens and infiltration basins citywide that intercept stormwater, help to preserve capacity in the sewer system, and reduce flooding. There are now more than 11,500 helping to manage stormwater citywide, and 13,000 Green Infrastructure assets overall.
• Installed the 200th flood sensor and is on track to have 500 locations equipped to monitor flooding conditions in real-time by 2027.
• Continued the work of making public property more absorbent by building Green Infrastructure at 26 City parks and two schoolyards.

Reducing the City’s Contributions to Climate Change

• In 2023 DEP commissioned one of the first of its kind waste to renewable energy systems at the Newtown Creek Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility in Greenpoint. In 2024 the system was operational 88 percent of the time and processed more than 62,000 tons of New Yorkers’ recycled food waste that would otherwise have gone to landfill and created harmful greenhouse gases. The purification system converted that food waste, and sewage, into enough renewable natural gas to heat more than 5,000 homes in Brooklyn. This resulted in an overall greenhouse gas reduction equivalent to planting nearly 500,000 trees for a decade, or not burning 3,300,000 gallons of gasoline. This information is now updated regularly on DEP’s website.
• From digging water tunnels to constructing new buildings, roughly 111,000 tons of construction waste was diverted from landfills, helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Protecting the City’s World-Class Drinking Water System, Ensuring Reliable Delivery and Promoting Conservation

• Ensured the safety of the city’s tap water by conducting nearly 3 million drinking water quality tests, including in the laboratory and by the network of robotic monitors on the reservoirs.
• To spread drought awareness and promote conservation, initiated a public information campaign that includes conservation-focused ads placed on Taxi TV, PSAs running on local TV stations and messaging across social media platforms, including Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
• Passed the halfway mark for constructing two deep water tunnel shafts in Maspeth, both now stretching more than 500 feet beneath street level. They will eventually reach a depth of more than 700 feet and connect to City Water Tunnel No. 3.
• Drove down water main breaks over 10 percent citywide by finding small leaks before they become breaks. In 2024 DEP’s leak detection unit proactively inspected more than 1,500 miles of water mains.
• Broke ground on a new $1.9 billion water tunnel and initiated $1.2 billion in upgrades to Hillview Reservoir, both located in Westchester County, in order to protect the city’s water supply system.
• Completing a $400 million upgrade of the infrastructure at Schoharie Reservoir and Gilboa Dam, the city’s northernmost water supply facilities.
• Beginning in Greenpoint, a three-year effort is underway to modernize the roughly 600,000 devices on the exterior of properties citywide that automatically transmit water use data to DEP. This will enhance customer service by ensuring for accurate bills and helping to quickly identify leaks and conserve water.

Improving the Quality of NYC’s Waterways

• Eliminated 29 million gallons of combined sewage from being discharged into Flushing Bay each year with the completion of a $128 million drainage upgrade in Whitestone, Queens. The addition of six miles of new storm sewers under neighborhood streets provides the additional capacity that helps to massively reduce overflows into the Bay.
• Finalized a $139 million drainage upgrade in the College Point neighborhood that included the construction of 8.5 miles of new sewers and resulted in a significant reduction in pollution entering Flushing Bay.
• Completed the first phase of construction on the northern storage tank, and advanced work on the southern tank, that is part of the $1.6 billion project to build two massive underground storage tanks to prevent up to 12 million gallons of sewage from entering the Gowanus Canal during rainstorms. The project will also create 3.6 acres of new public waterfront open space and amenities for the Gowanus community.
• Advanced the Tibbets Brook Daylighting project after years of stalemate by reaching an agreement with railroad freight company CSX Transportation to purchase a piece of property critical to the project. Once complete, the project will create additional capacity in the Bronx sewer system, improve water quality in the Harlem River, and provide residents with new green space.

Protecting the Health of New Yorkers and Improving Quality of Life

• Began a $48 million program to save New Yorkers in low-income neighborhoods more than $10,000 by replacing their privately-owned lead water service lines at no cost. This is competitive federal funding that was awarded under the Adams Administration.
• Managed the exponential growth of the Citizens Complaint Program to combat illegal idling by trucks and buses. Received more than 100,000 submissions by citizens and as of the end of November issued approximately 70,000 summonses. Submitted video evidence of idling is now available online to help speed settlement of cases.
• Expanded the noise camera program that targets illegally modified vehicles that produce excessive noise in violation of the city’s Noise Code and issued approximately 1,000 violations.
• Appointed borough commissioners for the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island. These key staff members serve as chief liaisons between DEP and the community, elected officials and other stakeholders.

DEP manages New York City’s water supply, providing approximately 1 billion gallons of high-quality drinking water each day to nearly 10 million residents, including 8.5 million in New York City. The water is delivered from a watershed that extends more than 125 miles from the city, comprising 19 reservoirs and three controlled lakes. Approximately 7,000 miles of water mains, tunnels and aqueducts bring water to homes and businesses throughout the five boroughs, and 7,500 miles of sewer lines and 96 pump stations take wastewater to 14 in-city treatment plants. DEP also protects the health and safety of New Yorkers by enforcing the Air and Noise Codes and asbestos rules. DEP has a robust capital program, with a planned $29 billion in investments over the next 10 years. For more information, visit nyc.gov/dep, like us on Facebook, or follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter.