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AGENCY TESTIMONY
Tibbets Brook Daylighting Project in The Bronx
0:21:42
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90 sec
Deputy Commissioner Licata describes the Tibbets Brook Daylighting Project, the largest green infrastructure project to date in New York City. The project aims to disconnect Tibbets Brook from the sewer system and allow it to flow more naturally.
- The project will reduce combined sewer overflows to the Harlem River by 220 million gallons a year.
- It will create a new public greenway between Van Cortlandt Park and West 230th Street, enhancing connectivity and access as part of the Empire State Trail.
- The project is a partnership between the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Parks and Recreation.
Angela Licata
0:21:42
We also have our largest green infrastructure project to date nearing design completion, the Tibbets Brook Daylighting Project in The Bronx.
0:21:52
The Tibbets Brook originates in Yonkers and flows through Van Cortlandt Park before discharging into Hester And Pierros Mill Pond.
0:22:01
In the early nineteen hundreds, the brook was diverted into an eight foot diameter tunnel that connects to a combined sewer flowing to Ward's Island wastewater resource recovery facility.
0:22:13
Burying streams and creeks and merging them with sewers underground was a common strategy as our city developed.
0:22:19
But a century later, we are experiencing unforeseen consequences.
0:22:24
Flowing a waterway into a combined sewer reaches that sewer's capacity quickly.
0:22:29
The Tibbets Brook connection has led to significant issues over the years.
0:22:33
Instead of building more infrastructure like storage tanks to try to hold the brook, we are going to daylight the brook, disconnecting it from the sewer system and allowing it to flow more naturally.
0:22:44
Once completed, not only will this project reduce combined sewer overflows to the Harlem River by two twenty million gallons a year, but it will allow for the creation of a new public greenway between Van Cortlandt Park and West 200 And Thirtieth Street, enhancing connectivity and access as part of the Empire State Trail.
0:23:06
And it bears repeating and mentioning that this is a project in partnership with the Department of Parks and Recreation.