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EPA and New York City Agree on Schedule for Remediating Four Upstate Drinking Water Gatehouses; EPA Seeks Public Input in Agreement that Will Eliminate a Potential Threat to NYC’s Drinking Water

Release Date: 07/07/2000
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(#00128) New York, New York – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will hold a public meeting and is seeking public comment on a proposed agreement to replace equipment that is leaking contaminants in four gatehouses that control the flow of a portion of the city’s drinking water. Shafts 9, 10, 17 and 18 house equipment to control sluice gates, which move up and down to regulate the flow of water entering and exiting the city’s West Branch and Kensico Reservoirs. About 50 percent of New York City’s drinking water flows through these gates. The public meeting will be held July 20, 2000 from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm at EPA’s 290 Broadway office, Room 27A. Equipment in the shafts includes sluice gate operators, which raise and lower the gates that control water flow; manometers, which measure water flow through the gates; and actuators, which control the flow of water through 48" pipes. The operators contain oil that may contain PCBs and use mercury as a seal -- a common practice when the operators were built in the 1940's. The manometers contain mercury and the actuators contain mercury and oil. Lead was also detected within the sluice gate operators outside appropriate containment areas. "Because the contaminants are in equipment that sits directly above the drinking water, it stands to reason that they have probably leaked into the drinking water over the years. EPA and the city have done extensive sampling, and, fortunately, no detectable levels of PCBs, mercury or lead have been found in the drinking water," said Jeanne M. Fox, EPA Regional Administrator. "That said, we still need to get the equipment and buildings cleaned up as soon as possible. The city has not only agreed to a schedule for complete remediation, but also to a number of interim measures that will further protect the drinking water." EPA required New York City to enter into this agreement to ensure that the cleanup is performed as quickly as possible and in a way that will prevent any further leakage of the contaminants into the water. The city began replacing operators in Shaft 18 in September 1998. Due to increased water flow in the summer, this work must be performed primarily in the winter months. Today’s proposed agreement sets a schedule, requires interim measures and allows EPA to oversee the city’s efforts. The proposed Order on Consent between EPA and New York City requires the city to: to have submitted a schedule for replacing actuators by June 30 and to submit a schedule for removing manometers by July 31, 2000; monitor weekly for mercury, lead and PCB’s and notify EPA and the New York State Department of Health immediately if the monitoring shows levels of the contaminants at even half the federal safe drinking water standard. EPA has taken its own samples of water downstream from the gate houses, and has not found any detectable levels of these contaminants. The city has also been performing weekly monitoring for the past year -- with no detectable levels measured; prepare risk assessments for the shafts and evaluate potential pathways to the environment; conduct interim cleaning of the inside of all operators to get rid of all visible mercury, and oily debris by September 2000. In addition, the city must perform follow-up inspections of the operators until they are replaced; submit a design plan for the removal and replacement of operators in Shafts 9, 10 and 17 by July 2002 and begin work by March 2003; remove and replace all operators in Shaft 18 by May 2003; submit quarterly reports to EPA on all activities covered by the order; and pay stipulated penalties if it fails to meet the requirements of the agreement. A copy of the proposed Order on Consent is available on EPA’s website at https://www.epa.gov/region02/water/nycshed/order.htm or a copy can be obtained by calling  212-637-3675. Written comments on the Order on Consent, which must be postmarked on or before August 7, 2000, can be submitted to: Doughlas McKenna Water Compliance Branch U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 2 290 Broadway, 20th Floor New York, New York 10007-1866