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Q&A
Discussion on feasibility study for Rikers Island wastewater recovery facility
1:00:09
ยท
3 min
Council Member Nurse inquires about the feasibility study for developing a wastewater recovery facility on Rikers Island. Commissioner Aggarwala responds, explaining the potential benefits and challenges of using Rikers Island for wastewater treatment.
- The study showed that a wastewater recovery facility on Rikers Island is feasible and viable
- Aggarwala discusses the constraints of current treatment plants and how Rikers could provide more space
- Various potential uses for Rikers are mentioned, including a centralized plant or stormwater treatment facility
- The commissioner indicates they are waiting to see how the availability of the land pans out before proceeding further
Sandy Nurse
1:00:09
But I said it publicly that way it's not sneaky.
1:00:11
Anyways I had a couple questions about the study you all completed on the feasibility of developing wastewater recovery facility on Rikers Island.
1:00:24
We know that the report showed that it is feasible, it is viable and it's a good plan.
1:00:32
And so wanted to get a sense post that study what steps have been taken within DEP, what conversations have you been having with the commissioner of DCAS, you know, what are some of the next steps happening there?
Rohit Aggarwala
1:00:49
Well, we remain very enthusiastic about the possibility for Rikers Island to play a role in our treatment of wastewater.
1:01:01
You know, one of the biggest challenges facing our Bureau of Wastewater Treatment is simply the fact that the footprint of our plants is so constrained that do and and we cannot shut them off.
1:01:13
We do not have interconnections.
1:01:15
You can't take sewage from one plant and send it over to the other while you fix, you know, one that needs repairs.
1:01:22
And that makes everything we want to do at our treatment plants more expensive, take longer, so on and so forth.
1:01:28
So it's one of our our biggest challenges when we look at how we compare to some of our peer utilities around The United States where their treatment plants just have a lot more elbow room for stuff.
1:01:39
And so Rikers Island offers a huge opportunity as as you say for whether it is a large centralized wastewater treatment plant which is what the legislation required us to study or a different way of thinking about how that piece of land could play a role in the Upper East River where we have four treatment plants.
1:02:01
The Hunts Point, the two in Northern Queens, and and Wards Island.
1:02:05
You know, it could for example, Washington DC, next to their waste water treatment plant, they literally built a gigantic plant that only treats storm water.
1:02:17
Right?
1:02:18
And that has been one of their main strategies towards managing their combined sewer overflows.
1:02:22
Instead of building a big tunnel, they actually have a plant that can do primary treatment only, but that's what you need in a big storm.
1:02:32
And that's a strategy that right now is unavailable to us.
1:02:35
You could imagine that as a role for Rikers Island in the future and not a traditional treatment plant.
1:02:39
There are a bunch of other ways.
1:02:41
I think what we would like to do eventually is explore not the the literal answer which we did to the law that we were responding to which is could a treatment plant be built there, but rather think about that network of facilities and the very ecologically sensitive environment of the Upper East River which just geographically as you know along with Jamaica Bay is one of the most sensitive and constrained areas of the harbor that we affect.
1:03:11
So we'd like to do that broader study.
1:03:14
I think just as you know better than I, there are a number of issues that DEP is irrelevant to in terms of whether and if and how that land becomes available.
1:03:25
So right at the moment we are waiting to see how that pans out
Sandy Nurse
1:03:29
So what resources do you
Rohit Aggarwala
1:03:31
have
Sandy Nurse
1:03:31
dedicated to that next step if it's not a, you know, of determining what is the right type of infrastructure that will support the broader goals of wastewater recovery or storm water cleaning or whatever it's called?