Westchester County Government.

DEP ANNOUNCES ONE-DAY CLOSURE OF WALKWAY ATOP NEW CROTON DAM FOR EQUIPMENT REPLACEMENT.

            The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) today announced that it will close the public walkway atop New Croton Dam for several hours on Friday, July 19, while experts replace monitoring instruments on the dam. In the case of inclement weather the temporary closure will be postponed to July 20.

            The brief closure is necessary to establish a safe work zone while experts rappel down the face of the masonry dam to replace monitoring instruments. That work is expected to take several hours. During that time, DEP will shut down both entrances to the walkway atop New Croton Dam. An adjacent entrance to the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail might also be affected by the temporary closure. DEP will post an update to its watershed Facebook page (facebook.com/nycwatershed) when the work is finished and the recreation path is reopened.

DEP manages New York City’s water supply, providing more than 1 billion gallons of high-quality water each day to more than 9.6 million New Yorkers. This includes more than 70 upstate communities and institutions in Ulster, Orange, Putnam and Westchester counties who consume an average of 110 million total gallons of drinking water daily from New York City’s water supply system. This water comes from the Catskill, Delaware, and Croton watersheds that extend more than 125 miles from the City, and the system comprises 19 reservoirs, three controlled lakes, and numerous tunnels and aqueducts. DEP has nearly 6,000 employees, including almost 1,000 scientists, engineers, surveyors, watershed maintainers and other professionals in the watershed. In addition to its $70 million payroll and $168.9 million in annual taxes paid in upstate counties, DEP has invested more than $1.7 billion in watershed protection programs—including partnership organizations such as the Catskill Watershed Corporation and the Watershed Agricultural Council—that support sustainable farming practices, environmentally sensitive economic development, and local economic opportunity. In addition, DEP has a robust capital program with $20.1 billion in investments planned over the next decade that will create up to 3,000 construction-related jobs per year. For more information, visit nyc.gov/dep, like us on Facebook at facebook.com/nycwater, or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/nycwater.