ABSTRACT
To watch Roman Polanski's Chinatown or read Marc Reisner's Cadillac Desert, one might think that Los Angeles, California, was the only metropolis that went to extreme—and corrupt—measures to procure water for its growing population. In 1913, the Ashokan Dam was completed. The Catskill Aqueduct, which flows beneath the Hudson River at a crossing between Storm King and Breakneck mountains, was completed in 1915. All of New York City's boroughs received water from the Ashokan Reservoir. By 1931, New York City's nearly seven million residents had once again outgrown its water supply system. The completion of the Cannonsville Reservoir in 1967 marked the last time that New York City would expand its reach into new watersheds. Although the City would continue to use water from these distant watersheds, the more-than-100-year history of co-optation of water from outside its limits had come to a close. Critics of the watershed agreement maintain that the plan does not create adequate water quality safeguards.
