And Wastewater Infrastructure systems are actually paying for it. Narrator cities and municipalities across the United States are now facing this funding gap, between projected revenue and projected expenses, as they strive to maintain Water Quality and meet demand. New york is the most densely populated city in the u. S. And over 40 million tourists visit the city every year. The 1. 3 billion gallons of water required every day are delivered by a system of extraordinary scale and complex engineering. Man water is essential to the economic viability of new york city. Reliable infrastructure and Reliable Delivery of water is a must. You have to reinvest in the infrastructure every single minute to keep it current. Hurwitz we have the stock exchange, we have the United Nations failure can have a dramatic impact on the nation, and even internationally. So theres a really keen awareness that you always have to be fixing the system. Things corrode, they rust. They get to where you turn them
Are delivered by a system of extraordinary scale and complex engineering. Man water is essential to the economic viability of new york city. Reliable infrastructure and Reliable Delivery of water is a must. You have to reinvest in the infrastructure every single minute to keep it current. Hurwitz we have the stock exchange, we have the United Nations failure can have a dramatic impact on the nation, and even internationally. So theres a really keen awareness that you always have to be fixing the system. Things corrode, they rust. They get to where you turn them on and nothing happens. But it is so totally used in every nook and cranny, that making any accommodation to shut it down, to do something to it, is very difficult. Narrator two Massive Underground tunnels, called simply tunnel 1 and tunnel 2, provide most of the citys water supply. They run hundreds of feet below manhattan, far deeper than the subways. Built at the beginning of the 20th century, they are concretelined and bored
Built at the beginning of the 20th century, they are concretelined and bored through solid rock. They could last centuries. But the mechanical equipment within them will not. Engineers in the 1950s discovered rust on the tunnels valves. There were concerns that if they closed the valves for tunnel inspections, they may never open again, leaving new york city without water. So they chose to keep them open. As a result, there has not been significant inspection, maintenance, or repair of the tunnels in decades. No one knows their current condition. Hurwitz currently, city tunnel 1 and city Tunnel Number 2 would be feeding each half of the city. So youd lose half the city if you didnt have a replacement. Narrator without half of its water supply, the city would shut down. For nearly 40 years, new york has been in the process of constructing a solution. Man this project is water Tunnel Number 3. We started on this project in 1969. Im a sandhog. Ive been a sandhog for 37 years. Narrator san
And when you compare that to how much we pay for electricity and gas, cable tv, and internet, the bottom line is, in the United States, we dont pay a heck of a lot for water. Curtis at an average cost of about 2. 50 for 1,000 gallons of tap water, it is a great bargain. Garvin but the rates that are being charged for water are insufficient to replace existing systems and to expand existing systems. Narrator because original Infrastructure Investments were frequently subsidized by the federal government, Water Pricing was often calculated without accounting for the initial cost to build the systems. We made Major Investments in assets in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. And for the first 40 years of that pipe, there really may not have been many maintenance requirements. Were past that period now. Narrator Water Pricing based only on daytoday operation, and not on planning for maintenance and eventual upgrades has resulted in a considerable repair and replacement backlog. Allbee on a national sca
We started on this project in 1969. Im a sandhog. Ive been a sandhog for 37 years. Narrator sandhogs are the men of local 147, who work deep below the city. They began building the infrastructure of new york in 1872. From the subways to the sewers, the water tunnels to the highway tunnels, new york city thrives because of their work. Ryan you got one little hole in the ground, and nobody knows were here. See the empire state building, right. Thats 1,000 feet. So you figure, you go down 1,000. How high that is thats how far we go down. Narrator stretching more than 60 miles under the city, tunnel 3 is taking generations of workers to complete. Ryan i dont even want to imagine what my father had to go through. When we first started, it was a rough job. Everything was dynamite. Now, they have these machines called moles. Its like a big drill, and it just cuts right through the ground. So theres no more dynamite. And its still a rough job, but its gotten to a point where its a lot safer. I