BROOKLYN, New York – As part of the Federal government’s unified national response to Hurricane Sandy, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-led joint dewatering task force is executing pumping operations with state and federal partners at six flooded mass transit sites in response to the $20 million mission assignment from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
To date, the USACE has used about 50 pumps of various sizes to remove 64 million gallons of water from the New York City mass transit system. Operations are ongoing at six sites, with pumps removing about 116,000 gallons per minute. The 696,000 gallons the pumps are draining each minute exceeds the amount of water in one Olympic-size swimming pool (660,000 gallons). There were roughly 600 million gallons in the tunnels when pumping operations began on Thursday, Nov. 1.
The joint dewatering task force is concentrating its pumping efforts at the following locations: Battery Park Exchange, Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, Queens Midtown Tunnel, Rockaway Wastewater Treatment Plant, Passaic Valley Waste Water Treatment Plant, World Trade Center, 14th Street Tunnel-Canarsie (L Subway), and the Montague Street Tunnel (N, R Subway).
Pumping operations were completed at the Rockaway Wastewater Treatment Plant earlier this week and at the South Ferry Subway Station ( 1, N, R Subway) Nov. 4.