New York – The New York City Department of Environmental Protection should speed up its plans to repair leaks in the Delaware Aqueduct System’s Rondout-West Branch Tunnel, which is leaking 35 million gallons of clean drinking water every day, according to a report released Wednesday by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

The tunnel carries water from the 63-year-old Delaware Aqueduct System, which supplies more than half of the 1.2 billion gallons of drinking water consumed each day in New York.

DiNapoli said even though the DEP has known about the leaks since 1988, it has taken limited action to address the problem and has not developed an emergency response plan to deal with a potential collapse of the tunnel.

“Our message is that it is obviously a problem that is not going to correct itself and to delay dealing with it, in the long run, will probably cost more money, and if, God forbid, we have a catastrophic result, you could just image how much it would cost and the impact it would have,” he said.

The audit shows the City of New York “cannot even fix a leaky pipe,” said Senator John Bonacic of Mt. Hope. “This isn’t a case of needing a plumber, it’s a case of needing a whole new management philosophy – one which maintains their infrastructure and works to have good relationships with the people of the watershed.”

The comptroller said the Minneapolis bridge collapse and the steam pipe explosion in Manhattan are “tragic reminders that we must repair and maintain our infrastructure.”