Water Watch NYC

Everything you need to know about water in NYC.


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Kathryn Garcia – The Environmental Candidate

New York City mayoral candidate Kathryn Garcia

With the Democratic Mayoral primaries fast approaching, we at Ashokan Water have environmental concerns on the forefront of our minds. While many of the candidates have taken the time to address the environmental issues facing the City; none are as well versed with the issues as Kathryn Garcia. Ms. Garcia has spent her career within government working on the city’s largest environmental issues. Her work for our City speaks for itself.  Having held several positions in the NYC Department of Environmental Protection under Mayor Bloomberg, Kathryn Garcia was tasked with overseeing The Bureau of Water Supply, the Bureau of Water and Sewer Operations, and the Bureau of Wastewater Treatment. In later years, Ms. Garcia went on to become the Commissioner of the NYC Department of Sanitation where she again tackled the city’s environmental issues. Garcia helped to pass the city’s waste equity law (in 2018) helping distribute the waste burden on the city’s communities equally and not more heavily on lower income communities as had previously been the case. 

The change that Kathryn Garcia has implemented in our city proves that she truly understands and cares about environmental protection and conservation within our city. Other candidates speak about the environment, but Garcia is a true technocrat, and clearly the environmental candidate to rally behind.


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Why the Taste of NYC Water May Change in 2022

Our friend Charles Sturcken of the DEP recently explained why water tastes different in different parts of New York City, and why the taste may change in 2022.

Neighborhoods in New York City receive their drinking water from reservoirs of the Catskill System, Croton System, Delaware System, or a combination of the three systems. The chemistry of each water source is different because of the underlying geology that surrounds our reservoirs in the Catskills and the Hudson Valley. Differences in bedrock and soil affect pH, alkalinity, calcium content and other chemical characteristics of our drinking water. Water consumers will generally not notice these small differences. However, those who use New York City water to operate industrial equipment and mechanical systems might notice that changes in water chemistry require adjustments to their treatment systems, maintenance regiments and other upkeep routines.

Croton Distribution into Manhattan & Bronx with Pumping to Queens
A map of where different water sources supply different neighborhoods in New York City.

From the end of May until October, the DEP expects the reservoir and distribution systems to be in their normal operating condition. That configuration will likely change in October when the DEP shuts the Catskill Aqueduct for the final year of a rehabilitation project that will keep the century-old aqueduct in good working order for the next 100 years. Continued updates of the water distribution maps and other information can be found at https://www1.nyc.gov/site/dep/water/current-water-distribution.page .