Published in November 1999.

The Croton, Kensico and West Branch watersheds of the New York City drinking water supply are suffering an onslaught of real estate development at an unprecedented pace and scale. Largely due to lack of diligence by the Giuliani administration, developers are pushing into every remaining unoccupied corner of the watershed, building roads, strip malls, office complexes, apartment buildings and residential subdivisions. This accelerating destruction jeopardizes both the health of water consumers and the financial security of the city itself, as the possibility of a federally mandated $8 billion filtration plant looms large.

Under the Giuliani Administration, the City agency charged with protecting the water supply, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), has shown little willingness to fight the tough political and legal battles necessary to safeguard it. Following City Hall's weak signals, DEP engineering staff has capitulated to the powerful watershed real estate lobby on issue after issue. In a series of stunning policy decisions, DEP leadership recently opened up thousands of acres of watershed land once protected from the threat of development by the presence of wetlands, steep slopes or restrictions on the construction of new sewage treatment plants.

Though DEP's Engineering Section employs some of DEP’s most committed personnel, the ability of this unit to effectively control watershed development has been hamstrung. It is hampered by shoddy engineering practices endorsed by upper-level staff and by major policy decisions of high-ranking DEP and City Hall officials. As a consequence, the watershed that supplies 9 million New Yorkers with unfiltered drinking water is in jeopardy.

The Watershed Agreement gives DEP a fighting chance to control dangerous growth and minimize injury to water quality. But the regulations are not self-enforcing. They require strict application and aggressive enforcement against developers who pollute or contribute to the subdivision sprawl that threatens unspoiled areas outside of existing villages, towns and hamlets.

Tolerance of shoddy engineering practices by high-level DEP engineers also has played into the hands of the watershed's most rapacious developers. DEP engineers have used discredited and outdated stormwater models that encourage dangerous development. They have routinely failed to conduct site visits prior to issuing approvals. They have missed opportunities to steer development projects out of sensitive areas by failing to attend local planning board meetings. DEP has abandoned its powers to map and protect small wetlands or to use the State Environmental Quality Review Act to fight harmful projects and support positive watershed protection initiatives. Finally, preoccupied by crisis management, DEP has done almost nothing to prepare for the critical sessions later this year during which the City will sit down with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the State Health Department, environmental groups and upstate communities to renegotiate the terms of filtration avoidance, a crucial opportunity to strengthen the watershed regulations.

Though staffed by some of the agency's brightest and most devoted employees, DEP's Division of Engineering has allowed itself to become an agent of destruction in the New York City watershed. This report outlines the major policy failures of DEP's Division of Engineering. It also makes a series of recommendations for strengthening watershed development review and for fighting the most harmful development projects. Among other things, DEP must:

• Revoke its policy of allowing construction of new septic systems on steep slopes in the watershed.
  
  
• Seek federal protection for wetlands within the watershed, including small isolated wetlands, and use the City's own powers to safeguard these critical resources.
  
  
• Reject the use of experimental sewage treatment technologies such as the Zenon System that allow developers to circumvent the watershed agreement.
  
  
• Take advantage of a burgeoning anti-sprawl movement by assisting local watershed groups in fighting the most egregious developments.
  
  
• Adopt new methods of analyzing stormwater pollution.
  
  
• Utilize the full array of local, state and federal environmental laws, especially the State Environmental Quality Review Act, to combat harmful development projects.
  
  
• Stand up to destructive policies by state agencies such as the Department of Health, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Environmental Conservation.

In sum, DEP must marshal the talents of its staff and its substantial resources to act as an advocate for water quality and for the 9 million rate payers who provide the agency's budget.