New Yorkers are no strangers to the murky pools of water on subway platforms. They are a symptom of the subway’s crumbling infrastructure, but have become part of the network’s underground landscape. We accept these trash- and rat-infested wetlands as the price for 24-hour public transportation.
Our subterranean transportation bog, however, is more than a passive annoyance: it poses real risks to public health and safety. In 2016, the threat of the mosquito-borne Zike virus outbreak caused New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo to unleash a series of preventative measures to reduce standing water in the subway tunnels, which are a hotbed for mosquito larvae. Hurricane Sandy brought seven million gallons of water pouring into the L train’s Canarsie tunnels, which service approximately 300,000 daily riders, requiring their ongoing reconstruction.
Then, this past July, another heavy rainstorm pounded New York City, causing power outages and flash floods throughout the boroughs. In Long Island City, a torrent of rainwater flooded the Court Square subway station so forcefully that it burst through a plywood construction barrier and knocked over a passenger waiting on the train platform. According to the MTA, the flood was caused by the absence of a city-mandated drainage system on the construction site for a luxury condominium development, the Skyline Towers. In fact, the NYC subway system is providing less reliable service in a more dangerous environment.
Fundamentally, the subway is locked in a battle with Manhattan’s geography. Out of sight, MTA maintenance workers plug thousands of leaks, siphoning an average of 13 million gallons of water out of the tunnels and into the sewer system every day. This never-ending flow is the unstoppable current of the island’s natural springs as they intersect with the subway’s underground tunnels. An 1865 sanitary and topographical map of Manhattan shows an intricate network of the natural waterways that once traversed the island. In the early development of the city, these channels were covered and driven underground. Yet these waterways have not disappeared, but continuously push through the subway’s eroding infrastructure. As such, the future of the New York City subway and the communities it serves relies on good stewardship of the environment, both old and new.