New York: New York City and Seven Upstate New
York Counties -
Effective Watershed Management Earns Filtration
Waiver for New York
Background
New York City's population of approximately eight million residents, shares its water
supply with one million residents of Westchester, Putnam, Orange, and Ulster Counties,
with all consuming approximately 1.2 billion gallons of drinking water daily. The source of
this water supply is a network of 19 surface water reservoirs, covering 2,000 square
miles in a region of upstate New York that extends 125 miles north and west of New
York City and encompasses two different regional watersheds. The source water
protection areas are located in eight New York State counties: Delaware, Greene,
Schoharie, Sullivan, Ulster, Putnam, Dutchess and Westchester.
Agriculture is one of the major land uses in the source water protection areas. Dairy and
livestock farming present one of the greatest non-point pollution challenges to the
comprehensive source water protection program. The agricultural industry, however, is
often reluctant to embrace traditional regulatory programs, in part because many
programs are perceived as "anti-farming". The challenge regarding agriculture is to
reconcile the public health and environmental resource protection interests of a large
and distant city with the farming community's desire to maintain an agricultural way of life
in the watershed region. Another major challenge is reconciling New York City's interests
with those of upstate communities, including their interest in maintaining economic
viability.
The major impetus for serious negotiations on a viable program to safeguard the City's
water supply was provided by EPA's clear intentions to require the City to filter its
Catskill/Delaware water supply system (at the cost of several billion dollars) unless it
substantially strengthened its existing watershed protection program.
Priority Contamination Threat
Nonpoint source pollution from agriculture, predominantly dairy and livestock, is the
priority contamination threat to the water supply.
Local Involvement and Developing the Protection Plan
The New York State Governor's office and EPA played a key role in getting the
negotiations moving by bringing in all watershed stakeholders, including several
environmental groups and a coalition of watershed towns. In 1997, the City of New York,
New York State, the counties of Delaware, Greene, Schoharie, Sullivan, Ulster, Putnam,
and Westchester, watershed municipalities, and a number of environmental groups
entered into a watershed protection agreement, called the Watershed Memorandum of
Agreement (MOA), that is designed to protect New York City's drinking water supply
source for years to come. The partnership also includes the agricultural community.
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Citizen and environmental activists were instrumental in focusing attention on the
vulnerability of the New York City water supply system. The MOA unites the watershed
communities, New York City, New York State, the U.S. EPA and environmentalists in
support of an enhanced watershed protection program for the New York City drinking
water supply. The MOA is regarded as an international model in stakeholder consensus
negotiations and sustainable development. In the course of the negotiations among
these parties, the concept of voluntary partnerships and locally-based watershed
protection programs was expanded and formalized. New York City funding for these
initiatives is critical to program success.
New York City's current source water protection program includes a large community
involvement component. Some initiatives, such as the Watershed Agricultural Program,
are designed to target specific communities or stakeholders. In this case, the goal is to
reduce pollution from farms within the watershed through thoughtful management of
agricultural practices.
Another example of community involvement is the Catskill Watershed Corporation
(CWC), which was established when the MOA was signed. The CWC is a non-profit
organization created to implement a number of Watershed Protection and Partnership
Programs (see below). Although funded by the city, the Board of Directors of the CWC is
composed of local elected officials, and enjoys most of the decision-making
responsibility.
To address specific issues within the watershed, committees composed of citizens and
various stakeholder groups have been formed. One example is the Sporting Advisory
Committee, which examines potential recreational opportunities and impacts within the
watershed. In addition to these programs, there is a Watershed Office of Public Affairs
that conducts educational outreach at schools, county fairs and other public venues.
Educational materials are distributed manually and electronically via a website.
Management Measures
The MOA between New York City and upstate counties consists of three separate
watershed protection programs:
Land Acquisition Program
The Land Acquisition Program has enabled the City to acquire environmentally sensitive,
undeveloped land at fair market value from willing sellers. The City will continue to pay
property taxes and conduct a community review process for any property under
consideration. To provide reasonable opportunities for growth in and around existing
population centers, the Watershed MOA allows some towns and villages to exempt
certain areas from solicitation under the program.
From 1997 through 2007, the City protected 85,000 acres at a cost of $260 million under
this program. An additional $320 million will be available for land acquisition over the
next ten years.
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The City is committed to spending up to $310 million on land acquisition in the
watersheds through outright purchase or conservation easement over a ten to fifteen
year period. In October of 1997, the city acquired the first parcels of upstate land under
the agreement. As of September 30, 2006, the city has acquired or purchased contracts
to acquire over 74,500 acres from nearly 900 landowners at a total price of
approximately $187 million.
Watershed Regulatory Program
Under the agreement, new regulations were negotiated among counties and
communities, the State, New York City, EPA, and environmental groups to control
pollution within the watersheds. These regulations ensure that new projects are
designed and constructed in ways that protect water quality within the watersheds. They
include extensive review of proposed developments to ensure compliance with
watershed regulations and standards.
Watershed Protection and Partnership Programs
In response to farmers' concerns about the potential economic impact of proposed
revisions to New York City's watershed rules and regulations, the City put aside its
purely regulatory approach and entered into a partnership with the watershed farm
community to carry out a locally developed and administered voluntary Watershed
Agricultural Program. The City has committed more than $100 million to refine and
demonstrate an environmentally sound "whole farm planning" approach. The farmer-led
Watershed Agricultural Council has been very successful in recruiting farmers to
participate in the program and in implementing whole farm plans, with more than 95% of
watershed farmers signing up voluntarily. This is the one partnership program that is not
in the MOA, having been put in place prior to MOA negotiations.
As part of its financial commitment to the MOA, the City pays for upgrades to the
wastewater treatment systems owned and operated by upstate municipalities and
private operators (e.g., the Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade Program). The MOA
has also provided for nearly $14 million in "good neighbor" payments, which go directly
to the municipalities involved as payment for joining the agreement. Other major
Watershed Protection and Partnership Program efforts established in the MOA include
the Catskill Fund for the Future, rehabilitation of failing septic systems, sewer
extensions, construction of new wastewater treatment plants in communities with
concentrated areas of failing septics, stormwater retrofits, stream corridor protection,
sand/salt facilities, and public education (see more details on some of these efforts
below).
When the MOA took effect, the EPA issued a five-year Filtration Avoidance
Determination (FAD), which allowed the City to avoid water filtration as long as
management measures prove effective. EPA renewed the FAD in 2002 and in July
2007. The following components of the MOA are currently under way or completed:
• Upgrades of the nine City-owned upstate sewage treatment plants (cost:
approximately $232 million);
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• "Good neighbor" payments, which go directly to the municipalities involved as an
incentive for joining the partnership;
• Construction or upgrading of public and privately-owned wastewater
infrastructure, including failing septic systems;
• Acquisition of hydrologically sensitive lands in high priority areas near reservoirs,
streams and wetlands (cost: from $260 million to $310 million);
• Establishment of the Catskill Fund for the Future, an economic development
bank to support responsible, environmentally-sensitive development in the
watershed (cost $60 million);
• Monitoring of water quality in streams, reservoirs, and the distribution system;
and,
• Formation of the Watershed Protection and Partnership Council; and
establishment of Sportsmen's Advisory Councils to review and recommend
possible public recreational uses of City-owned lands in the watershed.
Contingency Planning
New York City draws its water from two watersheds bordering both sides of the Hudson
River. Water east of the Hudson River (the Croton system), which represents about 10
percent of the total water supplied to the city, is under a federal consent order to build a
filtration plant. The plant is under construction and scheduled to be competed in 2011.
Water west of the Hudson, where development is sparse, is unfiltered. Most of the
watershed management programs are aimed at the area west of the Hudson in an effort
to maintain water purity and avoid the need for filtering. However, if at anytime it is
determined that the City's watershed protection program is inadequate, the City will be
required to install a filtration plant for the Catskill/Delaware system. In fact, as part of
EPA's filtration avoidance determination, the City was required to complete a preliminary
design for a filtration plant as a contingency. In addition, the City will construct an
Ultraviolet (UV) light disinfection facility to provide an enhanced level of protection to
consumers. The fact that water is distributed between 19 reservoirs helps to ensure that
any potential localized pollution event will not contaminate the entire system.
Measuring Program Effectiveness
The City has conducted both qualitative and quantitative assessments of program
effectiveness. Qualitatively, program managers looked at the level of community "buy-in"
to the program, particularly as this is reflected in local implementation and maintenance
of management practices. To date, the results are excellent. The partnership
organizations created at the time the MOA was signed have thrived, taking on new
watershed protection programs in securing additional sources of funding to augment City
funding. However, municipalities' concer4ns about the City's robust land-acquisition
program remains as a serious area of disagreement.
Program effectiveness is assessed quantitatively through both an accounting of specific
programs achievements (e.g., number of septics repaired, number of stormwater control
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practices constructed) and extensive water quality sampling both within the City's
distribution systems and the upstate watersheds. The City began conducting more
intensive sampling around the same time that evaluation and protection of the watershed
began, approximately 15 years ago in 1991. This extensive data set has allowed the City
to establish abaseline against which water quality changes can be assessed. Also, the
city is financing reservoir and terrestrial modeling to understand the system more
completely and evaluate program effectiveness. The City's assessments have
demonstrated that overall water quality remains excellent throughout the
Catskill/Delaware water supply system. In addition, the City has been able to attribute
some significant localized water quality improvements to specific protection activities.
Based on these assessments, the City has refined its protection activities.
Contacts
Bureau of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs
New York City Department of Environmental Protection
(718) 595-6600.
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