Alumna Talks on NYC Engineering Challenges

4/7/2011

Mallon delivers the keynote address for the Environmental Engineering and Science Spring Symposium.

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CEE alumna Kathryn Mallon, left, with EE&S chair Professor Charles J. Werth, pictured at the Levis Faculty Center, where Mallon delivered the keynote address for the environmental area's Spring Symposium.

What do you do when a tunnel that provides half the water supply to New York City is leaking? What do a water treatment plant and the nicest driving range in the Bronx have in common? How do you increase sustainability in a concrete jungle with 8.2 million people?

CEE alumna Kathryn Mallon, P.E., (BS 88) answered these questions and more during her keynote address, “Really Cool Engineering Challenges Working for the Largest City in the U.S.,” delivered April 1 at the Environmental Engineering and Science (EE&S) Spring Symposium at Levis Faculty Center in Urbana. The symposium is presented annually to showcase the research of graduate students in the department’s EE&S program.

Mallon, who also earned a master’s in environmental engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, works for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in the Bureau of Engineering Design and Construction. As Deputy Commissioner of the agency’s capital delivery program, she manages more than 400 staff focused on the design and construction of $10 billion in water and wastewater capital work for the City of New York.  In 2008, after nearly 20 years at MWH Americas Inc., an engineering consulting firm, Mallon joined the DEP, a move that has afforded her “the opportunity to be involved in several lifetimes worth of ‘once-in-a-lifetime projects’,” she said. 
 
Her presentation to the enthusiastic audience of mostly environmental engineering students and faculty included details about the history and scope of the agency’s work, the engineering aspects of undertaking complex projects in a densely populated city with aging infrastructure, as well as insights into the practice of engineering in the public sector, where bureaucracy, politics and government regulations add complexity.
 
The DEP exists to deliver clean drinking water to New York City residents, treat wastewater, promote clean waterways, improve air quality, reduce noise pollution, and protect against hazardous materials like asbestos and lead. The agency manages a $15 billion capital program with more than 100 active projects that range in size from $10 million to more than $1 billion.
 
Among the projects Mallon discussed was New York City’s Green Infrastructure Plan. The city is piloting the use of a number of sustainable technologies to slow storm water runoff after heavy rainfall and reduce combined sewer overflow—a unique challenge in a city so heavily built and paved that it is 75 percent impervious.  Pilot projects include porous pavements, planting areas in right-of-ways, green roofs and “blue” roofs. A blue roof features a system of gravel-filled, perforated trays, which capture and slowly release rain water. Green infrastructure is more economical and sustainable than traditional “grey infrastructure,” Mallon said.
 
Another current project is the ongoing construction of the 290 million-gallon-per-day, $3 billion Croton Water Treatment Plant program, which will filter water from the Croton Watershed in upstate New York for use by city residents. The plant is being built under federal mandate, with a timeline that includes 48 milestones which the agency must meet or pay penalties. While accomplishing the massive excavation and construction, unprecedented in scale, the agency has contended with lawsuits by citizen and environmental groups and the need to remain accountable to the Department of Justice for being 21 months behind schedule, Mallon said. When it is completed in 2013, it will be the largest underground water treatment plant in the U.S., built seven stories underneath a public golf course in the Bronx. As part of the agreement with the Parks Department for using the land, the DEP agreed to construct a new, landscaped driving range above the treatment plant.
 
A third project Mallon discussed is the planned repair of a leak in the Rondout West Branch Tunnel, which brings water to the city from the Delaware Watershed upstate. It currently provides half of the water used in New York City. Near the town of Roseton on the Hudson River, the tunnel is leaking at a rate of 15-35 million gallons a day. Mallon detailed the process of diagnosing the leak, which included the use of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, a self-propelled and navigated torpedo, to pinpoint the leakage areas.  She discussed the agency’s process of evaluating solutions to the problem, weighing risks, benefits and cost, and arriving at the decision to construct a bypass tunnel. Completing the repair will require a 6- to 15-month interruption in service during which the agency must secure alternative water supplies.
 
Working in the public sector has given Mallon a broader perspective on civil engineering projects and what it takes to accomplish them, she said.
 
“Most of my job is about the engineering aspects of what we do, but … there’s so much more that it takes to get public infrastructure built in the United States than just the design and construction of these projects. There’s the integration with the communities, the politics, coordinating with  other city agencies, and thinking about every action that you take and how that might read on the front page of the newspaper," she says. “I really enjoy my job with DEP, and I’m glad I came over to the public sector. It has really given me a different perspective on how things get built in society.”
 
Mallon’s return to U of I to speak at the spring symposium was the first time she had been back to campus since graduating.
 
“It’s truly an honor to come back here,” she said. “I think much of my success throughout my career has been a result of the sound foundation and education I got here at the University of Illinois, which continues to be a best-in-class university in civil engineering. All of the students here, you are very fortunate to be getting your degree. It will serve you well in your careers.”
 

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This story was published April 7, 2011.