ABSTRACT
Prior to 1776, New York City’s drinking water was supplied by public wells, but demands for water eventually resulted in construction of the city’s first reservoirs. The Croton Reservoir (1842) supplied over 90 million gal/day to the city, but eventually even this amount could not meet the city’s needs. To ensure the water supply into the future, the Catskill and Delaware systems were developed (Hecker, 1991; Weidner, 1974). The construction of the impoundments, aqueducts, and tunnels needed to supply water to New York City spanned a total of six decades (1905 to 1965). The six reservoirs are the Cannonsville, Pepacton, Schoharie, Neversink, Rondout, and Ashokan (Figure 126.1). Together, these reservoirs provide 90% of the 1.4 billion gallons of drinking water consumed by New York City residents. With the development of the Catskill-Delaware systems, New York City’s drinking water remains one of the cleanest in the nation. Currently, New York City is trying to maintain the high quality of the drinking water supply through the development and implementation of a long-range watershed protection program. The watershed protection plan was signed in 1997 and unites efforts by local communities, the City and State of New York, environmental groups, and the EPA (Ashendorff et al., 1997; Okun et al., 1997). The plan includes upgrading current sewage treatment plants, implementing new watershed regulations, designing and constructing a filtration system for the 10% of water supplied by the Croton system, and acquiring land deemed critical to the preservation of high water quality in the Catskill-Delaware system. Land acquisition was selected, partly to protect the environment, but also to save the taxpayers of New York State billions of dollars. Installing a filtration system for the city’s water supply would cost an estimated $2 to 8 billion, while land purchase is estimated to cost $250 to 300 million (Featherstone, 1996; MOA, 1997). The majority (90%) of money spent for land acquisition will be used in the Catskill-Delaware basins. The city has set as its goal the solicitation of 350,000 acres of land (MOA, 1997). Under the agreement, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation issued a permit to acquire land through outright purchase and conservation easement. Priority is given to the purchase of nonresidential land around reservoirs, streams, and wetland areas. Secondary land acquisition will focus on the purchase of sensitive lands surrounding streams and rivers. The expected result of land acquisition and conservation practices is the protection of more than 165 stream miles, the preservation of thousands of acres of natural areas, and continued high water quality without the cost of a multibillion dollar filtration system (Murphy et al., 1995; Featherstone, 1996; MOA, 1997).
