New York Water: Is it Pristine No More?

When people are worried about day to day existence, they are less likely to fret about the environment. So goes the popular wisdom and so, it seems, the New Yorker's believes.

On a number of sensitive issues, environmentalists fear they are losing battles in New York. The reason is painfully obvious. This week the federal officials announced that the city's water, coming from the largest unfiltered system in the country is getting muddier and may have to be completely filtered.

"The city's complex system with 19 reservoirs bringing mountain water to New York from as far as 125 miles away through a gravity-fed web of aqueducts is facing accusations from Federal officials, and if the city cannot find a permanent solution to the silt, it may not be able to avoid building a huge filtration plant that could cost about $8 billion," according to the New York Times.

So it may surprise, the New Yorkers as they think they have been drinking pristine water clouded by particles of clay, washed into upstate reservoirs by violent storms.

Moreover, the city has been doing everything to keep the water clean and to keep the tap water running clear. It is reported that the city has been dumping 16 tons of chemicals a day, on average, into the water supply as an emergency measure to meet federal water quality standards.

New York water has historically been pure, so New York has largely been exempt from federal rules created in the late 1980's that require all water systems to be filtered, according to the sources.

But unfortunately for New York, as federal officials review the city's five-year exemption, which expires at the end of this year, they have openly expressed concern about the water quality.

However, the city is confident that it will win renewal. But such visionaries face daunting obstacles as the task won't be easy.

Emily Lloyd, commissioner of the city's Department of Environmental Protection, which runs the water system, was quoted as saying by the New York Times that the department was working on plans to reduce turbidity without chemicals, particularly in two big reservoirs in the Catskill Mountains.

"Alum, as it is called, is used in most public drinking water systems in the United States to keep water clear because it draws together small particles, causing them to clump up and settle before the water enters the distribution system," according to the sources.

But, perhaps worst of all, everybody is not convinced. Some people see the prolonged use of alum as a sign that turbidity - the condition that makes water cloudy and interferes with chlorination to eliminate contaminants has become more severe, most probably because of changing weather patterns and increasing runoff from land development upstate.

Meanwhile, James M. Tierney, an assistant state attorney general who has special responsibility over the city's 2,000-square-mile upstate watershed, has criticized the city vocally for not taking prompt measures to amend the most serious problem facing the business capital of the world. And this accusation shows how much of the recent water concern is structural in nature.

Likewise, in a letter to state environmental officials in April, Mr. Tierney said the continued use of alum "would appear to indicate seriously deficient conditions in the Catskill portion of the New York City Watershed," according to the New York Times report.

It may not sound much, but this is the stuff of revolution, as most people no longer belive that New York water is pristine, and they want the city to do something before its too late. More and more people are losing patience, and why shouldn't they be. After all water is water, there is no replacement for water.

The system worked well for decades, with alum being used only rarely. But over the century, development in the Catskills, the building of roads, clearing of land and paving over of ground, all increased soil erosion, contributing to more runoff, according to the federal officials.

Moreover, it has been reported that the Federal officials first raised concerns about turbidity in granting the filtration avoidance permit in 2002. And since then, the city has studied several engineering and operational options for restoring the city's water supply to its former glory.

But the critics say that won't be easy. Internal sources say the mood at the city is a mixture of confusion and depression, after the Federal official's sensational statement.

Despite all this, New York City does not, however, give up easily. For one thing, it does have the technology and the manpower to curb this water crisis and regain its lost water glory soon.