NYC weighs new coastal protection department as DEP flood bureau grows to 75

New York City is growing its coastal flood bureau from six employees to 75, officials told a City Council committee on Sept. 30, but fully protecting the shoreline will take “investments measured in tens of billions of dollars,” according to a review of the hearing record by NYC Politics.

The Committee on Environmental Protection and Waterfronts, chaired by Council Member James F. Gennaro of District 24 in Queens, held an oversight hearing on coastal resiliency and heard three bills. No votes were taken.

The hearing came days after a nor’easter brought coastal flooding, and about a month before the 14th anniversary of Superstorm Sandy. Gennaro said a NYCHA maintenance supervisor was killed by a falling tree during the storm, and dedicated the hearing to the worker’s memory.

The question before the committee is who should run the city’s coastal defenses. Gennaro’s Intro. 936 would create a Department of Coastal Protection. The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which houses the Bureau of Coastal Resilience, urged caution, and environmental groups asked that the bureau stay inside DEP.

“We need a coordinated citywide approach to coastal resilience, not a collection of individual projects that are planned, built and maintained in isolation.”

Gennaro said the bureau exists, but “it’s not yet codified in law.” Putting it in law, Gennaro said, would keep later administrations from dropping its work.

DeFalco said any change should strengthen the city’s ability to deliver that work “rather than inadvertently fragmenting it.”

What is the city building?

The city has 520 miles of shoreline, DeFalco said. The bureau plans the coastline’s future and runs the city’s growing network of flood protection, and it oversees 16 active projects.

The East Side Coastal Resiliency project, from East 25th Street to Montgomery Street, is designed to protect about 110,000 New Yorkers, including roughly 28,000 public housing residents, from a 100-year storm, DeFalco said.

The $388 million Brooklyn Bridge-Montgomery project will protect about 44,000 residents along a half-mile. The $2.4 billion seawall on Staten Island’s South Shore, where Sandy claimed the most lives of any borough, will protect more than 30,000 people.

The $228 million Seaport project will run from the Brooklyn Bridge to John Street. The $208 million Red Hook project will cover the Red Hook waterfront, including the Atlantic Basin and Beard Street, benefiting about 6,000 residents.

In 2025, the bureau took over the first 12 floodgates of the East Side project. “A floodgate is only useful if it works when you need it and not just when it’s shiny and new,” DeFalco said.

In the nor’easter, tides overtopped shorelines around Jamaica Bay, including the Hamilton and Howard Beach areas, Staten Island’s South Beach, City Island and Red Hook, DeFalco said. Pumping works only after the tide recedes; a DEP witness said, “it’s like pumping in the ocean.”

What it costs

Earlier this year, Mayor Zohran Mamdani committed $43.2 million to grow the bureau from six employees to 75, DeFalco said. The record does not say over how many years that money is spread.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ harbor study, known as HATS, identified regional protections with a $52 billion price tag, DeFalco said. “The City cannot do this alone,” DeFalco said, calling for federal funding.

DEP has not filled all 69 new positions and aims to fill them by next year, officials said. “We’re moving as fast as is humanly possible,” a DEP witness said.

Gennaro asked about storm surge barriers, which the Army Corps once proposed at the mouth of Jamaica Bay. A DEP witness said “the corps is not actively studying them.”

Who should be in charge?

Since 2012, Gennaro said, the aim has been “one major planning entity” for coastal resiliency. Gennaro said the bureau could be “like the Oz of coastal resilience,” with every other player answering to it.

An assistant commissioner in the bureau agreed: “one planning entity to carry the ball, yes, that is the goal.” The bureau’s RISE shoreline study is due by the end of this year. Procurement for a comprehensive coastal plan should start next year, and the plan could take two to three years.

Asked how a separate department would affect the bureau, a DEP witness said, “We’d like a little bit of time, just being honest, to see how things go.” Gennaro answered, “we’re going to be moving on this.”

Brianna Kilkenny of Riverkeeper said the group backs the bill’s intent but joined partners in “our opposition to the creation of a new department,” because the bureau gains from DEP’s expertise and staff. If the bill codified the bureau within DEP instead, Kilkenny said, “Riverkeeper would strongly support” it.

Caitlin Villatoro of the New York League of Conservation Voters said “a bureau of coastal resilience should be permanently established within” DEP. The Waterfront Alliance’s climate policy fellow said it is “unclear whether the bill is intended to codify the existing bureau or create a separate entity.”

Council Member Alexa Avilés of District 38, who is not on the committee, said the Red Hook project “is built for 10-year flood, not a hundred year.” Avilés warned against plans that end in “luxury condos on the water.”

What about the other bills?

Intro. 931, from Council Member Harvey D. Epstein of District 2, would require DEP to deploy mobile drinking fountains when temperatures are expected to top 82 degrees. Epstein said many lower-income communities lack public fountains.

DEP said staffing the fountains would take more than 100 people and pull workers from water supply duties, and pointed to nearly 600 cooling stations and more than 3,400 park fountains. “The idea is noble,” a DEP witness said, while questioning whether the job belongs at DEP.

Intro. 343, from Council Member Sandy Nurse of District 37, would waive crane permit fees for solar installations. A Department of Buildings official said crane permits cost $100 to $250, and solar panels can typically be installed with lifts that need no crane permit.

Solar filings fell from about 9,400 in 2024 to 8,500 in 2025 and 3,300 so far this year after a federal tax credit expired, the department said.

What happens next?

The record does not show when the committee will vote. DEP agreed to update the Council as infrastructure comes online and hires are made. The Waterfront Alliance asked for another oversight hearing next spring.

“We as a City need to learn how to be with the water because it is not going anywhere. It’s just getting higher,” Avilés said.