Call it the case of the phantom submarine.
The special underwater vehicle the Department of Environmental Protection claimed it was building to save the city from a possible water crisis does not exist, The Post has learned.
DEP Commissioner Joe Miele said under oath last spring that his agency had “a contract to build” the vehicle to diagnose the severity of a potentially disastrous leak in the Delaware Aqueduct.
A press release dated Nov. 3 stated the remote-controlled submarine was “currently under construction at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute” – and DEP officials reiterated this point to The Post several times in interviews.
But a spokeswoman from the Massachusetts-based institute said Woods Hole has not signed a contract with DEP – and is not yet building the vehicle.
“It was sloppy when we said it was under construction,” DEP Chief of Staff Charles Sturcken told The Post. “Is the contract there? No. Does that mean it’s not being built? No.”
The controversy started this month when Riverkeeper, the environmental group headed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., revealed the DEP had kept the public in the dark about the leak in the aqueduct for years.
They warned the leak would cause the 83-mile-long tunnel to collapse, leaving the city in a water crisis.
DEP officials said they had a plan in place to fix the leak. The vehicle is supposed to be phase two of a project set to kick off this week and end with tunnel repairs in three years.
A team of divers will begin their journey 700 feet down into the tunnel on Tuesday to repair a broken valve that will allow for water to be drained so the leak can be fixed. But critics say the diving mission and the submarine are just ways for the commissioner to allay public fears.
“It’s a delay tactic,” said Kennedy. “DEP officials have been sitting on their hands for years.”
DEP insiders also warn the plan won’t progress beyond this week’s scheduled dive because of turnover within the department. At least two commissioners have had plans in place to fix the tunnel, the sources said, but repair missions were waylaid when officials left.
Insiders said Miele – a Giuliani appointee – will likely leave the department before the submarine’s scheduled completion next October. But DEP Chief of Staff Sturcken said Miele will see it through: “We have a plan to fix it within this administration.”