The Watershed is protected by the historic 1997 Watershed Memorandum of Agreement, which was negotiated by New York City, New York State, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, watershed municipalities, and five environmental groups: Riverkeeper, New York Public Interest Research Group, Catskill Center, Trust for Public Land and Open Space Institute. The Watershed Agreement provides a framework by which the City can meet the requirements of the FAD. It is divided into three components: watershed regulations, land acquisition, and partnership programs.
The Watershed Agreement establishes several Partnership Programs between the City and watershed municipalities and organizations. Through these programs, the City funds projects to address such issues as septic system upgrades, infrastructure repair and extension, and non-point source pollution.
Although the 1997 Watershed Agreement is an historic accomplishment with the potential to permanently protect New York’s drinking water from decline, the agreement is not self-enforcing. Absent aggressive efforts by New York City and the other signatories to implement and enforce its provisions, the agreement will fail. As a signatory to and author of the agreement, Riverkeeper has a unique public role to ensure that the agreement succeeds and special authority to enforce and oversee its implementation.
The Watershed Agricultural Program, managed by the Watershed Agricultural Council, is among the most successful of these programs, leveraging City, state, federal and private funds to reduce agriculture-related pollution in the Catskill/Delaware watershed. Similarly, the Catskill Watershed Corporation has been extremely successful with septic system repairs and community development programs.