Transcript: Commissioner Rohit Aggarwala Announces “Gateway to Greenpoint”

October 31, 2025

Rohit Aggarwala, Commissioner, New York City Department of Environmental Protection:

All right, good morning, everybody. My name is Rohit Aggarwala. I'm the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, and although today is a tough day, I'm really pleased for this particular event, which is a really exciting announcement. Today, we are marking the groundbreaking of gateway to Greenpoint, a $1.9 million investment in smart stormwater management and open space. I think all New Yorkers are cognizant today, particularly of the challenge that we face from climate change, as I say over and over again, four of all four of the most intense storms in New York City's entire history have occurred in the last four years. We are getting storms that, until a couple of years ago, would only have been associated with tropical monsoons, but we've now had a whole bunch of them. In fact, yesterday's storm had a peak intensity, there were 10 minutes in which we got an inch of rain, which is a rate of six inches per hour.

Commissioner Aggarwala:

Nobody has drains that can absorb six inches per hour, and combined with the fact that it was a windy storm, and it's the autumn, so there are a lot of leaves, we did experience a lot of flooding, and of course, tragically, we lost two New Yorkers to drowning related and flooding related incidents yesterday, which is a reminder of how important it is that we recognize the reality of climate change, how important it is that we use every possible opportunity to manage the storm water that climate change is sending our way. And that's why, despite the sorrow that we feel for what happened yesterday, we do have to celebrate the great work that we are breaking ground on here. This project will transform this site, which was previously for a very long time, used for construction staging as we upgraded our Newtown Creek wastewater resource recovery facility, and this will become a vibrant green space. We've designed this so that underground storm water chambers will capture roughly a million gallons of storm water each year from a 53,000 square foot drainage area, including the streets around us. These chambers will help reduce street flooding and protect Newtown Creek by filtering pollutants like sediment oil and road salt before they reach the waterway. And the project supports our broader goals, reducing the urban heat island effect, restoring habitat, establishing biodiversity and promoting environmental stewardship.

Commissioner Aggarwala:

The site will feature native planting, shade trees, benches, tables, chairs and educational signage, and it creates a key connection between Green Point Avenue's bus and bike routes and DEP's nature walk a half mile public waterfront Esplanade completed in 202. One thing we've been working on a great deal at DEP, both here In the city and up in our upstate watershed is being as our recent DEP strategic plan stated being an esteemed presence in all the neighborhoods and communities in which we operate. We're cognizant of the fact that 13 of our 14 wastewater treatment plants are in environmental justice neighborhoods, and one of the things that that means is that we have to recognize that state of good repair, making sure that our plants are in good working order is an environmental justice initiative, because when the plants don't function as they should, the neighborhoods suffer around them, and we need to take opportunities like this one to do everything we can where it's consistent with what we should be spending water rate payer funding on to go ahead and do things that benefit not only our water mission, but also the neighborhoods in which we operate.

Commissioner Aggarwala:

And this is a great example of neighborhood collaboration. This truly is not just a DEP project. This is a project that would never have taken place without the collaboration and advocacy and the funding from our partners. And I really want to recognize Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, who secured a $500,000 federal grant for this. Council member, Lincoln Restler, who actually brought this particular project to my attention the very first time we met, and that was in the beginning of 2022 so, as we know, these things take too long, but I said I would do it right so, so we're here, and Lincoln secured another half million dollars, and I do think it's worth mentioning, Lincoln's predecessor, Council Member, Steve Levin, actually started this ball rolling with some initial funding to DEP. Of course, while and while, I'm thrilled with our partnership with our local electeds and the community board and others, I do want to acknowledge the great DEP folks who worked on this, Deputy Commissioner Angela Licata, Assistant Commissioner Rupesh Joshi, the person who actually did the work of designing this, Teddy Geveramarium, and Alicia West, who everybody knows and depends on, who does such wonderful work. And a couple of other partners and collaborators, my good friend, Emily Gallagher, who's worked to advocate for good Storm Water Policy on so many levels. Willis Elkins and the other members of the Newtown Creek Alliance. We don't always agree on everything, but where we do agree, we can work together really well. And Steve Chesler, the chair of the Environmental Protection Committee at Community board one. So with that, in fact, at the congresswoman's request, I'm going to turn it over to Councilmember Restler.

Councilmember Lincoln Restler:

There are many reasons that I'm lucky, but one of them is that I have the best mentor in the world. Really the model of what an elected official should be is our Congresswoman, Nadia Velazquez. She fights so hard for her district, for her community. She has been a champion of environmental justice for decades and whenever and she's just does everything in her power to try and address the challenges that we faced over the years and when we identify opportunities to invest in our communities, she's always there. She and Dan stepped up immediately and said, How can we secure federal funding to make this happen? We're just really lucky to have your leadership and of course, my friend, my pal, Emily Gallagher, is so focused on flood mitigation, and how do we keep the residents of District 50 safe? We're really a team, and we work together, and we're fortunate to have such brilliant people in our community who bring smart ideas to our attention. I don't remember, Willis, when you issued the first report that identified Gateway to Greenpoint, I think it's like 15 years, no 12 years, the vision plan, 2017, okay, eight years. Eight years I was working in the DeBlasio administration. At the time, Willis came to me, then, I think Vinny was the Commissioner, and said, there's this great opportunity for us to do something here in Greenpoint, and as Rit noted, Steve got the ball rolling with making an allocation late in the DeBlasio administration, and as the council member, I've really just encouraged us to make this vision a reality.

Councilmember Restler:

It's not often that we make these kinds of bold green infrastructure investments in industrial areas, but they're so important, because think about how many 1000's of people are working walking distance from here, and we need to mitigate flooding in this community just as much as we do in residential areas. You know, this project will help prevent a million gallons of storm water from going into our system every single year. It's consequential, and its, also, thanks to the investments that we were able to bring to bear, beyond what DEP is doing on green infrastructure, we're going to make this an oasis for people to be able to enjoy. So there'll be green space, there'll be shade, there'll be a space here where you know you can take a break on your bike ride, or take a break if you work in the area, or if you're walking from the nature path, to be able to just enjoy this really special spot in the middle of our community. You know, as the Commissioner noted yesterday, was a tragic day for New York City. We lost two New Yorkers and just you know, six blocks from here, we had neighbors who experienced a foot of flooding in their basement. We had flooding in Greenpoint. We had flooding in north side. We had flooding in South Williamsburg and the Broadway triangle.

Councilmember Restler:

It was a really scary storm, and we have to do as much as we can, as quickly as we can, to prevent these types of storms from destroying people's homes and taking people's lives. And we as the elected officials in this community, are doing everything we can to push projects forward, but we're only making progress because we have a tremendous partner at DEP. I can't say enough good things about Commissioner Aggarwala and the leadership that he's provided, the vision that he's provided, and you know, he would admit freely that it's because of an amazing team that he has built that we're able to get so much done, and we have a ways to go, but I'm proud of the projects that we have in the pipeline. I'm proud that we're breaking ground on this today. I'm proud that a year from now, people will be able to be safer in the Greenpoint industrial area as a result of this project. And I just want to thank everybody, especially Willis, but everybody for helping to make this happen. Thank you.

Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez:

Thank you and good morning, everyone. The sun is shining right here in Greenpoint, I want to thank to start by thanking New York City DEP Commissioner Rohit Aggarwala and his team, and thank you for your forward thinking when it comes to climate change. Council member Lincoln Ressler. You know who secure a great amount of money for this project and Assembly Member, Emily Gallagher, of course, we will not be here without the advocacy of Newtown Creek Alliance. And thank you for all the great work you do and Community Board One, and I want to thank all the incredible community partners. It is possible and done widely my staff. It is quite fitting that after so much rain yesterday, we are breaking ground on a project designed to capture storm water right next to the city's largest treatment plant. I know a lot of clients coming out of Washington feel heavy right now, but today, we have something positive to celebrate. Yes, we are in a federal shutdown, but in better times, through the 2024, federal budget, I was able to secure $500,000 toward the Gateway to Greenpoint stormwater infrastructure project, and as I mentioned, Lincoln secured the bulk of the funding for this project, with climate change making storms more frequent and intense, projects like this are critical. This is not a hoax.

Congresswoman Velazquez:

Climate change is real, and as we saw yesterday, it can cost people's lives. As a nation and as a beacon of hope, we need to send a strong message that we are going to invest the kind of money that is important in terms of infrastructure resiliency projects. This is not the time to pull back and the message is clear to Washington, we cannot take the money that was aggregated through the bipartisan infrastructure law that is supposed to invest so much money, including here in New York in infrastructure resiliency. That is wrong. It is morally wrong. We know that the Trump administration is trying to claw back those investments, and I will say it is short sighted. So that is why I also fought to include language in the water bill that included $125 million for flood protection in Brooklyn and Queens, including $25 million right here in the Newtown Creek watershed. This project will improve water quality, create open space and make our neighborhoods more resilient. That is something worth celebrating. I normally present or do a ceremonial check, but the money is already deposited. I hope so. I'm happy to wield shovel instead. Thank you, and congratulations to all the partners.

Assembly Member Emily Gallagher:

Thanks everyone, and it is such a joy to gather here to really take a stab at doing something different for climate and resiliency. We know from studying all over the world that we need to change the way that we do landscapes and streetscapes here in New York City in order to absorb more storm water. This is the only way that we're really going to lessen the great catastrophe that happens every single time it rains in this community, as the council member said, and I'm realizing I forgot to thank everybody, but thank you everybody. As the council member said, we had multiple sites in our district yesterday that had waist high flooding, and we already could predict where those areas were, because we've already had multiple conversations about those areas and about how they need increased resiliency. We shouldn't have to fight for money to save our property, our lives. I put property first because I know some people care about that more than lives. Property lives and you know, our city's functionality that should be our priority. And going into this era where climate change is the greatest threat to human life on Earth, we need to be prioritizing this.

Assembly Member Gallagher:

And I am so grateful that our government partners here actually understand this, and I am fighting to get that kind of resource from the state, and to get that kind of clarity from the state, that we need to be building storm water management, that we need to be expanding our sewer system, that we need to be following what other cities are doing around the world to balance the great amounts of water that are only going to rise as time goes on. So I am grateful for my friend Willis Elkins and Newtown Creek Alliance, who have taught me so much of what I know about this issue. I'm grateful to my mentors here in this community, who taught me so much about environmental justice and that when people say, No, you have to just keep fighting. And I am looking forward to this being the first of many projects that will mitigate storm water, because even though this is an industrial area right here, this is five minutes from hundreds of people's homes, and we need to be changing our entire community to look more like Gateway to Greenpoint. Well, this is salt marsh. Historically, the earth knows what it's doing. We undid the Earth's wisdom, and we are paying for it. So let's listen to what the earth is telling us. Let's try to fix our errors, and let's continue on this great path towards a resilient Greenpoint. Thank you.

Commissioner Aggarwala:

All right, excellent. Were we going to take questions?

Press:

We wanted to discuss what occurred yesterday. What you understand? Was it an infrastructure issue? Was it a sewer blockage issue, and could what happened yesterday could've been prevented.

Commissioner Aggarwala:

I'm happy to walk through. So, you know, a couple of days ago, we got the first predictions from the National Weather Service of rain that was going to be heavy, pre yesterday. In fact, the National Weather Service did not issue a flash flood warning, but DEP and New York City Emergency Management made the decision two days ago or three days ago now, to go ahead and activate our flash flood protocols, even though a flash flood warning had not been issued, and so we did all of the checking of key catch basins and things like that through the coordinated agency effort that we always do when we are expecting the potential for flash flooding. One thing that we have worked very hard on in this administration is actually doing better maintenance of those catch basins. We have 150,000 catch basins around the city. As of a couple of years ago, at any given time, there would be about 5,000 waiting for cleaning or repair. We are now in the hundreds on any given day, waiting for cleaning or repair out of 150,000, that's pretty good. What that means is we've effectively added 4,000 catch basins to the city right by making the maintenance better, and I'm very proud of the progress we've made there. But the getting back to yesterday's storm, the predictions were for about two inches of rain over eight hours, between 2pm and 10pm for reasons that I don't fully understand, but due to wind and other things that went on in the atmosphere, basically all of that rain came in one hour.

Commissioner Aggarwala:

And in fact, at the high point, or roughly, depending on where you are in the city, between 3 and 4pm we got an inch of rain in 10 minutes, right? And, and that is a level of flow that the sewers just are not designed to handle. You know, our sewers are largely designed, depending on where you are, about one and a half inches per hour. So to get a rate of six inches per hour, you are definitely going to have flooding. What we also know is that, of course, this is the autumn and in fact, the profile of the rain we had yesterday was quite similar to the rain we had on July 14 that mainly affected the Bronx. The difference is that in a summer storm, you don't have leaves on the ground. And so what we saw in July was what we would have expected, a massive deluge, flooding occurred, but very quickly receded. And that actually made me feel pretty good, that it meant that our drains were working. Because it's just like, what happens if in your shower, if you get a lot of hair over the drain, the tub will fill up. You move it away, and it drains quite quickly. That's exactly what happened in so many intersections. And just like happened two years ago on September 29 in the Ophelia related storm that flooded so much of North Brooklyn, we had a number of places yesterday where and I was watching flood net throughout the storm, where we'd have flooding. In some cases, it would recede very quickly, within even half an hour, and in other places, we had a catastrophic situation where the leaves piled up and kept certain intersections flooded up to as a couple of our speakers have said up to near waist high for several hours.

Commissioner Aggarwala:

Yesterday, between three and 5pm in two hours, DEP received 800, 311 calls about flooding or blocked catch basins. Again, I believe we were pretty well prepared. We had 38 crews on duty around the city, ready to respond. But as you might imagine, to be given a list of 800 places to go, 38 crews are not going to get there right away. There was one instance, particularly in Bedford Stuyvesant, that our crews got there a couple hours later, there were a lot of videos of cars flooded up to the windows. And I didn't go on site myself, but the photos that I saw from our crews on site showed up to a foot of leaves blocking the drains, right? And that's what the crews were raking out with the help of our colleagues at PD, fire and sanitation. So let me pause there, but that's really what happened in yesterday's storm.

Press:

What does this mean, for the next time?

Commissioner Aggarwala:

Well, look, I mean, obviously after, after every big event, we will do an after action review to see if there was something about our response that that should have been better or faster, but I have to say, we go right back to the fact that that three years ago, I stood with the mayor and announced our plan to undertake a systematic, strategic effort at storm water resilience for New York City. We started that work. We have been pursuing that work. We issued an interim report a year and a half ago outlined the modeling planning we had done six locations around New York City that are going to require what we think is roughly $30 billion in upgrades. We have been systematically doing the engineering and design work to do that through a really significant effort combining the work of Deputy Commissioner Licata's Sustainability Team and the engineering team at our Bureau of Water and Sewer Operations to bear both green infrastructure, we announced the first of our explicit stormwater resilience projects in Bushwick at the beginning of this year, I think that was February, a $390 million investment to what is crazy, to increase the capacity of the sewers under Knickerbocker Avenue by a factor of nine, nine times the capacity is what we modeled. We needed nearly $400 million so that is in motion.

Commissioner Aggarwala:

Unfortunately, a massive project like that is the work of years, and so there is no way. I mean, as we were talking like we've been working to get to this point for three years on a relatively small project that one is going to take a while. Last week, I was very pleased to stand with the mayor to announce the second of those storm water resilience projects at the Jewel sSreets in East New York, and that's a project I'm really proud of because it's bringing to bear all of these solutions. It'll have a blue belt and green infrastructure. It'll actually take water out of the combined system, so it will improve harbor quality. And it involves gray infrastructure, obviously, and it involves housing density, because we're going to be able to facilitate 5,000 new homes in in East New York. And it's the pilot of our voluntary buyout program. Another thing that we promised we would do in the most recent NYC, sustainability plan. So we really are working as hard as we can to bring these tools to bear, but I think we can't underestimate the challenge here, right? You know, this is an innovative project. We already have 14,000 green infrastructure assets around New York City. New York City is the world's leader in leveraging green infrastructure. I think it is fair to say, we've been doing it for 11 years. But you know, just again, the scope of the problem here, we're going to absorb a million gallons of water a year here. Yesterday, we got between an inch and a half and three inches of rain in various parts of the city, but if we imagine we had two inches of rain across the entire city, two inches of rain on the land area of New York City is 10 billion gallons of rainwater.

Commissioner Aggarwala:

That's the scope of the problem, and it's a long ways, one of the other things we've been doing a lot of over the last two years, in conjunction with some of our elected colleagues right here, and through the leadership of Deputy Commissioner Beth DeFalco, who really has pioneered this, we've been systematically going out to neighborhoods, prioritizing those neighborhoods that are at greatest risk, and offering homeowners and building managers the information and the tools they need to protect their own property. You know, the reality is, for 400 years, New York has been in a really mild climate. New Yorkers tend to expect that the city will protect them, but the analogy that I use is we expect the police department to protect us, but we still put locks on our doors, and in the same way, we've been training people that there are ways you can upgrade your own home to keep water out of the basement, to reduce your likelihood of getting a sewer backup. To have an alarm, just like you have a fire alarm, you need to have an alarm to see if there's water in your basement. We've been giving those out. And so some of this is also just helping people help themselves, because, again, we are working as fast as we can, but this is the work of years and decades, because the climate is changing faster than our infrastructure can keep up.

Press:

Just out of curiosity the area yesterday, when we saw the two deaths, are they problem areas, or was this completely out of the blue?

Commissioner Aggarwala:

I haven't actually mapped, because one was in Washington Heights, and we know that there's really a lot of flooding, especially along Dyckman and in fact, tragically, we did one of these flood demonstration trainings in Washington Heights just two months ago. And the other one was in Flatbush, and that is another area. I haven't pinpointed yet to see whether those locations were but, you know, as Assemblymember Gallagher said, you know, we've also worked very closely with people who look at the historical waterways that we buried in New York City. And you know, Eric Sanderson, a researcher at the Botanical Gardens, who's worked with us, has the line water has memory. It is not impossible to predict that the places that water ran 100 years ago or 200 years ago, the water is still going to go, no matter what we put in its way. So yeah. And a little while later, we had one of the places in New York, it's at the bottom of a hill, and in Bed Stuy that had a lot of flooding, the Small Business Commissioner and I are going to go distribute some of this equipment to some of the small business owners. that won't help them prevent what happened yesterday, but hopefully we'll prevent it from happening again. All right, thank you. Thank you, everybody. All right, let's all come take a picture, celebrate the fact that we are making some progress and break ground here. Thank you.