Alumna Talks on NYC Engineering Challenges

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.