DEP’s $17.7 Billion 10-Year Capital Strategy
Earlier today Mayor de Blasio presented the City’s Fiscal Year 2018 Preliminary Budget. Included within the budget is DEP’s $17.7 billion Preliminary 10-Year Capital Strategy (FY18–27), the highlights of which we wanted to share with you.
Wastewater Treatment and Protection of New York Harbor
To improve the quality of the City’s waterways and to comply with the mandates imposed by the Clean Water Act, the Preliminary 10-Year Capital Strategy provides roughly $6.6 billion towards wastewater treatment programs. This includes $3.6 billion for the reconstruction or replacement of components of the wastewater treatment plants and pumping stations. In addition, $1.5 billion is budgeted for traditional sewer upgrades to help mitigate combined sewer overflows (CSO), with $908 million planned for green infrastructure such as rain gardens and constructed wetlands.
Drinking Water Supply and Distribution
We are proposing to invest an additional $4 billion to improve the integrity of our upstate dams and the in-city distribution system. $1.6 billion will go towards rehabilitating the New Croton and Olive Bridge Dams, the Dividing Weir Bridge and the Catskill Aqueduct. An additional $1.6 billion will be dedicated towards maintaining and repairing the water main system that conveys potable water to all five boroughs. In addition, for the continuation of our current Filtration Avoidance Determination programs, our budget includes $143 million, including $94 million for land acquisition.
Sewers
The budget projects $4.3 billion of spending on sewers including $1.4 billion to increase capacity of the existing system and $350 million for Bluebelt systems.
City Water Tunnel №3
The Strategy includes $600 million to complete the Brooklyn/Queens leg of City Tunnel №3. The tunnel and most of the infrastructure shafts that support it are complete — just two shafts remain to be designed and constructed. Construction of the shafts will begin in 2020, one year earlier than previously projected, and we are working to ensuring that the tunnel is activation-ready by the end of 2017.
