“Planning for climate change today is less expensive than rebuilding an entire network after a catastrophe,” Bloomberg said last Tuesday. “We cannot wait until after our infrastructure has been compromised to begin to plan for the effects of climate change now.”
That is a notion with which City Councilman James Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows) is more than familiar; as chairman of the council’s Committee on Environmental Protection, Gennaro has sponsored legislation pushing for upgrades in the city’s infrastructure so it can better handle extreme weather events.
Following major flooding that inundated Queens during heavy rains in July and August 2007, Gennaro sponsored the comprehensive Stormwater Management Plan, which was signed into law in February 2008.
The plan uses a number of simple and innovative methods recommended by experts in environmental design and construction to reduce flooding in the city’s streets and protect New York City waters from combined sewer overflows.
Essential to the plan is the reconstruction of the city’s outdated sewer system, which cannot handle the amount of water that collects in catch basins during heavy rain events, according to Gennaro. Stormwater runoff floods local streets, highways and homes and often causes the sewage system to overflow into the city’s waterways.
Some 27 billion gallons of untreated sewage and storm water are discharged into the city’s waters in a typical year, Gennaro said. The result is hazardous pathogens that pose a danger to the public health and harm the local ecology, he noted.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority also made some infrastructure changes after the two major storms, which temporarily shut down a number of subway stations and damaged electrical equipment. In September, the MTA unveiled new “sidewalk furniture” — elevated subway vent gratings — intended to prevent floodwaters from entering the subway system.
But it seems that won’t do much good if the NPCC’s predictions materialize. The panel’s scientists used global climate models to project that the city’s average annual temperatures will increase by 4 to 7.5 degrees, precipitation by 5 to 10 percent and sea levels by 12 to 23 inches.
That means an increase in heat waves, short periods of intense rain, droughts and coastal flooding — events that used to happen once every 10 years will occur every one to three years.
Rising temperatures could result in more frequent power outages and voltage fluctuations that will damage equipment and interrupt service. Additionally, biological and chemical impacts will decrease water quality.
Precipitation impact includes the increase of street, basement and sewer flooding, more delays on public transportation and a rise in combined sewer overflow events, which means more pollution in coastal waterways.
The rise of sea levels by up to almost two feet could cause the encroachment of saltwater on freshwater sources and ecosystems, the report found. Such infringement would increase damage to infrastructure not manufactured to withstand saltwater.
It would also counter the efforts made by a number of agencies and activists to protect and restore the city’s wetlands. A large movement to protect and restore Jamaica Bay was born at the start of the 21st century, and has so far accomplished a great deal of success.
At least two large projects to restore evaporating marshlands in the 25,000-acre lagoon are underway, sparking hope for Jamaica Bay’s sound future from those at the forefront of the movement, including Don Riepe, president of the Northeast Chapter of the American Littoral Society and founder of the Jamaica Bay Guardian.
“There’s a lot that’s up in the air right now,” Riepe recently said. “But people are pulling together, trying to work together to make things happen in the bay.”
Those people come from numerous environmentally conscious groups and agencies, including the Jamaica Bay EcoWatchers; the New York City Council; the city departments of Environmental Protection and Parks and Recreation; the Gaia Institute; the Regional Planning Association; the Natural Resources Defense Corporation; and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Preserving New York City’s bodies of water is a necessity: wetlands prevent flooding, reduce storm surges, improve downstream water quality, nurture fish and wildlife, and serve multiple aesthetic, educational and recreational uses.
Rising sea levels, driven by climate change, will reduce the city’s supply of drinking water, according to the NPCC report. As waters rise, more pollution will be released from brownfields and other unprotected waste sites and there will higher rates of beach erosion.
Jamaica Bay is already suffering from high levels of pollution. A task force created in 2005 by Gennaro’s Local Law 71 found that close to 40,000 pounds of nitrogen (found in treated wastewater) was being dumped into the bay daily. The DEP, which is responsible for the four treatment plants that empty into the bay, is working to address the problem.
Climate change could accelerate the degradation of the city’s waters and cause a greater need for the use of emergency management procedures, according to the NPCC report.
But skeptics argue that man-made climate fears are just that — fears. At the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change, held in New York City, more than 100 speakers presented the report of a team of international scientists who disputed findings of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
This year, from March 8 through 10, more than 70 scientists from around the world who specialize in climate issues will confront the subject of global warming at the 2009 International Conference on Climate Change, held in New York City and sponsored by The Heartland Institute.
According to the institute’s website, heartland.org, they will be joined by economists, legal experts and other climate specialists who will call attention to new research that contradicts claims that Earth’s moderate warming during the 20thcentury primarily was man-made and has reached crisis proportions.
Meanwhile the findings of the city’s Panel on Climate Change — which is funded through a $350,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation — will be presented to the Climate Change Adaptation Task Force, which will use them to draft adaptation strategies later this year.
For the NPCC’s full report, visit nyc.gov.
Potential implication on NYC infrastructure
Temperature impact
Hotter summers
Frequent, intense heat waves
Warmer winters
Increase in costs of cooling water for power plant operations
Decreased water quality
Degradation of materials
Fluctuation in voltage
Damage to equipment
Service interruptions
Precipitation impact
Reduced snowfall
Frequent, intense rainfall
Frequent, intense droughts
More street, basement and sewer flooding
Public transportation delays
Pollution in coastal waterways
Greater strain on upstate reservoirs
Water damage to transportation ,energy and communications infrastructure
Sea level rise impact
Higher average sea level
Frequent, intense coastal flooding
Shorter flood recurrence period
Saltwater exposure, structural damage due to flooding and
Increased pollution from unprotected waste sites
Inundation of low-lying wetlands
Reduced supply of drinking water
Greater need for use of emergency management procedures
|
|
