Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
Q&A
Strategies for addressing storm water drainage issues
0:54:21
ยท
169 sec
Commissioner Aggarwala outlines a comprehensive approach to addressing storm water drainage issues in New York City, considering future climate challenges and the need for resilient infrastructure.
- The Unified Storm Water Rule requires better storm water runoff management on private property developments
- Improved maintenance of the existing system, including catch basin cleaning
- Strategic expansion of the system with both underground infrastructure and green solutions
- Implementation of the five-borough blue belt strategy to harness natural water management features
- Combination of private land management, system maintenance, and strategic investments to improve overall storm water resilience
Kristy Marmorato
0:54:21
Now I going off topic just a little bit.
0:54:25
So do you guys have any, like, thoughts and ideas on how you're gonna fix this storm water drainage issue?
0:54:32
Like, other than just replacing and having money to replace these?
Rohit Aggarwala
0:54:38
Well, you know, as as is laid out in the in the storm water analysis, you know, in order for New York City to be resilient for for the more intense storms that that are coming, and you know, currently our our five year design storm is 1.85 inches per hour.
0:54:54
Over the next thirty or forty years, it'll go up to 2.1 inches per hour.
0:55:00
But it is a combination of factors.
0:55:02
First is the uniform or unified storm water rule, right, which we've discussed in in relation to the rezoning and that is that requires people who are developing private property to do a much better job than they've ever had to before of preventing storm water runoff.
0:55:18
That's actually huge because the majority of land in New York City is privately owned and and we need to harness that territory.
0:55:25
So that's one component.
0:55:26
The second is making sure we're doing a good job of maintaining the system as it is.
0:55:31
And I I think we are doing a very good job with, you know, in fact I I wanna mention among the things that got some attention in the aftermath of the September twenty three storm was our catch basin cleaning trucks, which are really specialized pieces of equipment.
0:55:47
We have been working in fact before that storm to get a replacement fleet for our aging catch basin cleaning trucks.
0:55:54
We received the first couple over the last few months and we did bring them out, so they are opposite 250 Broadway, and I invite you to come take a look at these brand new state of the art trucks that are not only gonna be much better to maintain and much more reliable, they also have a lot of safety features to be safer for pedestrians and others on the roads that I'm I'm really really excited about.
0:56:16
But maintaining the system is the next thing because that's how we get the best value out of the system we have.
0:56:22
And then what's forecast here is yes, where we need to expand the system we have to be able to make investments and smart investments.
0:56:31
Some of those will be underground, some of those will be in green infrastructure.
0:56:36
That's why, you know, the mayor two years ago started talking about a five borough blue belt strategy because the blue belts are one of our best approaches to harness the way nature manages storm water which are lakes and streams that expand and contract.
0:56:51
And to engineer that kind of natural feature into our environment.
0:56:56
We have nearly a hundred blue belts in Staten Island.
0:56:58
We have handful in Queens.
0:57:01
We're working on Tibbets Brook in the Bronx, which I'm really excited about.
0:57:06
And I'm I'm really keen on on getting them into into Brooklyn and even Manhattan at some point.
Kristy Marmorato
0:57:11
How many catch basin trucks do you need and how much do they cost?