System continued...

he Catskill system, built between 1911 and 1927, was intended to stem the rising tide of demand from a city reeling from explosive population growth. An influx of European immigrants and the incorporation of Brooklyn made demands on the city’s supply system that the Old Croton system could no longer handle.

Ashokan reservoir was completed in 1915. The new reservoir’s capacity was 123 billion gallons of water, more than 10 times that of the Old Croton Reservoir. The Catskill Aqueduct was built to provide the city with water from its newest source. Running its 92-mile course from Ashokan down to the city’s distribution system, the Catskill Aqueduct plunges 1,114 feet into solid bedrock as it crosses the Hudson River between Storm King and Breakneck Mountains.

However, by the time the Catskill system was finished in 1927, it was obvious to city leaders that the newest supply would not be enough for New York City’s rapidly expanding population. The city’s newest reservoir system – the Delaware – was approved by the state in 1928 but was delayed because of a lawsuit by New Jersey that sought to block New York from using any of the Delaware River. However, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld New York City’s right to draw from the river, and construction of the system began in 1937.

he Delaware system supplies half of the city’s
water – almost 900 million gallons a day. Anchored by the 140 billion-gallon Pepacton Reservoir – the city’s largest – Delaware water reaches the city from up to 125 miles away.

It is this distance from the city, and the fact that it draws its main supply from the relatively unpopulated Catskills Mountains region, that helps ensure that New Yorkers drink the freshest, purist water available.

"The New York water supply is generally considered to be one of the premier systems in the world," says Kevin Bone, associate professor at Cooper Union’s School of Architecture. "It’s excellent water."

From the three systems, the vast majority of the water is diverted through Westchester County’s Kensico Reservoir, which serves to balance the flow of water to the city. Although all three systems feed into Kensico, most of the Croton system’s water (10 percent of the city’s supply) is routed through the Jerome Park Reservoir in the Bronx.

ith a capacity to deliver some 2 billion gallons of water to the city each day, the system should be able to support any sustained growth in the city over the next several decades. Although New York City’s residents may be provided for, neighboring communities are not so lucky.

"Long Island’s water is just groundwater that is first filtered through the streets and lawns before being treated," says Bone. "Because their water isn’t provided from a hard-rock mountain environment [as New York’s is], it’s not as clean."

Faced with their own population boom, eastern Long Island – which serves as its own watershed – may soon pressure New York to allow it to draw from the city’s system.

But this shouldn’t provide much of a problem, says Bone. Thanks to the excellent long-range planning of city leaders – past and present – the city’s water system should be ample to ensure that New Yorkers continue to receive the clean water they have become accustomed to far into the future.

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