Washing sidewalks?

[asg]

I noticed several residential buildings in BPC hose down their sidewalks every morning with water. I asked one of the guys I saw doing this if the water was potable, clean water and he told that it was "city water". Has anyone else noticed this?

[Optimus Prime]

This is a common NYC thing. Building owners are required to clean their sidewalks and I believe 18 inches into the street. If you walk anywhere in the city during the hours of 8-10 AM or so, you will encounter hoses. It's tap water.

[lofter1]

During drought years the practice is banned. The water used for cleaning comes from faucets connected to the supply lines of the building -- and thereby the building owner pays for the water used. When hosing down of sidewalks is re-instituted after a period of drought I always welcome it.

In my neighborhood some buildings hire companies to power-wash the sidewalks at night. They usually do this between 11 PM and 2 AM -- the sounds of the generator rumble throughout the neighborhood. It's about the only way to get the chewing gun off the concrete / blue stone / granite.

[asg]

I searched the web for a while to find something out about this to no avail, but I knew that WNY would be the best way to find accurate information quickly – thanks!

In BPC, just about every building is a block long, hundreds of feet long in some cases, so this washing down the sidewalk seems more noticeable when someone is doing it for half an hour or more. Smaller buildings in other neighborhoods may have only a small 25’ wide portion of the sidewalk to wash. I hadn’t considered that the water used for this purpose is actually paid for by the building owner, but that makes sense as the connection to the hose bib was on the building near their garage.

But still, although this guy I asked said it was done mainly to wash dog urine from the building edges and sidewalk (thanks, dog owners!), I saw him primarily moving leaves and cigarette butts to the street, then wash the matter in the street along the curb down to the sewer inlet. Then he washed the sewer grate! This is the clean water that comes from the Catskills. I asked this guy if they throw clean drinking water into the garbage where he is from, he said he was from Romania, and that “yes, we do" throw clean water away.

It seems that this practice could not comply with the green guidelines in Battery Park City. But if the building owners pay for the water, they can do something like this with it.

[mkeit]

Maybe it is easier and faster then sweeping. Some buildlings in the 20's between 6th and Bway-where I walk in the mornings-use soapy water and then rinse.

[lofter1]

Of course they should be using "gray water" to clean the sidewalks, but that would mean the building had to be piped to allow for the practice of re-use of water. Curious if buildings that claim to be "green" or have any sort of LEED certification are piped that way.

[BrooklynRider]

It would increase their LEED points.

For water issues, there are points for:

Rain Water Collection & Recycling
Grey Water collection & recycling
Black Water collection & recycling

[asg]

To think of it - I haven't noticed any of the recent LEED certified buildings washing their sidewalks at all, but then, I don't spend much time in the north side of Battery Park City, where they all are located. With clean water being the scarce commodity that it is, you would think that blatantly wasting it just to wash the sidewalks would be at least frowned upon.

BTW, BR are you an architect?

[Derek2k3]

With clean water being the scarce commodity that it is,

Not in New York, and we use far less water now than we have in decades. The water used to clean sidewalks is probably a drop in the bucket compared to our total consumption and is nothing compared to the fresh water used to water lawns in the burbs.

After living in the village, I am thankful building owners wash the vomit, dog and people piss from our sidewalks every morning.

[ablarc]

...we use far less water now than we have in decades.
What accounts for the decrease?

[Derek2k3]

Detection of leaks in pipes.

[lofter1]

Leaks have been detected (http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/press_releases/08-04pr.shtml) in the Delaware Aqueduct (aka the Rondout-West Branch Tunnel (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/16/call-a-plumber-not-for-this-19-year-leak/)) which supplies NYC with ~ 50% of its drinking water ... but are still in need of expensive repairs (http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080408/NEWS/80408031/-1/rss01).

As recently as this past July (http://www.house.gov/list/press/ny22_hinchey/morenews/071108NYCDEPWawarsing.html) neighboring communities were continuiing to suffer from consequences related to the leakage, which has increased over the past decades from ~ 15 Million Gallons / Day > 35 + MGD (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B00E3D71739F931A25750C0A9649C8B 63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all).