Riverkeeper believes that access to clean, affordable drinking water must be a human right. In the interest of protecting human health and preserving freshwater ecosystems, filtration of public drinking water supplies should be considered as a last resort to be employed only when an unfiltered water supply poses an imminent threat to public health. Sound watershed protection programs not only safeguard human health and aquatic life but also are vastly more economical than filtration.

New York City’s watershed protection efforts demand full funding to protect this valuable resource for this and all future generations. Compared to the expense of a filtration plant, the City’s watershed protection expenditures are a bargain. To date, the City’s approximate $1.5 billion investment in watershed protection has paid off: New York continues to enjoy some of the cleanest and least expensive drinking water in the world.

If New York City fails to demonstrate that it can continue to successfully protect the source of 90% of its water supply, the Catskill/Delaware (Cat/Del) system, then EPA will likely order New York City to build a filtration plant. And the price is steep: the cost of filtration for the Catskill/Delaware water supply is estimated at $8-12 billion for construction with operating costs around $350 million a year ($1 million a day!). The practical consequences of that decision will be that water rates will rise even higher, and badly needed funds will be drained from essential City services such as police, infrastructure, health care, education, and transportation. And, worst of all, if a filtration plant is ever built, the City’s watershed protection efforts will most likely fall by the wayside.

As part of the Clean Drinking Water Coalition, Riverkeeper advocates for City spending – for the City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), DEP police force, and watershed protection programs – that is necessary to fully protect source waters throughout the NYC Watershed.