NEW YORK – Continued protection of the New York City reservoir system and Catskills watershed are among the top priorities of a just-released Department of Environmental Protection Strategic 2011-2014 plan.

Among its initiatives is to maintain New York City’s unfiltered drinking water status; complete key construction projects to protect and maintain drinking water quality, including the Catskill/Delaware ultraviolent disinfection facility, the Croton water filtration plant, and stage 2 of the city water tunnel number three; protect the water supply from hydrofracking; and repair leaks in the Delaware Aqueduct.

Catskill Mountainkeeper Executive Director Ramsay Adams is very much in support of the plan, especially the no-hydrofracking stance.

“The very strong language saying that drilling isn’t safe in the watershed has big repercussions for all of us and everybody in this; if it’s not good enough for New York City, then it isn’t good enough for the rest of us,” he said. “That’s a strong message from the mayor and from the City of New York that the current technology isn’t safe and that they are going to do everything they can to keep it out of the watershed.”

Congressman Maurice Hinchey also wants to keep hydrofracking out of the watershed while it uses current technology.

“The quality of the water is very important. They have a deep responsibility to make sure that the quality of water is not just focused on the people who use water in the New York City area, but for all the people who live in the region where that very important water quality is generated,” he said.

Since the upstate reservoir system feed eight million residents in the City of New York, the strategic plan has a number of initiatives to protect the end users. It also feeds one million people in Westchester, Putnam, Ulster and Orange counties and will continue to provide customer service for them.

DEP operates 19 reservoirs, 295 miles of aqueducts, some 2,000 square miles of watershed, 6,600 miles of water mains, 7,400 miles of sewers, 965 water quality monitoring stations, 109,000 fire hydrants, 141,000 catch basis and 14 wastewater treatment plants.