Environmental Issues Affecting Water Quality In New York City

In this day and age, there are so many environmental issues that plague our planet that it can be difficult to zero in on local issues that we can improve on. Here in New York City, one of these lesser discussed environmental issues is local street drainage and its negative affect on the water quality of local waterways. While this problem may not seem as catastrophic as global warming or habitat destruction, it does have a big effect on the local quality of life, and the quality of NYC aquatic environments.

New York City is an old city with an old infrastructure. In many places, the city has combined sewers. This means that the wastewater from your sinks, toilets as well as rainwater and snowmelt from the streets drains into the same system. 60% of NYC sewers are combined sewers. (Types of Sewer Drainage Areas in New York City, 2017) On nice days, all the water is directed to one of the city’s 14 treatment plants where it is cleaned before being returned to the waterways. The problems occur when there are rains or snow. This additional water (as little as one tenth an inch of rain) draining into the combined sewers can overwhelm the system. When this happens, all the extra, untreated water is discharged

Like most cities, NYC has large areas covered by concrete and buildings. These obstacles block the rain’s path into the ground. When it rains instead of being absorbed, water runs off of the concrete and buildings into the streets and into the sewers, potentially causing sewer backups. If you begin to replace the regular concrete with water permeable concrete (which is only a little more expensive than regular concrete), rainwater can be absorbed into the ground instead of running off into the sewers. Less water in the combined sewers during the rain means less sewer backups. This option takes up no additional space, doesn’t need to be powered and doesn’t have to be