FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 23, 2020
CONTACT: deppressoffice@dep.nyc.gov, (845) 334-7868
No. 34
The New York City Department of Environmental Protection today announced that it will close the public walkway atop New Croton Dam for five days, creating a safe work zone for a planned inspection of the dam. DEP will close the walkway for five days, starting on Sept. 28 and ending on Oct. 2.
The closure will allow a team of rope-access technicians to rappel down the face of the dam and inspect the stones that were used to build the structure 115 years ago. The detailed inspection of the dam will provide information to engineers who are designing a project to clean, upgrade and restore the dam in the future. Police will close the road to the dam to protect the safety of workers and visitors during the inspection. Safety workers will also be stationed in Croton Gorge Park to keep visitors from getting too close to the dam while the rope team is performing its work.
New Croton Dam – also known as Cornell Dam – impounds the waters of New Croton Reservoir. The reservoir stores up to 19 billion gallons of water. It is the final collecting reservoir in the Croton System, which provides about 10 percent of the drinking water used by New York City on an average day. New Croton Dam was the largest dam in the world when it was completed in 1905.
DEP manages New York City’s water supply, providing more than 1 billion gallons of high-quality water each day to more than 9.3 million New Yorkers. This includes more than 70 upstate communities and institutions in Ulster, Orange, Putnam and Westchester counties who consume an average of 110 million total gallons of drinking water daily from New York City’s water supply system. This water comes from the Catskill, Delaware, and Croton watersheds that extend more than 125 miles from the City, and the system comprises 19 reservoirs, three controlled lakes, and numerous tunnels and aqueducts. DEP has nearly 6,000 employees, including almost 1,000 scientists, engineers, surveyors, watershed maintainers and other professionals in the watershed. In addition to its $70 million payroll and $168.9 million in annual taxes paid in upstate counties, DEP has invested more than $1.7 billion in watershed protection programs—including partnership organizations such as the Catskill Watershed Corporation and the Watershed Agricultural Council—that support sustainable farming practices, environmentally sensitive economic development, and local economic opportunity. In addition, DEP has a robust capital program with $20.1 billion in investments planned over the next decade that will create up to 3,000 construction-related jobs per year. For more information, visit nyc.gov/dep, like us on Facebook at facebook.com/nycwater, or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/nycwater.