Newspaper excerpt on East Coast drought conditions, undated

THB NEW YORK TIMES, TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 2002 FS' z 21st-Century Plumbing for New York City’s w Old Water Tunnel ! CD

f i. Owttoued From First Science Page (The torpedo-shaped device, 9 fed er of the city’s Department of EnvU - "0 _________________________ _ pronged city water supply captures •^ MEWYOHK / ... a® and 16 inches across, will be ronmental ProteciiDn, said it was 1. c

I' ’the water from tte upper reaches of engineers and cansuitants in 1991. In the Delaware River and stores it to island 1998, tte teaka^ rate when, tour reservoirs west of tte Hudson. wsar*;^ rogrammed to stay dead center to & tunnel and win use five digital important for New Yorkers to under- stand that the repairs were never | CT o' pmeras to record every fod of the intended as a short-term fix to teip "□ the tunnel was running full bore was At-tte Rradout Reservoir, tte wa- nesanalr tg^;‘?i.Catskgi sing as it heads downstream. After relieve current shortages. Given tte o estimated at 25 millira gallons to 34 ter plunges 1,000 feet and enters die 'aversing the 45 mites, it will be extraordinary challenges posed by itUUton gallons a day, engineers re- 45-mlle stretch of the tunnel that cuts lucked out through another shaft by fixing something deep underground 9L ported. east- beneath scrubby ridges, fast- tethered submersible robot in a tube filled with high-pressurb hJ After 10 years of 'analysis and spreading exurbs and hillside apple preparations — a period environ- orchards before it crosses far below Bar' ...^ It Win also record subtle changes, I sounds, to hopes that it may pick water, it pays to proceedcauttously, he said. >’ O o o mental groups ami some dty elected the Hudson. p the gushing, gurgling or trickling When a deep tunnel Is emptied of c urbulence of .escaping water, said water, Mr. McCarthy not^ the 3 CD ienG.AUen, a sailor engineer at tte change in pressure can create more 3 under way. . another reservoir before tt flows , n ’oods Hole Oceanographic Institu- risks of collapse than are posed by The operation Is Is risky and elabo- south through more tunnels and ba- fA 1 on to Woods Hole, Mass, which Is even a teak as large as that to tte Hite, tovolvinff nova applications of sins to dty taps. \ . T . lildtog the $500,000 device. Delaware tunnel Even so, official^ -rill technologles from deep-sea exptora- The system is a hydrological tri- .; ( - White the submersible inspects the are considering slowly emptying tte i ami on prospecting. There are, umph, allowing most of the dty - mnel from the Inside, the city Is tunnel ami sending in work crews. ' roles for deei«ea dWers, robots 004. 7 evcibulldings up to 12 stories h^ »-&iN^VANlAVj reparing to Inspect the rock around Another option is building a spe- Mots flying with heat-sensing cam- to be supplied by gravity atone. . r from the outside, drilling a series clalized programmed submersible «•* “™« precision that could repair cracks antono- If cnomN ijuipment being employed tn the mously without draining the tunnel, hii ia?«:sssss:s» C WATBtSH^D' irctlc to look tor oU. ' The holes will be drilled to the i^pth of the tunnel, then turn bori- _____________ _ 1^. 1^ / iM® tag Chicago, to .insped aging ague- of the mountains, and the other on Sits. , the northern edge of Newburgh, an ontaUy in the spots where leaks are A riskv. elaborate lOb bought to occur, Mr. McCarthy said. '’ Th^ will parallel the tunnel for for deep-Sea dlVerS •* e iThe effort to investigate the deeply old industrial town on the west bank buried teaks got under wiqt In 15198, of the Hudson. but gathered momaitum in 2000, The most worrisome spot by far, when officials agreed there was at; was the one on the riverbank. Two pproxlmately 1,500 feet,” he said, gathering hydrogeological data on mw the water is moving, the rock Saality and fractures.” - j -i i l and a pUOtieSS SUb. I least some risk of losing the tunnel faults lntersed there precisely Along with the area near the sink- ditlrely. The dty began devekgilng a where the tunnel diggers drove un- ll»N<»r York Tunes 4 ntle, water engineers are particular- he said. 4 contlngency plan “in case of tunnel der the river. In die understated ar- Yd another would be to drill (town t failure,” according to one dty memo got of engineering, reports dted the A major under- J concerned about the tunnel section W 1 ground aqueduct |mat lies directly under the Hudson, from the surface around the leaking “ on the theory that die leakage area’s “unfavorable geology.” ^re file solid tock above thins to spots, again using the predston might be weakmilng overlying rock As the diggers proceeded, they had carrying much of jStoout 300 fed and Is overlaid by 200 equipment, and to inJed grout from ^Gffldently to collapse the 13-foot- to injed cementite grout into the New York City’s Jmd of gravel and crumbled rock to the outside, Mr. McCarthy said. But a (^ameter tunnel - rock ahead of them, trying to glue the drinking water 4 bottom of the culvert-shaped rlv- this approach raises risks of blow-. --This plan would Include requiting fractured spots together before mov- from its source in IWbed — material left behind by the outs similar to those that sometimes hjstate communities that tap 125 ' Ing ahead with the excavation. tile Catskills is J Hast Ice age glacier. cripple oil rigs. mlUton gallons a day from dm dty To prevent leaks, engineers added leaking in several j In a 1999 report for the city, Mr. A final possibility, he and dty offi- system to shift to local sources; im- heavy steel liners, nests of re- the engtneering consult- dais said, is that they will cwclude poking sharp restrictions in the dty; Infordng steel bars and extra layers places, including j [Feigelxnaa, tot who first identified the Delaware that the risks of other repair strap ' and temporarily using other supplies of concrete. in Roseton, N.Y, j leak a decade ago, wrote, “The most ^es are too great and that the besi that are not as clean as the water The Delaware water began to flow about 70 miles severe scenario, of course, would be choice may be to do nothing at aU hfOni the distant Catskilla. in 1945 and all was well. In 1958, die north of the dty. te significant leak under the river.” except perhaps eventually build a ”''But recent engineering studies last time the acjuedud was drahted, AbUot C. RoYUnZThe Neo YokTImea It was statements like this that new tunnel to replace the old one. p' show no signs that such a calamity inspectors drove the length of the Used the concerns of Riverkeeper Mr. Miele, who leaves his posittoh . tooms, said John M. McCarthy, .a tunnel in a modified Jeep and found id other private groups. next month aftor six years, said he dddor engineer at Malcolm Plnde small leaks, but nothing significant the dty and later a consultant who began a repair operation that was as Marc A. Yaggi, a lawyer for River- was confident that the dty would I Inc, the engineering company hired They did, however, notice some noted starting tn 1991 that significant da^erous and balr-raisiag as a jeper whose job Is to monitor the come up with a repair and that the L by the city to conduct the tavesUga- problems tn the long stretch far be- leakage had developed. Spacewalk. Far out of their usual ty water supply for problems, still existing Delaware tunnel would last D ffim and siqiervise rqiairs. neath the Hudson. “The concrete lln- The dty ran tests Introducing element they descended 70 stories scries the pace of the repair effort many more decades, k ••“Thereisnoevktencelnallthe tag in this area which is directly harmless dye into the tunnel and into the 13-loot-wldc diaft in a 12-flit’s been 12 years they’ve been' “As an engineer, tt never casek to f saan,’tassaBSsaasssssaassfissaa h codlngj morp^te CT millira, not Bythe 1390’.s,conc«ira&flfeegnjw- , .8«hmof rock to the pool out of a fitting. SThe downside is Just too great to let could create new problems and said U f hKhullng flxlng the leaks. tag rapidly, but quietly. The Stynev- Even as the extent of the leaks More analysis tod to a plan to use a (this go on much longer without tak- he had forewarned state environ^ f' i,.,;.^Tlfe, pbte^ for problems was er publicly discussed the problem became dear, the city Identified a self-propeUed craft to Insped all 45 - tog really aggressive measures.” mental officials and Mayor Michael » ut^tefaU of 2000. when lawyere nev:i»robtom.-A shaft east of the mites of the tunnel where the leaks y But dty officials say they remain R. Bloomberg about one,'concerning J S WoridlWar tl,-.aa armies of “sand tor Riverkeeper, a private envirra- Hudson, which is used In the rare are suspected. Oceanographic engl- Tconfident that the 8- to 14-foot-thlck the sinkhole in Newburgh. ' t hogs,’’^eundergroitad workers who mental group, released dt^ents instance when the tunnel Is drained, neers are building a 400-pound mini- - concrete walls and extra steel re- "When we fix this teak, we’re go- J t specif ta tunnel dlggtag, cut their obtained under the Freedom of IMjn-; had a leak somewhere in the bronze submersible, which they plan this inforcement in the tunnel’s weak Ing to shut down that stream,’’Ito ’ > way (leep into the bedrock lying be- matton Ad. ,Vr'?..J . valve sqiaraOng tt from the tunnel fan to tower 1,000 feet into.teyerti-vWOts wUl hold firm until a repair Miele said. “Those wetlands are go- a tween New York’s forested moun- In the file were reports t^..'yic^r,..,.deep underground. cal shaft leading to the t^^^hp^WSo can be drawn up. Ing to dry up and that’s probably b tains a^lts^ncrete canyons. Felgelman, a longtime engtaw^gJ.In pecem^.rJOOO, deep-sea divers stream end. Joel A; Miele Sr, the commission- against the law.” ■ .e *-