PlaNYC Report on Waterways and Energy
Unresolved environmental problems eventually lead to the destruction of a city that has a high level of economic development. Environmental problems always stimulate the outflow of refugees, political instability, and social convulsions increase unemployment. New York, the largest US city, was created as a commercial center, but today, when it has reached an incredibly large size, and the number of migrants exceeds the city's possibilities, New Yorkers face the problem of obtaining decent standards for life. Environmental problems from urbanization in front of the inhabitants of New York today have become particularly acute, as they directly affect their health. All the largest cities in the United States suffer from the same problems. The spread of pulmonary diseases and diseases caused by poor quality water with toxic substances has already become widespread in the masses (Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg 2-16). The growing city adds its failures in the life of the population. The developing economy annually increases the amount of fuel and electricity consumed, which undoubtedly worsens the ecological indicators of the environment, while the city authorities are not able to conduct a rational policy in the fuel and energy complex and the transport industry.
In large cities, an emergency situation often occurs when rivers and lakes are polluted with a huge volume of untreated sewage and various wastes. Every time, after heavy rains and hurricanes, residents and city authorities face the main problem - an unacceptable functioning of the sewage system. Thus, in 2015, once again underground utility systems in New York failed to cope with a large amount of rainwater and thousands of buildings, business offices and cars were under water. Insurance companies have counted enormous damage from the disaster, which amounts to tens of millions of dollars (Reed et al. 12610-12615).
The problem of the urban sewage system is acute and dangerous. It takes its roots in the middle of the XVII century when in they began to build an underground sewage system to drain wastewater systematically, and at the end of the 19th century, it was completed. As a result, more than a hundred years, the City Hall of New York did not take measures to reconstruct it, and its condition becomes more and more deplorable every day. Obviously, this is a common problem of a densely populated urbanized city (Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg 60-64). Having a huge number of buildings, it is difficult and dangerous to do a reorganization of underground utility systems, which also entail huge expenses from the city budget. In the process of long-term exploitation of underground sewers, the tunnels were gradually obstructed by a huge amount of waste. Being stuck in tunnels, plastic waste, cigarette butts, pieces of glass, and half-rotten leaves are mixed into a thick rotting mass, narrowing the space for outflow of water. Sewer tunnels are considered together with an alarming forecast of seismologists and meteorologists. They talk about warming, a global increase in sea level above the …
