The Waterworks for New York City

choi

Emily S Rueb, Why the Waterworks Work?  New York Times, Apr 4, 2016.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/0 ... terworks-works.html

Quote:

"Paul V Rush, an engineer in charge of operating and maintaining the supply north of the city line, says the [waterworks] system's main principle is treating water at the source 'as opposed to the end of the pipe.'

Q: "What makes New York City tap water taste so good?
A: "Thanks in part to the geology of the Catskill Mountains, which have very little limestone rock, the city's water contains low levels of bitter-tasting calcium. As a result, New York has delicious bagels and pizza crust. * * * Water usage has actually decreased more than 30 percent [unclear whether this is per capita or as a whole] since the 1980s. Modern toilets, faucets and showerheads use less water. The city has also hunted down and fixed leaks in water mains.

Note:
(a) "One hundred years ago, mountain water from the Catskills began flowing into the cupped hands of New York City."

Catskill Mountains
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catskill_Mountains
(map in the right column; section 1 Name)

(b) "In 1907, construction began on a network of reservoirs, tunnels and an aqueduct that would deliver clean water from nearly 100 miles away [to New York City]. * * * along the route from the Ashokan Reservoir to the Bronx to build the Catskill system. The cost: $177 million, about $4 billion today."
(i) Ashokan Reservoir is man-made, created by damming Esopus Creek
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esopus_Creek
(view map in the right column; takes its name from the Esopus tribe of the Lenape, who were the Native American residents of the lower Esopus when the Dutch first explored and settled the Hudson Valley in the early 17th century)
(ii)
(A) Ashokan Farewell FAQ
jayandmolly.com/ashokan-farewell/ashokan-farewell-faq/
("Ashokan is [sic; was -- no longer exists; a Native American word] the name of a town, most of which is now under a very beautiful and magical body of water called the Ashokan Reservoir. I’ve heard it pronounced a-shó-kun, a-shó-kan, or sometimes ásh-o-kán. The reservoir provides drinking water for New York City one hundred miles to the south")
(B) Ashokan Farewell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashokan_Farewell
(a piece of music composed by Jay Ungar in 1982)
(C) ‎Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, Ashokan Music and Dance. August 2, 2015 · Saugerties, NY.
https://www.facebook.com/ashokan ... s/10153499475354591
("The word 'Ashokan' means 'good place to fish,' or 'rushing waters,' in the language of the Lenape people whose homeland was what is now eastern New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and parts of Maryland and Delaware. Ashokan is also a common name in India [of South Asia] and can be traced back to Ashoka the Great, a famous Indian Emperor of the Maurya Dynasty from 269 to 232 BC. Ashoka began as a ruthless conquerer, but eventually converted to Buddhism and non-violence ruling a multinational, multilingual empire in peace and prosperity for many years. See Ashokan Pillars http://tinyurl.com/p8er7uz ")
* Ashokan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashokan
(may refer to: "The adjective form of Ashoka (304–232 BCE), Indian emperor")
* Ashoka
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashoka
(Ashoka's name "Aśoka" means "painless, without sorrow" in Sanskrit (the a privativum and śoka pain, distress / section 2.1 Buddhist conversion)

(to be continued)

choi

(c) caption of a photo that appears online only (not in print, that is): "Between the completion of the first water tunnel in 1915 and the start of construction on the second in 1928, the city built the Williamsburg Conduit to improve the water distribution system in parts of Brooklyn and Queens. This photo of the conduit was taken from the Hewes Street elevated train platform in 1925. Credit New York City Department of Environmental Protection"
(i) Conduit Avenue
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conduit_Avenue
("Conduit Avenue ;in Queens]  and Conduit Boulevard [in Brooklyn] are named for the conduit of the Brooklyn Water Works")
(ii) Williamsburg, Brooklyn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williamsburg,_Brooklyn
("In 1802, real estate speculator Richard M Woodhull acquired 13 acres (53,000 m²) near what would become Metropolitan Avenue, then North 2nd Street. He had Colonel Jonathan Williams, a US Engineer, survey the property, and named it [his 13-acre land only] Williamsburgh (with an h at the end) in his honor")

(d) Click the icon for illustration , and you come to "Keeping New York City's Water Clean" (online title: "How New York Gets Its Water")
www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016 ... r-new-york-101.html
(i) "The Catskill/Delaware watershed * * * provides more than 90 percent of the city's supply. The rest comes from the Croton watershed."

As one can imagine, the latter gets its name from Croton River.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croton_River
(ii) "The city [NYC] has * * * helped build municipal salt sheds and manure sheds on dairy farms to prevent harmful runoff."

Manure. East Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District, undated
https://emswcd.org/on-your-land/ ... d-livestock/manure/
("Since we live in a windy area, many landowners have found that the easiest way to cover the manure pile is to build a small shed. The shed should have a metal roof and three walls": photo)
(iii) "The Hillview Reservoir is the last stop before the city’s water mains. * * * Before the water is sent on to the city, chlorine, phosphoric acid and sodium hydroxide are added to disinfect it and raise the pH levels to prevent pipes from corroding and releasing harmful metals, like lead."

Lead in Drinking Water. Extension, College of Agricultural Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, undated
http://extension.psu.edu/natural ... d-in-drinking-water
("The amount of lead corroded from metal plumbing generally increases as water corrosivity increases. Water corrosivity is controlled primarily by the water’s acidity and calcium carbonate content. In general, acidic water that has a pH less than 7 and that is low in calcium carbonate is more corrosive than water that has a pH higher than 7 and that is high in calcium carbonate")
(iv) "The Catskill and Delaware Aqueducts feed into the Kensico Reservoir"

Kensico Reservoir
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensico_Reservoir
("The village of Kensico, NY was named in 1849 for a Siwanoy Indian chief, Cokenseko, who had sold most of the land surrounding White Plains to English settlers in the 1600s. In 1885, the old Kensico Dam was built south of the village of Kensico, NY as an additional source of water for New York City")