January 14, 2016

Contact:

deppressoffice@dep.nyc.gov, (845) 334-7868

Department of Environmental Protection Completes Project to Clean and Repair Culverts in Cannonsville Reservoir Watershed

$3.5 million project promotes water quality and reduces the chances of localized flooding

Photos are Availableon DEP’s Flickr Page

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection today announced that it has completed a $3.5 million project to repair four large box culverts in the Cannonsville Reservoir watershed. The project, completed late last year, helps to promote water quality, protect local roadways, and reduces the chances of local flooding by ensuring that four local brooks flow properly through the culverts, unimpeded by debris and sediment from previous storms.

The finished project included work to the following culverts:

• A culvert adjacent to County Route 47 through which the Loomis Brook flows. The culvert is 10 feet tall and 40 feet wide.
• A culvert adjacent to County Route 27 through which the Mormon Hollow Creek flows. The culvert is 10 feet tall and 20 feet wide.
• A culvert on Dry Brook Road through which the Dry Brook flows. The culvert is 10 feet tall and 20 feet wide.
• A culvert on Dryden Brook Road through which the Dryden Brook flows. The culvert is 10 feet tall and 32 feet wide.

Sediment from previous storms was cleaned out of these culverts, which in some cases were more than half full of stone, wood, and other debris. Much of it had washed in from tropical storms Irene and Lee. After the debris was removed, concrete repairs were performed from inside the culverts. Some of the culverts’ wing walls were rehabilitated and new rocks were set in place to stabilize the shores where the stream banks meet the culverts. Old guiderails were removed from all the culverts and replaced with new ones, and the roads that run atop the culverts were resurfaced. 

The culverts were installed in the 1950s and 1960s, at the same time as construction of Cannonsville Reservoir and its facilities. The Cannonsville Reservoir, placed into service in 1964, holds roughly 95.7 billion gallons of water. It collects water from a 455-square-mile watershed, the largest watershed of any single reservoir in New York City’s water supply system.

DEP manages New York City’s water supply, providing more than one billion gallons of high quality water each day to more than 9 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 upstate watershed. In addition to its $70 million payroll and $157 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 nearly $14 billion in investments planned over the next 10 years that will create up to 3,000 construction-related jobs per year. For more information, visit nyc.gov/dep, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.