Testimony of Lisa Garcia Commissioner New York City Department of Environmental Protection before the New York City Council Committee on Environmental Protection, Resiliency,[...]

March 19, 2026

The Preliminary Budget for Fiscal Year 2027, The Preliminary Capital Plan for Fiscal Years 2027-2030 and The Fiscal 2026 Preliminary Mayor's Management Report

Good afternoon, Chair Gennaro and Members of the Committee.

I'm Lisa Garcia, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection. I'm joined today by our Chief Financial Officer Nerissa Moray, Acting Chief Operating Officer Tasos Georgelis, Deputy Commissioner for Public Affairs Beth DeFalco, and other members of our team.

While I may be new to this role, I am certainly not new to this city, and I am incredibly honored to be here with you all today. I was born in the Bronx and now call Brooklyn home, and I've always bragged about the New York City's tap water. Since being appointed Commissioner, I've been amazed and impressed each day by what this agency accomplishes. DEP's responsibilities are more massive in size and scope than many New Yorkers realize. DEP is essential to the health, safety, and future of our city. And while the breadth of the work this agency does is staggering, what makes it truly amazing is the people working behind the scenes-24/7/365, rain or shine. I'm really excited to be part of this team.

Before coming to DEP, I served as Regional Administrator for EPA Region 2, covering New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and tribal nations. I've also worked in environmental journalism, environmental law, and in the Obama Administration. Throughout my career, my focus has been environmental justice, climate protection, and equity. That's the perspective I bring to this role.

As Commissioner, my priorities are simple:

1. Keep our water clean and affordable.
2. Make our infrastructure stronger and more resilient.
3. Ensure every community shares in the benefits of our work-especially those historically overburdened by pollution and climate impacts.

Today, I'll discuss how our FY27 budget supports those goals.

What DEP Does-and Why It Matters

DEP's work touches every New Yorker, every single day. We deliver the water you drink. We treat the wastewater you send down the drain. We manage stormwater. We protect air quality, reduce noise pollution, and enforce asbestos regulations.

As you all know, New York City's drinking water is world-renowned. It comes from 19 reservoirs and three controlled lakes across a nearly 2,000-square-mile watershed in the Catskills and Hudson Valley-as far as 125 miles north of the city.

Because of decades of careful watershed protection, most of our water remains unfiltered-the largest unfiltered system in the country. That saves New Yorkers billions of dollars.

Roughly 1,000 of DEP's 5,700 employees work north of the city, around the watershed. Thousands more maintain the 7,000 miles of water mains and 7,500 miles of sewers that move water across the five boroughs. Every day, we treat 1.3 billion gallons of New Yorkers' wastewater at 14 facilities. Thanks to that work, the waters around our city are cleaner than they've been in 150 years.

Like many agencies, we face hiring challenges. As of the end of January, DEP has approximately 800 vacancies. Despite our hiring challenges, DEP continues to serve New Yorkers, and we rely on overtime when necessary. We are working hard to fill vacancies, but the rate has stayed stubbornly at 12% for three years. Coming into this role, it's a top priority for me to focus on hiring to improve our vacancy rate.

There are many challenges that contribute to the vacancy rate. In some cases, there is simply competition for hiring people with the skill sets we need for some of the specific titles that we have. In other cases, there are unique issues that we're working to solve.

For instance, the lack of a competitive police retirement plan for our DEP police force that protects the watershed makes recruitment and retention more difficult. Our officers retire with a civilian pension, not a police pension, and so they are not able to retire after 25 years of service like other police officers can. As a result, the recruits we train often quickly leave to go to other police departments. The State Legislature passed a bill last year to address this disparity, but unfortunately it was part of a package of bills that was vetoed by the Governor. We hope you'll support us in our push to pass that bill this year.

Our Budget-Why It's Different

DEP is funded almost entirely by our water and sewer rate payers. That means:

• We cannot get additional funds from other sources.
• Those funds can only be used for work related to the water and sewer systems.
• When our costs rise, ratepayers feel it.

Much of our spending is driven by mandates-federal, state, and regulatory requirements we must comply with to protect public health. These requirements must be balanced with all of our other priorities, including system expansion, modernization, and maintaining a state of good repair.

Our nearly $34 billion 10-year capital plan is backed almost entirely by New York City ratepayer money. Over the next 10 years, DEP will invest $2.4 billion to keep our drinking water safe, reliable and delicious. We'll spend almost $7 billion to upgrade the water mains that bring it to your tap and curbside fire hydrants. We'll invest almost $9 billion in sewer upgrades and expansions. And we'll spend almost $14 billion in water pollution control projects that will keep New York City waters clean and beaches swimmable.

As of the FY27 Preliminary Budget, DEP's expense budget for FY27 totals $1.7 billion. DEP's expense budget is predominantly funded by ratepayers: 92% is funded by water and sewer bills. This expense budget pays for operating costs relating to the water and sewer system.

Though we are mainly a utility, we are actually a hybrid agency, due to our environmental compliance enforcement of the air and noise code and oversight of hazardous material abatement. This enforcement work is funded by tax levy. As part of the FY27 November Plan, DEP received an additional 30 positions starting in FY26 to help support asbestos and idling enforcement. We are working to fill these new positions as quickly as possible.

1. Keep Our Water Clean and Affordable

   A top priority for DEP right now is maintaining our Filtration Avoidance Determination-known as the FAD-for the Catskill/Delaware water supply system.

   Most cities must filter surface drinking water. We don't have to because of the FAD. It's a waiver granted based on our decades of investment in our watershed protection. Maintaining the FAD saves billions of dollars in filtration plant construction and hundreds of millions in annual operating costs. Avoiding that cost helps keep NYC rates lower than the national average for large cities.

   The FAD is up for renewal in 2027. We will begin negotiations with the state Department of Health this year. This renewal will not simply be a continuation of what we've been doing for the last few decades.

   The climate has changed. Risks have changed. We are reassessing what's needed to protect the system going forward. We have convened a national Scientific Advisory Panel to evaluate emerging risks. We are drafting a public white paper outlining those risks and proposed program updates before negotiations begin.

   But there is no question that maintaining the FAD is essential to affordability.

   Speaking of affordability, our water remains one of the best bargains in New York City: it costs less than two cents per gallon, and we're committed to keeping it that way-because when people are able to pay their bills, we are able to continue investing in the system.

   In FY25, we brought in $4.75 billion, exceeding our expected revenue by more than $400 million. This was one of the main drivers that allowed us to keep the water rate increase low for FY26. We're on pace to exceed our expected revenue again in FY26.

   We know we're living in an increasingly expensive economy. DEP takes extensive measures to improve affordability for our ratepayers and help people pay their bills, even as more money is needed to maintain and upgrade our infrastructure.

   That's why we've continued expanding customer assistance programs. They include:

   • Our Home Water Assistance Program allows low-income households to save up to $159 annually-approximately 13% on an average annual residential bill.
   • The Multi-Family Water Assistance Program provides a $250 per apartment bill credit for eligible affordable rentals each year.
   • Our Leak Forgiveness Program provides generous forgiveness when customers experience a leak, so long as they fix the leak.
   • And offer discounted rates for eligible multi-family properties that pre-pay their annual bills and maintain water efficiency measures.

   But when people don't pay their bills, that cost is borne by all those who do. We strive to make it as easy as possible for all New Yorkers to pay their water bills, but we also understand that sometimes people go through a difficult time and may fall behind. To support these individuals, we have a number of relief programs in place.

   • Our Water Debt Assistance Program allows qualified customers to defer their debt and avoid enforcement action.
   • We've created more flexible terms for the Leak Forgiveness and Meter Bill Cap programs to allow more applications, and we continue to explore ways to improve these programs.
   • We offer credits for customers with medical exemptions from service terminations to help them keep their certifications and avoid service termination.
   • We recently increased reimbursements for customers who install their own meters.
   • We also offer extremely flexible payment agreements that allow customers to pay off their debts over as long as 10 years. These agreements are personalized to meet each customer's needs. Anyone, regardless of financial status, is eligible.

   To further our efforts to keep rates as low as possible for our customers, we are constantly looking for other ways to save money by operating as efficiently and effectively as possible.

   We're modernizing operations-using drones, digital asset tracking, and AI to lower long-term costs. And we continue advocating for more state and federal aid so New York City receives its fair share of environmental funding, because municipality and population caps on grants and zero-interest financing result in New York City getting only a small portion of environmental funds available statewide.

2. Make Our Infrastructure Stronger and More Resilient

   Climate change is here. The four most intense rainfall events in the past 50 years have all occurred since 2021. This fall we saw a storm that brought 1 inch of rain in 10 minutes-that's the equivalent of 6 inches of rain per hour.

   Our infrastructure was simply not designed for that. New York City's water and sewer infrastructure is a century old system.

   We know it requires a renewed, long-term commitment to modernization, and we have a responsibility to not pass a deteriorating or inadequate system to the next generation.

   Strategic, sustained investment ensures clean, reliable water and sewer services for all New Yorkers and protects public health and the environment. Without proactive investment, the city faces expensive emergency responses, federal penalties for discharges, and escalating system failures.

   We also know that investing in our infrastructure saves us money in long run. The $34 billion capital plan includes major investments across all five boroughs and the watershed, including:

   • $620 million for the construction of the Gowanus CSO retention facility in Brooklyn.
   • $536 million for wastewater treatment upgrades in the South Bronx.
   • $556 million for wastewater treatment upgrades in Harlem.
   • $435 million for wastewater treatment upgrades in Port Richmond.
   • $2 billion-out of the $2.8 billion in total funding-for the buildout of storm sewers in southeast Queens to address chronic flooding.

   As we seek to modernize our infrastructure, we are not just tackling enormous projects with regional significance. We are also focused on projects that will have meaningful impacts in our communities at the block level. No project is too small.

   Since July 2024, DEP has upgraded and modernized 3,273 catch basins. These are the grates located at the curb that drain rainwater or snow melt from streets to the sewer. We will spend $1.5 million a year to continue these upgrades across the city. We will upgrade approximately 1,700 catch basins in FY26; the agency has already completed 1,176 of those upgrades since July.

   The upgrades pair improved catch basin grates in the road with slotted manhole covers on the sidewalk. If the catch basin grate becomes blocked by litter or leaves, the slotted manhole cover on the sidewalk provides an alternate route for stormwater to drain to the basin below. We have already installed 427 slotted manhole covers city-wide since 2024.

   Our work extends north of the city, protecting our water supply in the face of a changing climate. The 10-year capital plan includes:

   • $1.1 billion towards a tunnel to add resiliency and critical redundancy for the Kensico Reservoir.
   • $1 billion towards the upgrade to the Ashokan Reservoir.
   • $351 million towards upgrades to the Hillview Reservoir.
   • $25 million towards upgrades to the Gilboa Dam at the Schoharie Reservoir.

   We are also taking a smarter approach to stormwater planning-combining traditional sewer upgrades with nature-based solutions like rain gardens, Bluebelts, and cloudburst hubs. And we've identified 86 citywide priority flooding areas in our Stormwater Analysis, so that we can focus investments where flooding is most severe.

   New Yorkers are demanding action on flooding. We hear them. And we are responding.

3. Ensure Every Community Shares in the Benefits

   Equity is not a side initiative-it is central to our capital planning. We have major investments in all boroughs and in historically underserved communities. They include:

   • $113 million for significant sewer and stormwater upgrades as part of the Jewel Streets Neighborhood Plan on the Brooklyn-Queens border.
   • $335 million to upsize sewers and address decades-long, chronic flooding around Knickerbocker Avenue in Bushwick.
   • We're also focusing our free, federally funded lead service line replacements in areas with some of the lowest income New Yorkers, starting with the South Bronx and expanding into Flushing, Queens.

   We're directing resources toward communities that have been overlooked for decades. We know infrastructure is not just pipes and tunnels. It's about fairness. It's about health. It's about quality of life.

Looking Ahead

Looking ahead, we face real challenges-rising costs, workforce vacancies and extreme weather. But we also have one of the greatest water systems in North America-built by generations who planned ahead. It's now our responsibility to do the same.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I look forward to working closely with all of you and the Council to protect public health, strengthen resilience, and ensure every New Yorker benefits from our work.

My colleagues and I are now happy to answer your questions.