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• 1842 Croton water arrived in the city, superseded the use of springs in Manhattan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

• 3 watersheds: Croton, Catskill, 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 (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
• Jamaica water supply company, pumps groundwater in Queens
• total supply of the city: 1.5 bill gal/d (2 km^3/y)
• 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)
• future additional sources: Hudson River, groundwater, Great Lakes
• how to improve the situation:
• metering:
• water is very cheap (1 $ per 750 gal, 1989)
• being implemented right now for residences, businesses are metered already
• toilets use up 40% of household supply
• problem: old pipes, leakage loss (>10%)

• relatively good quality
• Giardia: intestine problems
• pesticide runoff
• chlorine

Goldstein, E.A and M.A. Izeman (1990) The New York Environment Book. Island Press, Washington, D.C. 267pp.

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