Watershed Agreement Background
1989
EPA promulgated the Surface Water Treatment Rule to protect drinking water sources nationwide pursuant to the 1986 Safe Drinking Water Amendments.
These new rules mandated that all surface drinking water sources—including New York City's—have to meet certain water quality standards by June 1993 or be filtered.
1990
NYC DEP released a draft Watershed Protection Plan, which included revised watershed rules and regulations, which had not been updated since 1953, and a land acquisition program.
1991
Upstate communities were not happy with this draft plan and 34 towns, 9 villages and 5 counties banded together to form the Coalition of Watershed Towns.
1993
EPA issues the City a one-year Filtration Avoidance Determination or FAD. As a condition of the FAD, the City was required to among other things:
(a) Issue Final Watershed Regulations
These rules and regulations, which ultimately was a point of contention for the upstate communities, involved restrictions within the watershed that would reduce contaminants and prevent degradation of the water supply. However, there were exemptions for certain activities that were designed to promote responsible growth in certain areas, while protecting water quality through increased regulation of activities within those areas.
(b) Begin acquiring land and conservation easements in the watershed
It became obvious that uncontrolled development on watershed lands threatened the NYC water supply. Permanently securing buffer zones around water supply areas was a prudent way to prevent water quality degradation.
(c) Upgrade the sewage treatment plants in the watershed
There were 102 wastewater treatment plants that discharged directly into streams of the New York City watershed. The Upgrade Program was designed to remove 99.9% of disease-causing pathogens from the discharges. While New York's water is eventually chlorinated before it enters the City, there are two microbes, Giardia cysts and Cryptosporidium oocysts that are resistant to chlorination. In addition, the upgrades would remove phosphorous which causes algae blooms in reservoir.
1993, December
EPA grants a 2nd FAD until December 1996. As part of the conditions of this FAD, the City had to:
(a) Have their Watershed Protection Programs in place
(b) Have acquired 80,000 acres by December 1999. This condition was ultimately dropped in the final agreement since the City was clearly not going to be able to achieve this goal.
1995
When it became clear that the Watershed Protection Plan was creating incredible controversy and spurring lawsuits from the upstate communities, the Governor decide to bring federal, state, and local officials together with key environmental groups to negotiate an agreement that would:
(a) End the litigation,
(b) Consider the property rights of the communities in the watershed and
(c) Provide a framework for protecting drinking water.
