New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani opened a time capsule sealed in 1976 inside the Port Richmond Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility and broke ground on a $185 million capital project. The goal is to keep the Staten Island facility running reliably and resiliently for decades to come. The event took place on October 21, 2026.
A letter from Beame to the mayor of 2026
The capsule was sealed behind the cornerstone of the administration building. It contained a letter from then-Mayor Abraham Beame to the city’s mayor in 2026, architectural and engineering blueprints from the facility’s 1970s expansion, the 1976 Harbor Water Quality Survey, staff photos, newspaper clippings and bicentennial coins.
In the letter, Beame describes the contents as a record of the city’s “accomplishments and failures,” its “pride and frustrations” and its hopes for those who come after. He wrote it at the height of the city’s fiscal crisis. Despite government austerity, he says, the city is doing all it can to leave a “clean and beautiful environment.” He hopes future residents will be able to swim, fish and recreate along the Hudson, East and Harlem rivers, Long Island Sound, the Upper Bay and the beaches of Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens.
What the project includes
The facility, on Staten Island’s North Shore, began operating in 1953 and serves roughly 200,000 residents across a 9,665-acre drainage area. During Beame’s administration in the 1970s, it underwent a $165 million expansion to meet updated harbor water quality standards, quadrupling its treatment capacity from 15 million to 60 million gallons per day.
Fifty years later, the city is investing $185 million to modernize the facility’s electrical distribution equipment and upgrade its mechanical rooms, control room, offices and locker rooms. The project also strengthens flood protection with reinforced walls, raised windowsills and deployable flood barriers.
The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) will complete the project in under four years — 40% faster than typical — using a design-build approach, a single contract that combines engineering and construction. Construction is expected to finish in summer 2029. The project builds on $279 million of ongoing wastewater treatment upgrades at the facility.
Statements
“The return of whales, dolphins and seahorses to our rivers and harbors represent decades of work to clean up our waterways. That progress isn’t a reason to slow down; it’s a reason to do more,” Mamdani said. He said the city is building bigger sewer systems, turning street medians into sponges that absorb stormwater and modernizing facilities like Port Richmond. “We are not wasting a minute,” he added, saying the city is using tools like design-build to collapse timelines.
DEP Commissioner Lisa F. Garcia said Beame’s words continue to resonate in the city’s commitment to protect public health and improve water quality. “We have come a long, long way since 1976,” she said, adding that the agency reaffirms its mission to continue this work for the next 50 years and beyond.
New York City Council Majority Whip Kamillah M. Hanks called the investment an important commitment to the community’s future. “As we continue to see growth and development along the North Shore, we must ensure that our infrastructure keeps pace,” she said.
From 200 million gallons of untreated sewage a day to 100% capture
Before the major investments of the 1970s, New York City discharged roughly 200 million gallons of untreated sewage into surrounding waterways each day because it lacked sufficient treatment capacity. Sludge, the solid byproduct of wastewater treatment, was barged from the few operating facilities to a controversial ocean dumping site 12 miles offshore. The practice ended in 1992 under the Ocean Dumping Ban Act of 1988.
In the 1970s, only 85% of sewage was treated. Today, DEP operates 14 wastewater resource recovery facilities that treat 1.3 billion gallons of wastewater daily and capture 100% of sewage in dry weather. The agency is also advancing the city’s circular economy by recovering resources from wastewater treatment to power homes. DEP continues to publish the annual Harbor Water Quality Survey.