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Council Member Gennaro discusses new stormwater management legislation
0:38:41
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119 sec
Council Member James F. Gennaro addresses the introduction of Intro 1130, which focuses on improving New York City's stormwater management and sewer capacity. He explains the need for this legislation due to increased flooding and the inadequacy of current systems to handle more frequent severe storms.
- The new plan will increase sewer capacity from the current 1.75 inches of rain per hour to handle more severe storms.
- It builds upon previous legislation, including Local Law 5 of 2008 and Local Law 124, which mapped flood-prone areas.
- The plan will be developed over 10 years and implementation will span decades, focusing on priority areas identified by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
James F. Gennaro
0:38:41
Thank you, madam majority leader.
0:38:43
Happy Earth Week everyone.
0:38:45
I wanna talk about, intro one one three o, and that's, about, storm sewers.
0:38:53
This is a follow-up to local law five of 02/2008, which is the city that which I authored, which is the city's first comprehensive stormwater management plan.
0:39:04
That plan, we had sewer we we we had storm sewer problems back then.
0:39:08
And the idea of that that plan was to emphasize buyer retention and green roofs and treatment design and rain gardens and blue belts just to sort of maximize like the natural way to get rid of storm water.
0:39:21
Unfortunately, we're at a time now where that is not going to get it done.
0:39:27
So we're gonna do now that which we didn't do then, which is actually increase the capacity of the sewers.
0:39:33
Currently, the sewers are are built to absorb about one point seven one point seven five inches of rain per hour, which is which was a pretty good standard.
0:39:43
Once upon a time, that accounts for a five year storm.
0:39:47
But now five year storms happen five times a year.
0:39:50
So last year we passed Local Law one twenty four, the inland rainfall risk area maps to make sure that we highlighted that that DEP was gonna highlight where all the hot spots are in terms of flooding.
0:40:05
And then this plan which will play out over ten years just to get the plan together is gonna focus on those hot spots.
0:40:15
Make those priorities.
0:40:16
Figure out what kind of storm water capacity we can actually put under the street.
0:40:20
Figure out how to pay for it, and then it's gonna play out over decades to actually get it in place because we have more than 7,000 miles of storm sewer mains.
0:40:30
So that storm sewer mains.
0:40:33
So buckle up.
0:40:34
It's gonna be a long ride, it's gonna be a good one.
0:40:36
At the end of the day, we're gonna have a more sustainable flood free city.
0:40:39
Thank you very much.