CityWorks - WATER
How does city health affect your health?
Exhibition Musings (update)
We did it! We made it! Another journey around the sun!
2021 came and went. And while we aren't back to 2019 normal, the heavy servings of mulled wine and holiday desserts of yesteryear have left me with a sugar high of optimism this January. Or maybe it was the recently snow-dusted cityscape... or perhaps its just that pesky human ability to acclimate and reset our standards. Regardless, as we race toward re-re-opening, future projects feel closer and more exciting than ever.
We've explored the city themes of transportation, garbage, and air... it's now time to turn our attention to the other elephant in the room — water.
It's all around us. It trickles down from the mountains, it enters through taps and exits through drains, it falls from the sky, it flows around, through, and under our five boroughs...
It takes a lot of work and effort to maintain and regulate this massive, fluid system. And, like most city systems, it's most apparent when it's broken — weird tasting tap water, the wafting scent of raw sewage, and flooded subways and street corners are only a few indicators of breaks in the system.
Dive on in.
Wait, what's this exhibition about again?
The city is a work in progress.
This exhibition digs into city systems, encouraging visitors to explore the many moving parts that keep the city moving.
Personal experience is key to setting the tone. As city residents, young and old, we all feel the effects of city life — some good and some bad. We aim to invite these conversations, and tap into these personal connections as an entryway into larger infrastructure thinking.
Our goal is that visitors leave with a better understanding of how the city works, how their own actions affect city systems, and challenges and opportunities for the future.
WATER:
Gulp. What's in our water and where does it come from?
Water Journey
New Yorkers use over one billion gallons of water everyday. Luckily, our five boroughs are located just south of some of the cleanest, most-delicious water sources.
The NYC water supply comes from 3 watersheds and includes 19 reservoirs. The water is treated with UV, chlorine, fluoride, orthophosphate, and sodium hydroxide. Unlike most other water supply systems in the world, New York's is so clean, it doesn't have to be filtered. How do we know it's clean? DEP scientists check the water quality 2,000 times a day.
How fresh is your freshwater? Water can take between12 weeks and a year to travel from the watershed to your tap.
Cracks in the System
A single dripping faucet can waste thousands of water a year. Imagine the water wasted when a major watershed aqueduct springs a leak...
The NYC Department of Environmental Protection has been tracking two leaks in the Delaware Aqueduct since the late 1980s. The cracks are still there, leaking up to 36 million gallons of water everyday*. But fear not! There's a plan.
*If you're trying to do the math, that adds up to about 10 - 13 billion gallons per year... Which (assuming the leak has been consistent for the last ~30 years) comes out to 300 - 400 billion gallons.
2022! New year, new tubes!
The DEP is in the midst of its largest repair project ever. Engineers are building a 2.5 mile long bypass tunnel next to the cracked portion of the existing pipe. They will attach this new tunnel to the old pipe, and eventually fill in the retired, leaky portion.
They broke ground in 2013, first drilling the east and west shafts. Next they started on the 2.5 mile long stretch beneath the Hudson in 2017. As of August 2019 (ahead of schedule!) they finished boring through. It's currently being reinforced with multiple layers of concrete and a welded steel liner to prevent future leaks. Next, later this year, they'll shut off and drain the tunnel (for the first time since 1958), and connect the new section to the old. The project is due to be completed in 2023.
Check out these amazing progress photos on the NYCDEP's flickr page.
Straight from the tap.
NYC sips a tap water cocktail, blended with water from the Croton, Catskill, and Delaware watersheds. Each watershed varies in flavor, so when the cocktail ratio changes, so does the taste of your water!
The Croton reservoir contains higher levels of (naturally occurring and harmless) methylisoborneol and geosmin compounds, which lead to a musty, organic flavor. Our tastebuds are highly sensitive to this compound. Some people can taste it in concentrations as low as 10 parts per trillion (the equivalent of 10 grains of sand in an Olympic sized swimming pool).
NYC Water Secrets:
Is NYC tap water the secret ingredient for amazing bagels? Find out in this video:
Minetta Brook: the river beneath Manhattan.
(Microscopic) shrimp cocktail, anyone?
Tiny crustaceans, called copepods*, live in the reservoirs that contain NYC's drinking water. And since our tap water is unfiltered, copepods end up in our water glasses. They help keep the reservoirs clean by eating mosquito larvae; but there is some dispute over whether they are kosher or not. If you'd prefer to pass on this particular appetizer, common water filters (like Brita) do the trick.
*You can use NYSCI's trusty Wentzscopes to get a better look at some live copepods when the Small Discoveries exhibition returns!
Water Recreation
Coastal living has its perks! Tap into NYC's shoreline activities.
Try out some seasonal free kayaking.
Or if paddling isn't your thing let someone else be your captain (pro tip: for a free cruise, pack a snack and take a ride on the Staten Island Ferry).
Or, after getting a license, test out your fishing skills (but be sure to check this pamphlet before eating your catch).
Beach watch
Bookmark this page for those dreamy, sunny summer days.
Check back on daily water quality reports, to find out which beach waters have the least fecal coliform contamination.
Wildlife returns!
New York Harbor was greatly damaged from decades of pollution and industrialization, but conservation efforts are nudging the health of this body of water in the right direction. As a result, wildlife is returning and increasing the biodiversity of our aquatic habitats.
But, there's still a lot of work to do. Read more about ongoing conservations efforts like the Billion Oyster Project.
WASTEWATER:
Down the drain and beyond.
It's raining, it's pouring, the old sewer is... overflowing.
Most of New York City was built with a combined sewer. This means that stormwater runoff and sewage use the same pipe system to travel to the wastewater treatment plant. On dry or light-rain days (fig 1), the pipes can typically handle the combined amount of wastewater. However, when it rains heavily or for extended periods of time (fig 2), the system becomes overwhelmed. When this happens, untreated wastewater overflows into our waterways, releasing raw sewage and litter into our coastal aquatic communities. These overflow events are called combined sewer overflows (CSOs), and as weather patterns change, they are happening more and more frequently.
New York City has 700 sewer overflow outfall locations, releasing around 20 billion gallons of untreated water per year. This map shows the outfalls which are responsible for the majority of overflow water in CSO events.
Poonami... If you dare.
One of these CSO events in the Gowanus Canal was captured on film. Warning, this footage is not ideal for lunch-time viewing. But if you just can't look away, we recommend viewing with the sound on for colorful, descriptive commentary.
Skip ahead to 1:45 for pedestrian reactions.
Biosolids: one person's waste is another person's... energy?
The wastewater treatment process produces gases and results in solids left behind after the water is extracted and treated (these are known as biogases and biosolids). The biogases are typically released as emissions, and the biosolids are shipped to landfills for disposal.
NYC DEP is trying to stop all landfill usage by 2030 by repurposing biosolids as fertilizer, and capturing biogases to transfer into heat or electricity. These processes not only reduce the wastewater treatment plants' emissions and environmental impact, but also tap into a very renewable energy market.
FATBERG ALERT
Fatbergs cause costly blockages in sewers across the globe. If you aren't familiar, they are solid masses of concealed cooking fat, mixed with wet wipes and other debris.
In an effort to reduce major fatberg blockages, NYC spends around $20 million per year removing debris from our wastewater treatment systems. 95% of that debris is "flushable" wipes...
Tracking COVID in Sewers
COVID testing, while getting easier, isn't perfect. It takes time, it can cost money, and isn't always accessible or reliable; prompting scientists to look for other ways to gain more data. Some of them have turned to the sewers. The virus is shed in our feces (sometimes even before symptoms develop), so when tracked regularly, scientists can better understand where communities infection is on the rise.
In some cities, new variants were detected in wastewater ten days earlier than lab-confirmed tests.
CITY WORKER SPOTLIGHT:
SEWER DECLOGGERS
Meet Kam Lau. He is one of the many workers who keep the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment plant up and running by cleaning out the continuous stream of clogging debris (made up mostly of wet wipes, but sometimes other weird stuff, too).
Thanks, Kam.
So what can you do to help our aging sewage system?
City systems are massive... they are so big that one flush of your toilet is most likely not going to make or break the sewer. So is it worth changing your habits? Yes. If you change your behavior, overtime, all of those small actions can and do add up. And if more and more city residents also change their behaviors, the impact increases. Check out some simple tips for keeping our sewers (and Kam Lau) happy in the video below, or read more here.
For major, sweeping change, we also need industry behavior and regulations to change — which can take time, often involving some level of government action. Want to reach out to your local government representatives but aren't sure who they are or how to contact them? Click here!
RATS.
Just a friendly reminder to keep your toilet cover closed.
How can our city be more [responsible / sustainable / manageable / adaptable / forward-thinking / (user) friendly / etc.] so we can be less resilient?