Audit cites bad estimates, design flaws at Croton filter plant — DEP shrugs

By N. Clark Judd

The city Department of Environmental Protection grossly underestimated the total costs of the $3.1 billion water filtration plant it’s building in Van Cortlandt Park, City Comptroller William Thompson announced Tuesday, and based the initial cost on flawed designs, incomplete documentation and erroneous calculations.

In 2003, the plant was expected to have a total cost of about $1.3 billion overall, or $992 million counting only construction costs. The cost of construction alone was already over $2.1 billion by February 2009, according to an audit released Tuesday by Mr. Thompson’s office.

Mr. Thompson’s audit says that the expected construction costs would have been pegged at $1.29 billion from the get-go had the DEP complied with engineering standards for accuracy.

“The conceptual cost estimate was unreliable and could not be used as a gauge of the actual costs that would be incurred by the Department to construct the plant,” the audit reads.

The city did not contest Mr. Thompson’s finding that the DEP had failed to adequately monitor spending or ensure that the initial cost estimates were based on accurate figures.

“We previously recognized the need to address cost estimating on our numerous capital projects,” the DEP responded, according to the audit.

In 2007, DEP created a new division devoted to estimating costs according to engineering standards.

A spokesman pointed out that Mr. Thompson did not find fault with the DEP’s actual handling of the project.

But according to an Independent Budget Office audit released last year, the total cost of the project — that’s construction costs plus costs like design and construction management — is now $3.1 billion, more than twice the original price tag.

New Yorkers feel the effects of cost overruns at the Croton plant in the form of water rate increases.