New York City's Three Sources of Tap Water

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Winnie Hu, Billion-Dollar Investment to Protect 'Champagne of Drinking Water;' New York is one of only five US cities with an unfiltered water supply. New York Times, Jan 19, 2018.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/ ... ter-filtration.html

Quote:

(a) "more than a billion gallons of water flowing daily through a sprawling network of three pristine lakes, 19 reservoirs, and mile after mile of aqueducts and tunnels [to New York City for consumption]. About 90 percent of that water never sees the inside of a filtration plant, flowing from huge reservoirs as far as 125 miles away in the rural Catskill Mountains.

"New York has spent more than $1.7 billion to protect this unfiltered water supply since the early 1990s [to spend a billion dollars more on drinking water] , in return for being granted a succession of federal and state waivers exempting it from costly filtration requirements. It is one of only five cities nationally — along with Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland, Ore. — that have an unfiltered water supply. This marvel of water engineering has attracted visits from scientists and government officials from Australia, China, India, Singapore and Colombia.

"The financial stakes are high. Vincent Sapienza, the commissioner of the city's Department of Environmental Protection, said that if the city were refused a waiver, it would have to spend more than $10 billion to build a massive filtration plant, and at least another $100 million annually on its operation — which would be 'the largest capital project that the city has ever taken on.' Water bills would have to rise significantly to cover the cost, he said.

"The city already filters 10 percent of its drinking water from a dozen small reservoirs surrounded by development in Westchester and Putnam counties [the Cronton system in quotation (c); the other two systems -- Catskill system and Delaware system] supply 90% of water that is unfiltered]. In 2015, it opened a $3.2 billion filtration plant under a golf driving range at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.

(b) "The biggest chunk [of the proposed $1b], or $200 million, will be used to maintain and upgrade dozens of wastewater treatment plants. Ensuring the adequate collection and treatment of wastewater, including sewage, is crucial because that wastewater is cleaned and released back into the environment and eventually reaches the rivers and streams that feed the reservoirs.

(c) "New York City's modern water system dates to 1842 when water flowed down from the first reservoir in Westchester — created by building a dam on the Croton River — in what would become known as the Croton system. It replaced a local patchwork of ponds, streams, wells and cisterns that were inadequate for a growing city, resulting in shortages during the Great Fire of 1835 and outbreaks of cholera from contaminated water.

(d) "Today, with three water systems, the city no longer has to worry about where to get its water. Yet it has faced challenges in keeping the water from the Catskill and Delaware systems safe enough to drink.

Note:
(a) Putnam County (named after Israel Putnam, a major general in American Revolutionary War], Westchester County [after City of Chester, England] and Bronx, in that order from north to south. This is the Cronton system.
(b) Croton River
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croton_River

(c)
(i) NYC’s Reservoir System. City of New York, undated
http://www.pwconserve.org/issues/watersheds/newyorkcity/
("The Delaware system, in parts of Delaware, Ulster, and Sullivan Counties [lies] southwest of the Catskill watershed")
(ii) Delaware system is named after Delaware County, New York.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware_County,_New_York
("is named after the Delaware River, which [in turn] was named in honor of Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, appointed governor of Virginia in 1609")
(iii) Delaware
https://www.etymonline.com/word/delaware
(probably ultimately from de la werre 'of the war' (a warrior), from Old French werre/guerre 'war' ")