NYC Watershed > History

History

More than nine million people living in New York City, Westchester, Putnam, Orange and Ulster Counties enjoy clean, unfiltered drinking water from the Croton, Catskill and Delaware Watersheds. The 6,000-mile network of pipes, shafts and subterranean aqueducts carries approximately 1.2 billion gallons of pristine water each day from 19 upstate reservoirs.

It is a remarkable engineering achievement and the single largest man-made financial asset in New York State. But, today the city’s reservoir infrastructure is in serious trouble, as is its ability to continue supplying New Yorkers with water.

Many of the nation’s water systems are over 100 years old and in a state of grave neglect. Between 23,000 and 75,000 combined sewage overflows occur each year as a result of failing infrastructure, spilling out 1.26 trillion gallons of untreated sewage annually and incurring $50.6 billion in clean up costs.

Tell Gov. Hochul to block invasive species at the Erie and Champlain canals
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