A $2 billion repair job on the leaky Delaware Aqueduct located north of New York City that supplies nearly half of the city’s water is expected to take a few more years to complete, as it was paused recently due to drought conditions which lowered levels in all the city’s reservoirs. The leak is losing up to 35 million gallons per day, much of it beneath the Hudson River.
The timing of the work on the aqueduct—which is the longest tunnel in the world and carries water for 85 miles from four reservoirs in the Catskill region to other reservoirs in the northern suburbs where more than eight million people depend on it for water supply—must coincide with the cutoff of water when seasonal demands are lower. The shutdown will allow workers to hook up a bypass tunnel under the river. Work is expected to continue through 2027.
The delay, however, will require the Department of Environmental Protection to enter new contracts for the construction work, and fears persist that below-average precipitation could delay things further. “A new contract must take every contingency into account to ensure we meet our critical responsibility of providing the highest quality water possible to nearly 10 million New Yorkers every day, without exception,” Commissioner Rohit T. Aggarwala said in a prepared release.
