According to the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, plans to reactivate the flushing tunnel pump were proposed in 1982. Various events caused the project to be delayed until 1994. The tunnel was finally reactivated in 1999. The new design employed a 600 horsepower (450 kW) motor, that pumped an average rate of a day of aerated water from the Buttermilk Channel in the Upper New York Bay into the head end of the canal. Although water was circulating through the tunnel, tidal forces meant it could only be pumped 11 hours a day. The water quality of samples taken while the flushing pump was operating was reported to have improved.