DeFalco responds on development, stormwater rules, and bathtub effect
DeFalco says DEP is engaged in development conversations and points to the unified stormwater rule and Gowanus as positive examples. She acknowledges the need to avoid creating a bathtub effect when building coastal protection.
We're very engaged in those conversations.
And as you can imagine, I'm especially interested in how it is that we are developing and also making sure that we have capacity for it.
I think that there's good news that comes with development.
We've talked about the unified stormwater rule requiring people to manage more stormwater on their property.
So that's the thing that becomes beneficial as you see development.
We're seeing that positively in Gowanus where different properties that weren't managing stormwater are now managing stormwater because they've been developed.
But when you're talking about something like BMT, it...
it's going to intersect with the existing infrastructure at the same time that you're building more coastal resilience.
So I think that...
Well, for those residents, you're not building it for the other residents because it protects them.
We are and will.
It's a thing that you're going to see, and I think that we're working very, very hard on what it means for the inland or sort of, you know, I think we're talking about the bathtub effect, right?
How we're making sure that the existing properties are taken care of.
That we're not creating a problem by trying to address another problem.
Yeah, no, I think everyone has identified that.
We have not seen any response to that.
Or a commitment to investing in the infrastructure that would make sure that that is prevented.
So, like, it's an acknowledged challenge, but I don't see any agency actually responding in concrete terms to that impact.
So I think obviously these are long, ongoing conversations.