New York environmental department contains leaks at Delaware Aqueduct

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP) has completed upgrade works to contain leaks at the Delaware Aqueduct located in New York, US.

The work, which is part of NYCDEP’s $2.1bn Water for the Future programme, involved the installation of a mechanical plug at the bottom of a 700ft tunnel shaft located in the Town of Wappinger in Dutchess County.

The plug has the capacity to withstand millions of pounds of force from the water within the 85-mile Delaware Aqueduct and will allow an access shaft to the tunnel to be drained.

Once empty, the shaft will be outfitted with nine new submersible pumps that will be able to drain the Delaware Aqueduct at a rate of 80 million gallons per day.

In November 2010, NYCDEP proposed a design and timeline to address leaks in the Delaware Aqueduct, which serves around half of the city’s daily drinking water needs.

Under the plan, NYCDEP will commence construction on a two-and-a-half mile bypass tunnel around a portion of the aqueduct that is leaking in the Roseton area of the Town of Newburgh and repair leaks in the Town of Wawarsing from inside the existing tunnel.

DEP will break ground on the bypass tunnel in 2013, and complete the connection to the Delaware Aqueduct in 2021.

Image: The aqueduct takes water from the Rondout Reservoir (pictured) through the Chelsea Pump Station, the West Branch Reservoir, and the Kensico Reservoir, ending at the Hillview Reservoir in Yonkers, New York. Credit: Daniel Case