Dewatering task force completes mission in New York City

Published Nov. 11, 2012
Coast Guardsmen with the Deployable Operations Group hook up additional pumps at the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel ventilation facility on Governor’s Island. The groups is assisting with the dewatering efforts in New York after hurricane Sandy.

Coast Guardsmen with the Deployable Operations Group hook up additional pumps at the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel ventilation facility on Governor’s Island. The groups is assisting with the dewatering efforts in New York after hurricane Sandy.

NEW YORK -- A contractor hooks up an outflow line from a second pump dewatering the Hugh Carey Tunnel also known as the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. The Corps is has been tasked by FEMA to dewater the impacted infrastructure in the City (U.S. Army photo/Patrick Bloodgood)

NEW YORK -- A contractor hooks up an outflow line from a second pump dewatering the Hugh Carey Tunnel also known as the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. The Corps is has been tasked by FEMA to dewater the impacted infrastructure in the City (U.S. Army photo/Patrick Bloodgood)

Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Bostick, U.S. Army Chief of Engineers and Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, photographs the Corps' dewatering operation Nov 3 in lower Manhattan. (U.S. Army photo by Mary Markos)

Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Bostick, U.S. Army Chief of Engineers and Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, photographs the Corps' dewatering operation Nov 3 in lower Manhattan. (U.S. Army photo by Mary Markos)

BROOKLYN, New York – Through a partnership of private industry professionals and city and federal agencies, flood waters from nine FEMA mission-assigned locations in New York City have been removed less than two weeks after Hurricane Sandy’s record-level storm surge inundated the area. Dewatering operations at four of five other FEMA mission-assigned locations in the New York City metro area have also completed.

At the 14th and final FEMA dewatering mission assignment, the Passaic Valley Wastewater Treatment Plant in Newark, N.J., the task force is still actively pumping out the final areas of the facility, which was estimated to have been flooded with more than 200 million gallons of saltwater. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Philadelphia District is assisting in the completion of this mission.

The dewatering task force, led by USACE and including the Metropolitan Transit Authority, the New York City Department of Transportation, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Con Edison, concluded its mission in the city Nov. 10 with more than 270 million gallons of saltwater removed from tunnels, underpasses, and other areas in the New York City metro area.

In total, the FEMA-assigned joint dewatering mission will have drained over 470 million gallons of water from the metro area, enough to fill all 843 acres of Central Park with roughly two feet of water.

The task force provided technical assistance and dewatering to complete their FEMA mission at the following locations: Brooklyn Battery Tunnel (est. 86 million gallons), World Trade Center / PATH Train (est. 20 million gallons), South Ferry Subway Station (est. 20 million gallons), 14th Street Tunnel-Canarsie (est. 3.5 million gallons), the Battery Park Exchange (est. 57 million gallons), the Montague Tunnel (est. 60 million gallons), and the Amtrak Substation Kearny (est. 40 million gallons).

The New York Metropolitan Transit Authority completed dewatering operations at Queens Midtown Tunnel (est. 2 million gallons) and the 53rd Street Tunnel (est. 2 million gallons); the New York Department of Transportation completed dewatering at the Metropolitan Avenue Bridge; the New York Dept. of Environmental Protection completed dewatering at the Rockaway Wastewater Treatment Plant; and Con Edison completed dewatering at the Manhattan Steam Plant Tunnel.

B-Roll is available here: http://www.dvidshub.net/video/160216/dewatering-mission


Contact
Justin Ward
347-370-4550
justin.m.ward@usace.army.mil

Release no. 12-041