Today, the NYC Water Board met to consider the water and sewer rate for 2023-2024. The DEP is proposing a rate increase of 4.42%. The Water Board will conduct a series of public hearings in May, and announce their final decision at the end of the month. We at Ashokan anticipate that the final rate increase will be 4.4%, resulting in a rate of $11.64 per 100 cubic feet.
Let the games begin..
Great news! At today’s NYC Water Board meeting, it was announced that the DEP will be extending the deadline for the Water Bill Amnesty Program. New Yorkers have until the end of May 2023 to submit an application. The Amnesty Program offers customers up to 100% forgiveness of accrued interest if they pay all or part of their outstanding debt and enter into a payment agreement. Payment can be made online or in-person with the DEP.
To learn more about the Amnesty Program, click here:
We encourage anyone you know who may be behind on their water bill to take advantage of this offer. Once it is over, the DEP will begin aggressively pursuing enforcement actions against delinquent accounts that did not take advantage of the amnesty. The application is easy, but if you need help, please contact Ashokan to consult with our auditor
Dov Vinar at 718-307-1242.
NYC is joining the rest of the country in promoting inflation.
On June 6th, the Water Board met to raise water rates by 4.9%, effective July 1st. This may surprise New Yorkers who have grown accustomed to minimal increases during the de Blasio administration.
The new rate will be $4.30 for water and $6.84 for sewer, for a total of $11.14.
We expect the 2023 increase to be even larger, spurred by high interest rates on the Water Board’s huge deb load.
June 6, 2022 Meeting Materials – https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/nycwaterboard/downloads/pdf/public_notices/wb-meeting-materials-6-6-22.pdf
The DEP held a public water board meeting on Friday April 29th and proposed a 4.9% water rate increase, citing lower consumption and water bills not being paid. Consumers will be shocked, as there has been minimal increases in recent years, and this would be the LARGEST increase that we have seen in some time. We predict that the DEP will reduce the increase from 4.9% to 4.7%.
The meeting also included measures to increase the late payment fee, and an increase in capital construction funding by 21%. There will be public hearings held in the coming months with rate updates and revisions for NYC.
Governor Kathy Hochul announced that $69.8 million in federal funds will be made available to support low-income New Yorkers in paying past-due bills for drinking water and wastewater. The Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP), provides eligible applicants with “up to $2,500 for drinking water arrears and $2,500 for wastewater arrears to help them avoid service interruptions when the moratorium on shutoffs expires next month.”
This initiative will assist approximately 105,000 homes within New York.
According to Governor Hochul, the program was created to help struggling New Yorkers recover from the pandemic. Anyone who is interested can simply apply online.
With the Democratic Mayoral primaries fast approaching, we at Ashokan Water have environmental concerns on the forefront of our minds. While many of the candidates have taken the time to address the environmental issues facing the City; none are as well versed with the issues as Kathryn Garcia. Ms. Garcia has spent her career within government working on the city’s largest environmental issues. Her work for our City speaks for itself. Having held several positions in the NYC Department of Environmental Protection under Mayor Bloomberg, Kathryn Garcia was tasked with overseeing The Bureau of Water Supply, the Bureau of Water and Sewer Operations, and the Bureau of Wastewater Treatment. In later years, Ms. Garcia went on to become the Commissioner of the NYC Department of Sanitation where she again tackled the city’s environmental issues. Garcia helped to pass the city’s waste equity law (in 2018) helping distribute the waste burden on the city’s communities equally and not more heavily on lower income communities as had previously been the case.
The change that Kathryn Garcia has implemented in our city proves that she truly understands and cares about environmental protection and conservation within our city. Other candidates speak about the environment, but Garcia is a true technocrat, and clearly the environmental candidate to rally behind.
Our friend Charles Sturcken of the DEP recently explained why water tastes different in different parts of New York City, and why the taste may change in 2022.
Neighborhoods in New York City receive their drinking water from reservoirs of the Catskill System, Croton System, Delaware System, or a combination of the three systems. The chemistry of each water source is different because of the underlying geology that surrounds our reservoirs in the Catskills and the Hudson Valley. Differences in bedrock and soil affect pH, alkalinity, calcium content and other chemical characteristics of our drinking water. Water consumers will generally not notice these small differences. However, those who use New York City water to operate industrial equipment and mechanical systems might notice that changes in water chemistry require adjustments to their treatment systems, maintenance regiments and other upkeep routines.
From the end of May until October, the DEP expects the reservoir and distribution systems to be in their normal operating condition. That configuration will likely change in October when the DEP shuts the Catskill Aqueduct for the final year of a rehabilitation project that will keep the century-old aqueduct in good working order for the next 100 years. Continued updates of the water distribution maps and other information can be found at https://www1.nyc.gov/site/dep/water/current-water-distribution.page .
The New York City Water Board met to propose changes to the Water & Sewer Rate Schedule to be effective July 1st, 2021. The meeting took place via teleconference on Monday May 10th at 9 AM, and was attended by Board Members Alfonso Carney, Dr. Demetrius Carolina, Sr., Evelyn Fernandez-Ketcham, Adam Freed, Jonathan Goldin, Jukay Hsu, and Arlene Shaw.
The Board announced that rates would increase by 2.76%, after years with no increase. The rate increase wasn’t unexpected, as the DEP has incurred additional cost due to Covid while consumption dropped reducing revenue. it As expected, for the eighth year in a row the deadline to file paperwork for the Multi-family Conservation Program was extended once again. This time they blamed the extension on Covid.
The most significant financial change announced was that the interest rates for late payments involving certain properties would increase from 5% to 18%. According to the Board, a two-tier interest rate had been in effect based upon the valuation of the property, but the 5% rate was the only one that was enforceable due to computer program limitations. With the upcoming launch of new software, the DEP is now able to apply the 18% interest rate to certain properties, as well as keep the 5% rate for others.
Two public hearings will be held on June 1st and 2nd at 12 PM and 6 PM, respectively, via conference call. Interested parties can call (347) 921-5612 with the access code: 107 181 687, or email comments to nycwaterboard@dep.nyc.gov by 4 PM the day before the hearing.
Not bad news for this crazy year.
On December 31st, the DEP held a virtual meeting to discuss Title 15, Chapter 20 of the Rules of the City of New York (RCNY), allowing attendees to voice their comments and concerns. Despite the meeting being held at a time when many people typically take time off, Hershel Weiss attended, and submitted a summation of his thoughts to the DEP afterwards, which you can read below:
My name is Hershel Weiss. I am a mechanical engineer, NYC Master Licensed Plumber, Past President of American Society of Plumbing Engineers (ASPE), member of Building Owners and Managers (BOMA) Plumbing Committee, principal at Ashokan, a firm specializing in Meter Reading and Backflow Testing. I have represented ASPE at the NYC Plumbing Code Adoption committee since its inceptions.
I cannot intelligently discuss the proposed modifications to RCNY chapter 20 of Title 15 in three minutes but would like to discuss the process. A committee exists to review the NYC Plumbing Code, comprising members of the DOB, FDNY, Con- Ed, National Grid, HPD, Housing Authority, SCA, Parks Department, Port Authority, REBNY, BOMA, Master Plumbers Council, Plumbing Foundation, American Society of Plumbing Engineers (ASPE), American Society of Sanitary Engineers, ASHRAE, all the plumbing unions and the largest plumbing and MEP firms, and the DEP. We meet to discuss and propose all plumbing code changes. The meetings are well-attended, conducted in a cordial manner and result in a well thought out regulations and buildings codes. This process used to apply to both the Plumbing code and RCNY Chapter 20 of Title 15 , but the DEP has circumvented the process – as being done today.
I cannot highlight the importance of a committee meeting to discuss each and every modification proposed today, but would like to touch on one sample issue. Years ago, the DEP had a plumbing and subsurface committee. At that committee, the DEP proposed requiring curb valves for domestic services under 2” as is being proposed today. At that time the following objections were raised:
This is a simple item affecting multiple stakeholders. Other modification being proposed are much more complicated and warrant a conversation with all stakeholders.
I recommend that the proposed changes be shelved until a committee is convened to review each modification. I called many of the members of NYC’s Plumbing Code committee and they were not aware of today’s meeting. It is time for the DEP to stop operating in the dark. Modifications to the law should not take place in meetings restricted to 3 minutes on New Year’s Eve.
We are saddened to hear the news of Warren Liebold’s passing on August 20th. Warren was a colleague, friend, and mentor to all of us at Ashokan. Nothing happened in the field of water conservation without his involvement. We first met when I was working for HPD and Warren was brought on by then DEP Commissioner Al Appleton to promote a new DEP rebate program. I assumed it would go nowhere. A year later it grew into the largest water conservation program in the United States, and as a result, water consumption plummeted in NYC. He realized that greater reductions could be obtained by holding property owners responsible for their consumption, and rolled NYC’s water meter installation program. He then decided to provide consumers with transparency tools to monitor consumption and created New York’s Automatic Meter reading Program. Due to his perseverance, everything he did was a great success.
In 1997, I discussed opening a water services company with him and he recommended that I name it “Ashokan”.
For twenty years, we discuss food and film, but I was awed by Warren’s encyclopedic knowledge of water conservation. Everyone in the industry knew that if you attended a water conservation seminar, Warren would be speaking and announcing a new program. No building code relating to water took place without Warren. We worked together on NYC’s Adoption of the International Plumbing Code, The Mayor’s Green Code Task Force, Water Reuse guidelines, etc. If you live in NYC and take the water for granted, you owe a debt of gratitude to Warren Liebold. He will be missed.
Water Watch NYC 