Water Scarcity - The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Freshwater in the Twenty-First Century - page 100

pinpoint a leak unless someone complains about it. In 2007, 159 leaks —most in small
pipes feeding buildings or houses—were identified by complaining citizens, and the re-
pairs saved an estimated 4.6 million gallons of water a day. ( he EPA estimates that 1
trillion gallons of water are wasted every year in the United States—due to leaking pipes
and fixtures and aging infrastructure.)
Tunnels No. 1 and No. 2 are essential to the city and cannot be taken out of service
for inspection and repair until Tunnel No. 3 is completed in 2020. If either tunnel No. 1
or No. 2 collapsed, millions of people would lose water. If both suffered major breaches
at the same time, New York City would effectively be shut down. Mayor Bloomberg has
called the tunnels “very vulnerable” and said, “The city could be brought to its knees if
one of the aqueducts collapses.”
Some engineers believe that Tunnels No. 1 and No. 2 are in such poor shape that the
water pressure inside may be the only thing holding them intact; if the pressure lessens,
weak sections could cave in. Other experts fear the possibility of an earthquake, and
geologic fault lines do cross Manhattan. If one, or both, of the city's main water tun-
nels collapsed, the city would return to its natural state: essentially a dry, rocky island.
There would be no tap water and no fire hydrants; dehydrated people would fan out-
ward as people searched for a drink; those who hoarded enough water to stay would be
dirty; disease and fire would spread. The Empire City would become a parched shell of
its former self.
But a more immediate concern is terrorism. In 2003, Richard Fitzsimmons Jr., the
business manager of the sandhogs' union, Local 147, told the NewYorker,“If you at-
tacked the right spots … you could take out all the water going into New York City.”
When I asked another senior sand-hog about this, he said, “Well, it would be very, very
difficult. But, yes, it's possible.”
The construction of City Tunnel No. 3 was authorized in 1954, and by the late 1960s
city engineers—called pencils by the sandhogs—had drawn up plans for much of it.
But ground wasn't broken until January 1970. At the time, the DEP figured the project
would cost $1 billion to complete.
More than half a century after its planning, the tunnel is still under construction.
Tunnel No. 3 is scheduled to be fully operational by 2020, at a total cost of $6 billion,
making it the largest capital construction project in the history of New York City. Stage
1, which runs from the Bronx into Manhattan and cost $1 billion, went into service in
1998. Stage 2, which will complete the tunnel's passage through Manhattan and link
Brooklyn to Queens, will begin operation in 2013, at a projected cost of $2 billion.
Stages 3 and 4, which will connect Tunnel No. 3 to the Kensico Reservoir and add an-
other thirty miles of tunnel in Queens and the Bronx, are in the final planning stages
and are estimated to cost $3 billion. When it is completed, Tunnel No. 3 will extend