New York City 2018 Drinking Water Supply and Quality Report Bill de Blasio Mayor Vincent Sapienza, P.E. Commissioner Tunneling through at Schoharie Reservoir OTSEGO RENSSELAER CHENANGO COUNTY SCHOHARIE COUNTY COUNTY COUNTY ALBANY Oneonta COUNTY Gilboa C D a Catskill/Delaware e t s la k w il a l r e Schoharie S Delhi h Watersheds a Reservoir n d a COLUMBIA k GREENE e COUNTY DELAWARE n COUNTY COUNTY Tu Hunter EW YORK n N s n le e i l M 5 Pepacton MASSACHUSETTS 12 iver Cannonsville Walton Reservoir R Reservoir Downsville Phoenicia Ashokan Esopus Reservoir Deposit Creek West Branch East Delaware T Delaware Kingston We st Delaware East Branch Delaware Tunnel unnel DUTCHESS COUNTY Hudson Neversink CUT Reservoir Rondout ULSTER Reservoir COUNTY Delaware Aqueduct Liberty Poughkeepsie Neversink CONNECTI Tunnel Delaware SULLIVAN s Ellenville e il COUNTY M 0 0 1 Croton C Croton a t PENNSYLVANIA s k Watershed i l l A q r u e v e River i R d Lake Boyds Corner k u Reservoir Gleneida s n le i c Middle i s t M r Branch e 5 v Reservoir 7 e PUTNAM lead Bog Brook N Lake i COUNTY G Reservoir ORANGE East Branch COUNTY Kirk Reservoir West Branch Lake g on Falls Divertin Reservoir Crot rvoir Reservoir Rese s ile Titicus M 0 Amawalk Reservoir 5 New Croton Reservoir Cross River Reservoir Reservoir Croton Water N H Muscoot NEW YORK CITY e Filtration Plant Hillview u w dson Reservoir Reservoir C WATER TUNNELS AND ro WESTCHESTER NY t City o Li NEW YORK COUNTY ne ROCKLAND n Jerome Park DISTRIBUTION AREAS Sound A Reservoir COUNTY NEW JER q R Island u CONNECTICUT i e g v n d e Hudson River Lo uc r SEY Cat/Del t Kensico New Croton Aqueduct BRONX UV Facility Reservoir all) y H Cit m fro White City Tunnel No. 1 s ( ile Plains M 5 Croton Water 2 Filtration Plant Hillview d r AN East Rive Reservoir TT Jerome Park Island Soun Reservoir Long City Tunnel No. 3 MANHA City Tunnel No. 1 Bronx n City Tunnel No. 3 City Tunnel No. 3 (Stage 2) Queens/Brooklyn Leg (Activation Ready) Manhattan NASSAU City Tunnel No. 2 COUNTY Silver Lake Park (Underground Storage Tanks) QUEENS Queens City Tunnel No. 2 el nn ond Tu hm Brooklyn Ric BROOKLYN Silver Lake Park Richmond Tunnel (Underground Storage Tanks) Staten Staten Island Island Siphon Catskill/Delaware water service area Lower New York STATEN Croton and Catskill/Delaware blended water service area Atlantic Ocean New York Groundwater supply system (offline) ISLAND Bay Bay MAP NOT TO SCALE Vincent Sapienza, P.E. Commissioner Dear Friends: On behalf of my nearly 6,000 colleagues at the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), I am proud to report that New York City continues to enjoy some of the best tap water in the world. In 2018, we continued to deliver more than 1 billion gallons of clean and delicious drinking water to nearly 10 million people every day. Many communities throughout the United States remain concerned about the safety of their public water supplies. Here in New York, we are fortunate to have a water supply that is well protected and operated by dedicated scientists, engineers and other professionals who have earned admiration among their colleagues throughout the world. The evidence of New York City’s high-quality drinking water is in the numbers and on your taste buds. In this report, you will see that New York City’s drinking water continued to meet or sur- pass every national and state standard for quality. These data are based on 53,200 sam- ples that were collected by DEP scientists throughout our reservoir system, and at nearly 1,000 street-side sampling stations in every neighborhood across the City. Those samples were analyzed 654,000 times by scientists working in our four water quality laboratories. Robotic monitoring stations on our reservoirs provided another 1.3 million tests to ensure DEP was sending the best-quality water to New York City at all times. The excellent scientific results were validated last summer by our customers and other New Yorkers. In 2018, New York City earned first place in the New York State Tap Water Taste Test competition. That honor was based on hundreds of people who lined up in New York City and at the state fair in Syracuse to taste water from dozens of cities, towns, and villages. In the end, New York City earned the blue ribbon for our great-tasting water. None of these good results happen by accident. Our drinking water system relies on vast reservoirs, large dams, hundreds of miles of aqueducts, and thousands of miles of water mains. Steady and focused investment in drinking water infrastructure is key to the future of New York City. That is why you will also find in this report news about a number of infrastructure investments DEP is making now and in the decades ahead. In 2018, we announced a $1.2 billion tunneling project in Westchester County to improve opera- tional resiliency and flexibility between a key reservoir and treatment facility. The largest repair project in the history of our water supply system, the $1 billion Delaware Aqueduct Bypass Tunnel, continued to make steady progress last year as a tunneling machine exca- vated toward the Hudson River. You will find details about these and other projects in the pages that follow. As we look forward to 2019 and beyond, I want to thank you for entrusting DEP with the operation, protection, and maintenance of your drinking water supply. We take great pride in delivering the best water to millions of New Yorkers every day. Sincerely, Vincent Sapienza, P.E. Commissioner Pepacton Reservoir NEW YORK CITY’S WATER SUPPLY The New York City Water Supply System provides approximately one located in Delaware, Greene, Schoha- billion gallons of safe drinking water daily to more than 8.6 million resi- rie, Sullivan, and Ulster counties; the dents of New York City, and to the millions of tourists and commuters Croton supply, New York City’s origi- who visit the City throughout the year. The water supply system also nal upstate supply, in Putnam, West- provides about 105 million gallons a day to approximately one mil- chester, and Dutchess counties; and a lion people living in the counties of Westchester, Putnam, Orange, and groundwater supply in southeastern Ulster. In all, the New York City Water Supply System provides nearly half Queens. Although the Department of the population of New York State with high-quality drinking water. Environmental Protection (DEP) has a permit to operate the groundwater WHERE DOES NEW YORK Catskill Mountains that are as far as supply, water from that system has 125 miles north of the City. A map not been delivered to customers in CITY’S DRINKING WATER many years. COME FROM? of the watershed and reservoirs can New York City gets its drinking be found on the inside of the front In 2018, New York City received a water from 19 reservoirs and three cover of this report. The New York blend of drinking water from the controlled lakes spread across a City Water Supply System, Public Catskill/Delaware and Croton sup- nearly 2,000-square-mile water- Water System Identification Num- plies. The Catskill/Delaware supply shed. The watershed is not located ber (PWSID) NY7003493, consists provided approximately 94 percent of in New York City, but rather upstate, of three individual water supplies the water, and approximately six per- in portions of the Hudson Valley and called the Catskill/Delaware supply, cent was supplied by Croton. New York City 2018 Drinking Water Supply and Quality Report 2 HOW DOES NEW YORK CITY TREAT ITS WATER SUPPLIES? Catskill/Delaware Supply located in Delaware, Greene, Schoharie, Sullivan, and Ulster counties Due to the very high quality of our Catskill/Delaware supply, New York City is one of only five large cities in the country with a surface drinking water supply that does not utilize filtration as a form of treatment. Rather, the Catskill/Delaware supply operates under a Filtration Avoidance Determination (FAD), and the water from the supply is treated using two forms of disinfection to reduce microbial risk. UV Light Disinfection At the UV Disinfection Catskill/Delaware Ultraviolet (UV) Disinfection Facility Chlorine Facility exposure to UV Water is disinfected light inactivates potentially It is the largest of its kind in the world with chlorine which is harmful microorganisms. UV located in Westchester County. The a common disinfectant treatment does not change facility is designed to disinfect more added to kill germs and the water chemically, as than 2 billion gallons of water per day. stop bacteria from nothing is added except growing on pipes. energy. Croton Water Supply located in Putnam, Westchester, and Fluoride* Dutchess counties Added to water The Croton supply is filtered by the Croton Water to improve dental Filtration Plant, located underground in the Bronx. The protection, it is effective plant has the ability to filter up to 290 million gallons in preventing cavities at of drinking water each day, which helps to ensure a federally approved a sufficient supply of water for the City in the event level of 0.7 mg/L. of drought, and increases the flexibility of New York City’s supply against the potential effects of climate Other change. The Croton Water Filtration Plant first began operating in May 2015. In 2018, it was in operation from Sodium Treatment May 17 to August 15, September 26 to October 14, and Hydroxide Added to raise the pH, October 17 until December 31, 2018.