New York City has one of the safest water supplies in the world. Most of New York City’s water supply comes from three watersheds located in upstate New York: the Catskill, Delaware, and Croton watersheds. Before the 1980s, the water supplied from these three watersheds was unfiltered, but with the passing of the Surface Water Treatment Rule (SWTR) in 1989, the city was required to either filter the water or keep the water unfiltered and demonstrate that it met a series of water quality and operational tests. In 1993, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a Filtration Avoidance Determination (FAD), which would keep the water unfiltered. Under this determination, New York City was required to regulate activities on watershed lands through restrictions and buffer zones. Also, the city was required to create a preliminary design for a filtration plant in case filtration was necessary in the future. This caused a tremendous amount of conflict between competing interests. Since 1995, the alternative to following the strict criteria of the EPA has been to construct a filtration system. However, the estimated cost of this project is $6-8 billion with operating costs of $500 million annually. While the EPA is concerned with the maintenance of water quality by any means necessary, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP) is looking for the most cost-effective solution, which would be to keep the water supply unfiltered.
Looking at this scenario from the perspective of a government agency, the solution is clear: New York City’s water should be kept unfiltered. Not only does this save a tremendous amount of money, but it also is effective. The New York City 2011 Drinking Water Supply and Quality Report proves this point. According to the report, New York City has one of the safest water supplies in the world and is only one of five cities in the United States not required to filter its surface water. First, the report outlines New York City’s plan under the extended FAD. This plan includes land acquisition, land management, partnership programs, and streams, farms, and forestry programs. New York City has spent over $1.5 billion on watershed protection programs. In fact, $241 million was allocated for acquiring undeveloped lands around the watersheds to protect water quality. Since 1997, the NYCDEP has secured more than 121,000 acres of land around the watersheds. Next, the report discusses the Croton Water Filtration Plant, which is expected to open in late 2012, as well as the Catskill/Delaware Ultraviolet Disinfection Facility. This facility, which is expected to begin operation in 2012, will disinfect water against harmful microorganisms using ultraviolet light. The report then goes on to discuss how New York City’s water is treated using chlorine, which disinfects it, fluoride, which helps prevent tooth decay, phosphoric acid, which reduces the release of metals (such as lead) from pipes, and sodium hydroxide, which raises the pH of the water and reduces corrosivity. Finally, the report ends with water quality testing results from 2011. The results show that every standard was met, except for the pH level, which was slightly high due to increased sodium hydroxide. In addition, there were extremely low levels of Cryptosporidium and Giardia in the water, which are intestinal illnesses. The levels were so low that they required no action by the NYCDEP.
Taking the information from this report into account, it is clear that a filtration system is not needed in New York City. New York City has one of the safest water supplies in the world. Although a filtration plant will ensure continued high water quality, instituting a filtration system will cost billions of dollars, which will put an enormous burden not only on the city, but also on taxpayers. Therefore, the best solution is to keep the water supply unfiltered and to expand on programs that protect watershed areas from pollution and hydrofracking. There is no need to fix something that is not broke.
Source:
New York City 2011 Drinking Water Supply and Quality Report. Rep. New York City 2011 Drinking Water Supply and Quality Report. NYC.gov. Web. 29 Nov. 2012.<http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/drinking_water/wsstate.shtml>.
