Government agencies have differeing opinions. For the EPA, they are only concerned with whether the water is filtered and not by its means. Local agencies, such as the NYCDEP want the most cost effective method for the safety for the water supply. For this reason, they are in favor of compromise that allows water flow unfiltered from upstate communities to avoid costly filtration.
Mayor Bloomberg seems to support the buffer zone. He says the acquiring land is important to ptotect the 19 reservoirs and three controlled lakes at the three watersheds. He also says by protecting these areas, it will also prevent hydrofracking in these areas that surround our water supplies. It seems like as years go by, thye feel like they can turn the land they have to have recreational puporses such as fishing, rowing, hiking, hunting, etc. There also programs whose goals were to “support and maintain well-managed family farms and working ofrests as beneficial land uses for water quality protection and riral economic vialbility” (pg. 4).
The government also is very concern about the amount of water usage. They provided many ways of tracking how much you use including a tracking system and will send messages electronically if they detect something is out of place with the amount of water being used.
Also the reason why there is no need to filter water is because the quality of the water shows there is no need to filter it. In 2011, according to the article, “DEP collected more than 33,000 samples from the city’s distribution system and performed more than 357,000 analyses, meeting all State and federal sampling requirements” (pg. 10)
Almost all of NYC water is lead free when it is delivered from the NYC’s upstate reservoir system but the water can asorb from solder, fixtures, and pipes found in the plumbing of some buildings or homes. NYDEP has a program to reduce the amount of lead absorption from service lines and internal plumbing. Under the federal Lead and Copper Rule (LCR), mandated at-the-tap lead monitoring is required and conducted at selected households located throughout New York City. In 2010, the results for the at-the-tap monitoring exceeded the lead Action Level (AL), which is 15 μg/L for the 90th percentile. The Action Level is a standard for the concen¬tration of a substance, which no more than 10 percent of the samples should exceed, and/or 90 percent of the results must be at or below said standard. As a result, DEP returned to semi-annual at-the-tap monitoring in 2011. The results of the 2011 monitoring indicated that lead levels returned to normal and were below the AL.
They also test for cryptosporidium and giardia. Cryp¬tosporidiosis and giardiasis are intestinal illnesses caused by microscopic pathogens, which can be waterborne. From January 1 to December 31, 2011, a total of 104 routine samples were collected and analyzed for Cryptosporidium oocysts and Giardia cysts at the Kensico Reservoir effluents, and 52 routine samples were collected at the New Croton Reservoir effluent. Of the 104 routine Kensico Reservoir effluent samples, three were positive for Cryptosporidium (0 to 1 oocysts/50L), and 81 were positive for Giardia (0 to 6 cysts/50L). Of the 52 routine New Croton Res¬ervoir effluent samples, one was positive for Cryptosporidium (0 to 1 oocysts/50L), and 39 were positive for Giardia (0 to 12 cysts/50L). These levels are considered low and therefore action is not needed to take against it. Also outbreaks of these diseases in New York City have no evidence of being associated to drinking tap water.
“New York City 2011 Drinking Water Supply and Quality Report.” Drinking Water Supply and Quality Report. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2012. .
