Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
Q&A
DEP's dependencies on federal agencies and potential impacts of changes
1:47:24
ยท
114 sec
Commissioner Aggarwala discusses DEP's reliance on various federal agencies and the potential impacts of changes at the federal level on DEP operations.
- DEP relies on the National Weather Service for weather forecasts crucial for reservoir management
- The US Geological Survey provides important stream and groundwater monitoring data
- The Army Corps of Engineers is a key partner for coastal resilience and Delaware River management
- Concerns about potential drought scenarios and the need for strong partnerships with federal agencies
- DEP is assessing dependencies on federal agencies that may have been taken for granted previously
Rohit Aggarwala
1:47:24
Well, a bit less so with EPA, you know, probably our our most ongoing engagement with the EPA directly is in the several super fund sites.
1:47:34
The you know, but as I mentioned in my testimony, you know, we rely very heavily on the National Weather Service.
1:47:42
And so we we do, Paul, you know, dispatches our reservoirs, you know, based on weather forecasts.
1:47:51
So we rely on the National Weather Service.
1:47:54
We we rely on The US Geological Survey both in the watershed where they do stream monitoring and and that is an input into our water quality and and water dispatching processes and here in the city with our partnership with them around groundwater monitoring.
1:48:10
That's still ongoing as far as we know, but again it's the kind of thing where where we have dependencies.
1:48:16
And of course the army corps of engineers which is a key partner both for coastal resilience but also less well appreciated but which I testified about last year in the Delaware River where they are a really key partner because 50% of our water comes from the Delaware Watershed.
1:48:35
We've been working with the army corps to explore their ability to do more with their reservoirs in the in the Delaware to mitigate drought because the really bad scenario for us is if there's a big drought it'll affect the whole Northeast all at once.
1:48:54
If Philadelphia starts running out of water because the Delaware River gets lower and lower, we might be required to release more water from our Delaware reservoirs.
1:49:03
And obviously that's a massive portion of our storage capacity and you don't want to be releasing that during during a drought.
1:49:11
And so that is a place where we really need the core to be a strong and ongoing partner.
Lincoln Restler
1:49:17
That's very helpful.
1:49:19
And I'd like to to shift to risks to some of our renewable energy sources to achieve our climate goals in New York City.