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Don't Major in Debt!

About the Watershed

The New York City Watershed extends 125 miles north and west of the city and is comprised of two distinct sections: West of Hudson and East of Hudson. The West of Hudson, or the Catskill/Delaware Watershed, covers about 1,900 square miles and consists of six reservoirs (Ashokan, Schoharie, Rondout, Neversink, Pepacton and Cannonsville) that supply approximately 90% of the drinking water to New York City and parts of Westchester, Putnam, Orange and Ulster counties.

East of Hudson, or the Croton Watershed, lies entirely east of the Hudson River and is about 375 square miles and consists of 10 smaller reservoirs and three controlled lakes that provide about 10% of New York City's drinking water. Combined, these two systems provide about 1.3 billion gallons of water every day to approximately 9.5 million consumers.

In terms of human benefits, one would be hard-pressed to name a more critical natural habitat anywhere in the world. The catastrophic consequences of not protecting this prize-winning unfiltered water supply is both economic and environmental.

January 21, 1997
The Governor of New York State, Mayor of New York City, EPA, Coalition of Watershed Towns and representatives of five groups from the environmental community, which comprise the Clean Drinking Water Coalition (CDWC)—NYPIRG, Riverkeeper, Catskill Center for Conservation and Development, The Trust for Public Land, and the Open Space Institute—signed the historic Watershed Memorandum of Agreement.

The three main components of the agreement were:

1. Land Acquisition
   • Allow New York City to acquire sufficient buffer land around the reservoirs and their tributaries and other important land features. In addition, the city would pay property taxes on the lands that it owned and this amounted to a significant source of income for upstate communities.
   • Willing Seller/Willing Buyer basis. The city is simply obligated to solicit land from owners, not actually acquire.
2. Watershed Rules and Regulations
   • Control sources of pollution including wastewater treatment plans, sewer systems, septic upgrades and stormwater pollution.
3. Watershed Protection and Partnership Programs
   • City provides over $270 million and the state $53 million over the next 10 to 15 years to fund partnership programs that would balance economic development with environmental protection. The Catskill Watershed Corporation, CWC, was formed to manage many of these programs.