When you have a rain event, the stream would just be barreling, just filled with tons and tons of water, and the water would move very quickly, eroding the stream banks further. Narrator the Rushing Water ran all the combined sewage straight into the monongahela river, which is a main supplier of Drinking Water for the region. Hecht what has happened because of the restoration is the water overflows its banks, it floods into these nice flood plains with native plants. And then slowly the water percolates back down into the stream. Narrator this allows the land to naturally filter and clean the sewer overflows before they enter the river. The restoration included extensive environmental changes to improve the stream and infrastructure changes to reduce the csos into the watershed. Hecht when i first started talking with people about stream restoration, i kind of imagined people out with shovels and smallscale. This is a massive 7. 7 million project. Schombert Nine Mile Run watershed is
And you looked at the additional investment requirements over the next 20 years, theres a 540 billion difference. Man so one of the greatest challenges is to reflect true value pricing. So that the citizens and businesses that rely on water 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,
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 sandhogs are the men of local 147, who work deep below the city. They began building the infrastruct
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 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 proj
Narrator the construction of tunnel 3 is vital for maintaining the sustainability of new yorks Drinking Water infrastructure. But the pipeline is useless if theres not a reliable supply of clean water within it. Hurwitz the city bought up land around the reservoirs to prevent it from development. It provides assistance to local residents to see that theres no pollution of the reservoirs. Its much more Cost Effective to prevent pollution and to protect a source of water than to remove it at the Drinking Water treatment plant. Lloyd what epa said to us was, you can have an exemption from filtration if you keep this undeveloped, and if you can manage the wastewater so that it does not pollute your water supply. And we feel that weve reached the point where we can really keep it clean enough to drink unfiltered for the indefinite future. And new york city is in a small club of cities that actually have that filtration avoidance waiver. Narrator while municipalities are responsible for main