A veteran environmentalist tackles resiliency against rising rainfall

James Gennaro has been focused on New York City’s environment, water and flood prevention efforts for over three decades. The Queens lawmaker was a New York City Council environmental policy staffer before his 2001 election to the City Council, where he chaired the Environmental Protection Committee for 12 years. Following a stint as a state environment official, he returned to the City Council in 2021 and chairs the Environmental Protection, Resiliency and Waterfronts Committee. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

What are the main issues impacting New York City’s ability to handle extreme rain events?

The storm sewer system is designed to process storm water about 1.75 inches per hour in most of the city. Parts of the city are not an inch-and-three-quarters. Parts of it are like an inch-and-a-half. Other parts, it's one inch. And … in parts of southeast Queens, the stormwater capacity is zero because there are no storm sewers. There are no catch basins, and we're trying to build out that system … That is not good enough. Once upon a time, the specification would cover … a 5 year storm that would deliver 1.75 inches of rain per hour. Rather than that happening once every five years, it's more like five times a year [now]. So we no longer have the capacity to assimilate the rainfall from a so-called five year storm. 

What is Stormwater 2.0?

We're trying to help the Department of Environmental Protection target the areas where they need to increase storm sewer capacity. So this mandates that DEP draw up inland storm water rain maps areas that are really affected more than other areas regarding rainfall and storm water flow. These are the areas that DEP needs to target. First in building out more capacity and maps, [which] are nothing new to DEP. DEP has long created coastal flooding maps areas that are subject to storm surge and other coastal flooding phenomena, so they know where to focus infrastructure there as well … This is the first time that we're making them take the foray into inland areas that are not a result of coastal flooding, but a pluvial that is rain flooding, and having them … triage where they need to focus their development efforts in putting more capacity into the stormwater network. Because [again] ... 1.75 inches is not enough.

What can be done to address storm surge issues like the ones that impacted the city during Superstorm Sandy?

With regard to what we do about storm surge, which wiped us out in 2012 with Sandy, we've got a couple of projects under our belt. All the planning for that is really pursuant to something known as the Harbor and Tributaries Study, [or HAT]… [and] the major parties are the federal government, [the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers}, the states of New Jersey and New York, as well as New York City, are part of that project … One thing that the HAT study did not fully provide for, as they have in other areas around the world … [was] knowing of the current threatening danger from storm surge … You could build a storm surge barrier across New York Harbor, from New York City over to New Jersey and keep that area protected. That is not envisioned by the HAT study … There are various studies … but we are far from protected against a storm surge, which could happen tomorrow … Being humans, we sometimes don't get it on the first round. We had Sandy in 2012 and everybody went running around and tried to do whatever they could. [However], we didn't really do everything that we could realistically do about storm surge. It's going to take another storm surge and another score of billions of dollars in losses, for us to get serious about that. That's just human nature. That's just what it's going to take. 

So, we haven't made a lot of progress on storm surge, and I'd say that is a big problem, something that we should certainly worry about. We've taken certain areas and done certain things, and the HAT study is going to provide for a limited use of storm surge barriers that's going to get us whatever protection it's going to get us. [But] this is something that is bigger than the city. The city doesn't have $20, $30, $40 billion to build all this infrastructure. This is going to be the feds, New York state, New Jersey coming together to make that happen. [And] those entities don't come together and cooperate all that well. 

So that is something that is not talked about enough. But once it happens again and Sandy 2 happens, then everyone will be running around like an idiot trying to make sure that it gets done.

What are ways the city can address storm water back up issues into basements, particularly with City of Yes calling for more basement apartments?

I and another council member did a law about back-flow prevention devices, having the city assist homeowners with stormwater sewer backups, which are dangerous. They're not just unsanitary, they kill people. People have  basement apartments and now we have this stupid City of Yes – please emphasize the word stupid – in which we're going to have basement apartments made legal. It's very important that we keep water out of dwelling areas. This is what gets people electrocuted … when water comes in … One of the more moronic aspects of City of Yes. 

We have this mechanism in place where the city will subsidize, depending upon the situation the implementation of a backflow prevention device that will keep … stormwater backup from coming into buildings. It's okay for the city to make that kind of investment in private dwellings. The city has done this for its own purposes before, back when the city was trying to do a lot of water conservation, back in the 80s. The DEP and the water board were financing people putting in low-flow toilets in their own home. You could get a free toilet from the city. You couldn't get a deluxe one, but you could get a basic toilet.