By Alex Kratz

Bernard Daly, the project manager for the city’s massive water filtration plant project under way in Van Cortlandt Park, is relentlessly upbeat. Despite the cost overruns, delays, federal fines and accusations of impropriety in the siting of the plant on public parkland, Daly looks out over the sheer vastness of the $3 billion undertaking and beams.

“I think people are really going to appreciate it,” he said while taking media members on a tour of the facility, which Daly said is about 60 percent complete.

The tour was designed to showcase the plant and let people know what they’re getting for that $3 billion, which will partially be paid for through a 12.9 percent hike in water rates this year and probably near that amount in the years to come. Daly said the plant should be finished sometime in 2012.

There are somewhere between 1,300 and 1,400 workers on site every day: Sandhogs, carpenters, electricians, crane operators, masons, plumbers, steel workers, safety guys, security, spotters. The site is an enormous and noisy beehive of activity throughout the day.

At this point, the tunneling associated with the project is 99 percent complete, Daly said. The giant piping — which will take raw water from upstate into the plant for filtration and spit it back out for use in city homes — is being laid now and should be completed by the end of the year, Daly said.

The plant’s “pump station,” which will process the intake and dispersal of the water is close to finished. When fully functional, the plant will be able to process 290 million gallons of water a day.

Most of the city’s tap water comes from the Catskill and Delaware watersheds. The Croton water will amount to about 10 percent of the city’s tap water and is essentially a backup plan should the other sources be shut down like they were a year and a half ago.

The steel-and-concrete bare bones of the filtration plant structure fills what used to be a gaping hole that drops 80 feet into the earth. Some of the piping and filtration equipment is being installed, but for now it’s simply a skeleton waiting to be filled with the veins, organs and muscles of the plant. The four high-ceiling floors are damp and cool even on a hot day.

While construction is in full swing —and on-site injuries have been minimal, Daly said — questions and concerns remain. For one, many feel Bronxites are not benefiting from the project as much as was promised. Bronx residents make up about 18 percent of the current workforce. As of February 25, there were 191 Bronxites working construction and another 30 doing security, administrative work and cleaning. That’s well below the “thousands” of jobs promised.

Currently there are no union apprenticeship or training programs under way, but the DEP?funded three previous programs.
Out of the biggest $1.3 billion contract, only $83 million worth of goods and services has been purchased from Bronx contractors. Most of that money has gone to just two Bronx companies — Jenna Concrete ($41 million) and CFS Steel Company ($32.9 million). 

There is also the matter of the city incurring more federal fines due to delays. Federal regulators forced the building of the plant to keep the city compliant with national water quality standards. The deadline for completion of the plant is October 31, 2011. With a completion date sometime in 2012, the city will start racking up thousands of dollars in fines every day after the deadline passes.