NEW YORK CITY WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM
history
- 1667 Manhattan's first public drinking water well at southern
edge of
the
island
- originally Manhattan had up to 300 springs (well
on Columbia Campus)
- the Manhattan Company, now Chase
Manhattan,
originally managed the city's water supply
- 1842 Croton water arrived in the city, superseded the use of
springs in
Manhattan
- 1927 completion of Catskill system + city tunnel #1
- 1965 completion of the Delaware reservoir system
today
- 3 watersheds: Croton, Catskil, Delaware; covering 2000 sq miles (Fig)
- the system consists of 18 reservoirs
- 3 tunnels connect the city to the reservoirs (Fig)
- 3rd
tunnel under construction, to be completed by 2020 (Fig)
- aqueducts 11 to 18 ft (6m!) diameter
- giant valve chambers, like this one under Van Cortland Park (Fig)
- water takes about 1 day to reach the city (flow velocity: 5
miles/h)
- Chelsea pumping station: 100 mill gal/d pumped during droughts
from
Hudson
- A few wells pump groundwater in Queens
- distribution network in the city (Fig)
- total supply of the city: 1.5 bill gal/d (2 km^3/y, 1983/84)
- attempt to split up the use: (1983/84)
- 53% residential, 17% industrial and commercial, 14% gov and
public, 9%
leakage, 7% unaccounted for (Fig)
- total: 760 l/person/day, residential: 400 l/person/d }
- national average: 300l/d (just home)
- these numbers are fairly old, more recently the total water
consumption in NYC has dropped by 1/3
- future additional sources: Hudson River, groundwater, Great Lakes
- how to improve the situation:
- metering:
- water
is cheap (~$2.60/100ft3, including plus sewer),
appartment dwellers do not see any bills => no incentive for
saving water
- being implemented right now for residences, businesses are
metered
already
- toilets use up 40% of household supply
- problem: old pipes, leakage loss (>10%)
water quality
- relatively good quality
- Giardia: intestine problems
- pesticide runoff
- chlorination by-products
RESOURCES:
- Goldstein, E.A and M.A. Izeman (1990) The New York Environment
Book.
Island Press, Washington, D.C. 267pp.
- Koeppel, G.T. (2001) Water for Gotham: A History (Paperback),
Princeton University Press, 376p.
- Smith, J.R. (1938) Springs and Wells of Manhattan and the Bronx
New
York City. New-York Historical Society, 246pp.
- New
York
City's
Water Supply System
