The Croton Watershed Clean Water Coalition strives to protect and improve the waters of New York City’s Croton Watershed, a critical component of the water supply for over half of New York State. We are an alliance of individuals and groups who believe that safe, clean and affordable drinking water is a basic human right.

OUR COALITION AND THE ISSUES WE FACE

Who We Are
The Croton Watershed Clean Water Coalition, Inc., was formed in 1997, as a 501(c)(3) organization, with the primary goal of preventing the construction, by NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), of a massive, costly chemical treatment/filtration plant for Croton water. With high quality source water such as the Croton, the membership agreed that it would be far more effective and far less costly to protect the water at its source rather than indulge in a huge engineering project that would also require expensive future maintenance.

We comprise over 50 member groups – housing, community, environmental and religious – throughout NYC, Westchester and Putnam Counties.

The New York City Water Supply
New York City’s watershed, that supplies NYC and environs with over one billion gallons per day, covers an area close to 2000 square miles both East of Hudson (EOH) and West of Hudson (WHO). The Catskill and Delaware (Cat/Del) systems that lie mostly WOH together normally supply 90% of the water. However, their aqueducts also carry water into EOH reservoirs, most notably the Kensico, the West Branch and Boyd Corners which are considered part of the Cat/Del system.

Croton reservoirs are all EOH, in the Croton Watershed that is located in northern Westchester county, the eastern portion of Putnam county and a small portion of Connecticut.

These watersheds are shown on the maps under Resources.

Croton reservoirs normally supply 10% of NYC’s needs, and up to 30% in times of drought.

The three systems supply high quality, still unfiltered drinking water for over 9 million people, over half the population of NYS.

Why is the Croton System to be Chemically Treated and Filtered?
Back in 1992, when the DEP could still have applied for filtration avoidance for the Croton, it failed to do so, not because the water was below standard (it wasn’t) but because the DEP, in its own words, lacked the “political will” to protect the Croton watershed.

Subsequent compromises that led to the landmark 1997 Watershed Agreement allowed the DEP to institute a long-range program to protect its huge, still unfiltered Cat/Del system, thereby avoiding having to build an $8 billion chemical treatment/filtration plant. But the sacrificial lamb was the much smaller Croton system that, at the insistence of the development community, was slated to be filtered. Filtration, we were told, would be effective in cleaning up the pollution caused by the upcoming juggernaut of development in the Croton watershed.

DEP’s failure to apply for filtration avoidance for its Croton system has resulted in a Consent Decree issued by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the NYS Department of Health (DOH) to filter its Croton system by May, 2012.

Originally estimated at about $800 million, the cost of the plant has skyrocketed to $2.8 billion as of the end of 2007.

CWCWC’s Role in Trying to Prevent Filtration
CWCWC’s fears that filtration would mean less protection for the watershed have, unfortunately, been amply justified, despite EPA’s assurances of a multi-barrier approach to watershed protection. Ten years after the 1997 signing of the Watershed Agreement, DEP has only acquired about 1,600 acres in the Croton Watershed in contrast to the well over 3,000 acres controlled by developers. As a result, the once excellent water quality in the Croton has been decreasing, and phosphorus levels, the pollutant of most concern, have been rising in the reservoirs.

CWCWC challenged, in the courts, DEP’s proposal to build the chemical/treatmnt filtration plant to treat Croton water. We opposed the method that DEP proposed to use that resulted in their having to dig a 100-foot hole with an 8-acre surface area in order to finally “hide” the plant. This has taken place in a particularly vulnerable area of Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, resulting in the destruction of hundreds of century-old hardwood trees and the deprivation of much-needed park-space for the local neighborhood (click on Watershed Tour to see the pictures).

CWCWC fought the filtration plant all the way to the NYS Court of Appeals – and lost. During that process, CWCWC also argued that DEP should be using the most effective and modern water treatment technology available, namely membrane filtration, rather than DEP’s Dissolved Air Flotation with Filtration (DAF/F). Membrane filtration has become the method of choice worldwide, and is far more effective at removing pollutants, is far less costly, and has a far smaller footprint than DAF/F. Unfortunately, DEP refused to change course, and the courts deferred to DEP.

CWCWC’s Role in Protecting the Croton Watershed
CWCWC continues to protect vigorously the Croton watershed’s streams, wetlands and reservoirs despite the fact that the water treatment plant is being built. There are several reasons.

One is that the further the raw water reaching the plant is allowed to degrade, the more expensive it becomes to restore it to potable levels.

The second is that Croton watershed residents depend largely on local well water. Although the following fact is often overlooked, surface water and the groundwater that feeds the wells can be intimately connected. In many cases, groundwater provides the baseflow for nearby streams. But the reverse can also takes place: pollutants entering the streams or other surface water can end up in the local wells.

CWCWCs protection efforts have taken several forms.

If you wish further information, please don’t hesitate to call our office at 914 234-6470.
Or you can reach us by email at crotonwshed@aol.com.