For Leaky New York Aqueduct, Bypass Tunnel Is Planned by Mireya Navarro - NYTimes.com

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Working on the Rondout-West Branch Tunnel of the Delaware Aqueduct in 1942. Cracks have caused flooding in Wawarsing, N.Y., in Ulster County. Photo NYC DEP

New York City plans to build a three-mile-long tunnel to divert water from a leaking aqueduct that carries from the Catskills about half of the city’s drinking water, officials announced on Friday.

The tunnel, to be built under the Hudson River and parts of Dutchess and Orange Counties, will address a problem that has daunted the city since leaks were first discovered in the Delaware Aqueduct in 1988: some 15 million to 35 million gallons of water, coming down from the Catskills, have been escaping daily through cracks.

The tunnel will bypass the worst of two leaks, said Caswell F. Holloway, the city’s environmental commissioner. Construction work is expected to begin in 2013 and be completed by 2019 at a cost of about $1.2 billion, officials with the city’s Department of Environmental Protection said. Officials said that cost, spread out over nine years, was built into the department’s capital program.

For years, the city has faced criticism for its long delays in stanching leaks in two sections of a 45-mile stretch of the aqueduct known as the Rondout-West Branch tunnel, in Orange and Ulster Counties. The cracks in that branch, which was completed in 1944, have caused chronic flooding in the Ulster hamlet of Wawarsing.

Environmental groups accused New York City of dragging its feet, and a 2007 report by the state comptroller criticized city officials for failing to “adequately monitor the extent and nature of the leaks” and to establish “an adequate plan to protect the public in the event of a sudden or imminent substantial loss of water.”

New York City officials countered that they faced a challenge in identifying a way to halt the leaks while enabling them to get enough water to the city. Studies of the problem have involved sending robotic vehicles and deep-sea divers into the aqueduct in recent years to inspect and photograph the cracks.

Their plan calls for constructing a bypass tunnel at depths of 600 to 800 feet from Newburgh, in Orange County, under the Hudson to Wappinger, in Dutchess County. The aqueduct will be shut down for eight months to a year beginning in 2018, to allow workers to connect the tunnel in the last phase of the project.

“We’ve settled on a design for a fix, and we’re moving ahead doing that design and taking steps to address the leak,” Mr. Holloway said in an interview.

The leaking portion of the aqueduct would then be sealed and its use discontinued, the officials said.

During the shutdown, engineers will also enter the aqueduct to repair smaller leaks at Wawarsing from inside the tunnel, the officials said.

The 85-mile-long aqueduct, among the world’s largest, is one of two systems bringing water from upstate reservoirs to eight million residents in New York City and another one million people in Orange, Putnam, Ulster and Westchester Counties. The other is the Catskill system.

The shutdown will require lining up other sources for the 500 million gallons of water that the Delaware Aqueduct carries each day from the Rondout Reservoir in the Catskills. About 290 million gallons would come from the New Croton Aqueduct in Westchester County, which is now used only as a backup water source until a filtration plant in the Bronx is completed in 2012.

The city plans to spend another $900 million in water supply projects to make up for the loss of the aqueduct during construction. It has already spent more than $300 million to prepare for long-term repairs of the aqueduct, as well as better monitoring of tunnel conditions and repair methods.

Designed to last at least a century, the aqueduct’s troubled Rondout-West Branch section, which reaches depths of up to 1,200 feet, developed leaks a few decades after its completion. In the Wawarsing area, the tunnel has cracked along a 500-foot stretch. At Roseton, officials said, the cracks run along 5,000 feet.

Mr. Holloway said the leaks had penetrated the tunnel’s concrete lining but were also found in areas where the branch passed through limestone, which is softer and more vulnerable to water corrosion than the harder rock of sandstone and shale found elsewhere in the tunnel’s path.

But the commissioner said monitoring showed that the amount of water leaking had not increased since 2002 and did not pose the risk of an emergency, like a collapse. “We don’t see a substantial risk of this getting worse,” he said.

In a statement on Friday, the Ulster County administrator, Michael P. Hein, called the plan “a real and substantive solution.”

“In light of the hardships being encountered by the residents of Wawarsing, time is clearly of the essence,” he said, adding that the bypass “will not only eliminate the problem for the residents of Wawarsing, it will have profound economic benefit to our area through job creation.”

Paul Gallay, executive director of Riverkeeper, said the plan was a sensible approach. “It’s a big investment in solving a big problem,” he said, adding that the city should also move to compensate homeowners affected by the leaks for damages suffered.

Mr. Holloway said that other solutions, like bypassing the entire Rondout tunnel altogether, had been considered, but that the idea was dismissed as unnecessary.

“We know where the leaks are and why,” he said.

Another possibility was to drain the aqueduct for a longer time to repair it from within, but that raised uncertainty about how long the aqueduct would be out of service.

“You want to know how long the water is going to be off so you know where the supplemental water is going to come from,” Mr. Holloway said, adding, “It’s absolutely critical to get it right.”

No Lions and Tigers, but Plenty of Bears as Population of Coyotes, Deer and Raccoons Boom by Barry Paddock - NY Daily News

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Wild coyote Hal ran amok in Central Park in 2006 before getting caught.

The urban jungle's getting wilder every day.

Booming populations of coyotes, deer, bears and raccoons are causing chaos in close suburbs and encroaching more and more on the five boroughs.

A coyote led cops on a three-day chase through Tribeca in March. Three black bears were spotted just a few miles from the George Washington Bridge in May. And Thursday, two deer tore around the parking lot of a Target in the Bronx.

Experts say numerous factors are leading to the city's growing wild kingdom, from more greenways and bike paths to over-development in the burbs.

"You see them in city limits more than you have in the past," said Dr. Pat Thomas, head animal curator at the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo. "Animals can become desensitized to our presence and more emboldened."

After only three coyote sightings in Manhattan over the last decade, the cunning canines have been popping up all over Manhattan. One roamed Harlem in January, three were spotted at Columbia University in February and another was seen crossing a frozen lake in Central Park.

"We're going to see them continue to infiltrate New York City," said Kevin Clarke, a wildlife biologist with New York's Department of Environmental Conservation.

In Rye, just 12 miles from the Bronx, police are hunting for coyotes that attacked a 3-year-old girl Tuesday and a 6-year-old girl four days earlier.

And on Friday, a cop in Yonkers fired at a coyote but the animal escaped.

"This is new to a lot of the experts," said Rye Mayor Doug French. "There's no explanation at this point."

Parents aren't letting their children outside, said Kelly Hodulik, whose daughter, Emily, 6, suffered minor injuries after being bitten on her shoulder and thigh by a pair of coyotes. "Everybody's being really cautious," Hodulik, 42, said. "It's really scary."

Coyotes also are striking out into the city, following power line corridors, parkways and greenways - perfect paths for critters.

"One thing I've learned in the past 10 years," said Dr. Stanley Gehrt, a coyote expert at Ohio State University, "is to never bet against coyotes."

Biologists believe deer in New Jersey have been swimming across the Hudson River to Staten Island since 2000, replenishing the dwindling native population.

Frank Masseria, 53, videotaped the migration of two deer swimming from Perth Amboy, N.J., to Tottenville in May.

"You always wonder how they got here," Masseria said. "I understand they are good swimmers, but to actually see it, I was pretty shocked."

The city is increasingly going to the birds. New York has the highest density of peregrine falcons in the world, said Glenn Phillips, executive director of New York City Audubon. And while Pale Male and Lola used to be about the only red-tailed hawks, now there are more than 30 in the city, he said.

While bears have yet to be spotted in Manhattan, they have gotten close. West Milford, N.J., postponed fireworks after a bear charged a hiker, injuring his dog.

A bear could make the swim across the Hudson River, biologists say, but would likely be discouraged by the urban landscape on either side of the river.

"You're seeing them in places you didn't see them before," said Larry Ragonese of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. "They're moving toward New York."

Plane Crash Hudson River: Jet crashes into Hudson River -- Newsday.com

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A US Airways plane en route from LaGuardia airport to Charlotte, N.C., with 151 people on board crashed into the Hudson River on the west side of Manhattan Thursday afternoon, sending passengers fleeing for safety in the frigid waters and startling thousands of New Yorkers.

The Federal Aviation Administration said all passengers were rescued safely from the crash.

"The left engine just blew," said passenger Jeff Kolodjay, 31, of Norwalk, Conn., who was in seat 22A. "The pilot said you've got to brace for a hard impact." Kolodjay said passengers hit their heads against the roof when the plane crashed.

Government officials said the plane had hit a flock of birds that disabled two engines, and the federal Department of Homeland Security said there is no apparent link to terrorism.

According to FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown, the US Airways Flight 1549 had taken off from LaGuardia Airport en route to Charlotte, N.C., shortly before 3:30 p.m.

Bill White, president of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on the West Side, said one of the museum's employees saw the plane struggling over the Hudson just north of the museum and thought it was having engine problems.

The plane crashed between 3:44 and 3:48 p.m., federal aviation officials said. The plane went into the water near 48th Street, and was carried south by the outbound tide, White said.

Alberto Panero, a passenger interviewed on CNN, said: "I actually grabbed one of the seats and some people grabbed the inflatable ones. It seemed like immediately there were folks coming to us."

"People were bleeding all over the place," passenger Kolodjay said. "I was scared."

After the crash, Kolodjay said passengers crowded onto the wings, and then people started getting onto life rafts. According to Kolodjay, women and children got onto the rafts first, and then the men did.

Ferry boats and other harbor crafts quickly converged around the partially-submerged aircraft and passengers wearing yellow life vests were sitting in life rafts.

Media reports said people responding on ferries tossed life vests to the plane.

"They threw the jackets to us. At first there was a little bit of panic," Panero said.

Some people quickly took charge, he said.

"Once people realized that we were going to be OK, people calmed down," Panero said.

A federal investigation team was en route to New York Thursday evening.

"We're launching a 'go team' to go out this evening to LaGuardia and to the Hudson River site," said Terry Williams, a spokesman for the National Transporation Safety Board, a federal agency charged with investigating aviation crashes.

NTSB board member Kathryn Higgins will being leading the investigation team, which will include approximately 12 specialists and investigators. She will be holding a news conference at Hangar 6 at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., shortly after 6 p.m. Thursday night.

The jet slowly sank into the river, with just its tail section visible as of 4:40 p.m.

New York City firefighters and other rescue workers are still on the scene; it was not immediately clear if there were injuries. The plane carried 146 passengers and a crew of 5.

"I just thought, 'Why is it so low?' And, splash, it hit the water," said witness Barbara Sambriski, a researcher at The Associated Press.

"I saw what appeared to be a tail fin of a plane sticking out of the water," said Erica Schietinger, whose office windows at Chelsea Piers look out over the Hudson.

"Wow, thank the Lord and thank the pilot," said Alberto Panero, a passenger quoted on CNN. "I can't believe he managed to land the plane safely."

Terry Williams, a spokesman for the National Transporation Safety Board, said they're "launching a 'go team' to go out this evening to LaGuardia and to the Hudson River site."

Thursday's crash bore an eerie resemblance to a September 1989 crash when a USAir flight to Charlotte slid off the end of a LaGuardia runway during takeoff and crashed into the East River.

US Airways officials released an emergency number for family members of people on the plane, 800-679-8215.

amNewYork and The Associated Press contributed to this story

The Hudson Riverkeepers - Watch the Video...

Watch this video...(Running Time : 48 minutes, 32 seconds)

THE HUDSON RIVERKEEPERS tells the stirring and dramatic story of how two generations of Hudson River fishermen and environmental activists fought a decades-long battle to protect one of the nation’s great rivers, the Hudson.

“Beautifully photographed, dramatic ... uses the history of environmental activism on the Hudson to show how individuals can have a real impact on their communities.” NEW YORK DAILY NEWS.

Featuring Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.; as well as excerpts from Walter Cronkite’s classic 1965 documentary, “The Majestic Polluted Hudson,” this important film brings to life one of the great environmental achievements in American history. It is also the story of the one of the landmarks in the U.S. environmental movement—because the fight to clean up the Hudson River went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and its favorable ruling helped paved the way for many of the great environmental laws passed in the 1970s, such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act.

Fish-Killing Indian Point Ruled an Eco-Danger by Jim Fitzgerald, AP- New York Post

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The huge numbers of fish sucked to their death by the cooling system at the Indian Point nuclear plant prove that the system harms the Hudson River environment, a state official has ruled.

The finding by J. Jared Snyder, assistant commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation, is a victory for plant critics who claim that up to 1.2 billion fish and eggs are killed each year as the plant, in the Westchester County village of Buchanan, 35 miles north of New York City, continuously draws in river water for use as a coolant.

"For decades, Indian Point has maintained that its cooling systems have no impact on Hudson River fish," said Robert Goldstein, general counsel to the environmental group Riverkeeper. "At long last, the DEC has put an end to this fiction."

Snyder said that even the lowest estimate of fish deaths - 900,000 annually - "represents excessive fish kills" and establishes an adverse environmental impact.

The ruling, issued this month, means the plant's owner, Entergy Nuclear, may no longer raise the environmental-impact issue as it battles the state's order to build costly towers that recycle cooling water and make big river intakes unnecessary. Entergy had argued that the river's adult-fish populations have been stable.

The towers, designed for what is known as closed-cycle cooling, could cost Entergy more than $1.6 billion.

Company spokesman Jim Steets said yesterday that Entergy will continue to argue against the towers, using other issues Snyder said could be raised at hearings that will start next year. Those issues include whether cooling towers are the best available technology for the money, the visual impact of the towers and the effect of outages that might be caused by construction.

"This ruling actually gives us the opportunity to bring in the argument that this could impact electric-power reliability in New York, that the actual construction challenges may make it unfeasible," Steets said.

In May, Riverkeeper commissioned a report that studied 13 species of Hudson River fish and said 10 had suffered population declines since the mid-1970s. The report suggested a variety of causes, including overfishing, global warming and invasive zebra mussels, but also blamed power plants, including Indian Point. At the time, Entergy disputed the findings and said the river's fish were "healthy and abundant."

Steets said then that by using screens, Indian Point safely returns most adult fish to the river; most eggs, he said, are fated to die anyway.

Entergy is seeking license extensions for the Indian Point reactors that would keep them running into the 2030s. The licenses expire in 2013 and 2015. If new cooling technology were imposed it would probably apply only if the licenses were extended.