Ashokan Reservoir, in Ulster County, one of several in the NYC system

NEW YORK - The Clean Drinking Water Coalition Thursday gave New York City drinking water good grades.

Much of that water originates in the city’s Catskills reservoirs.

The first annual report card:  “Making the Grade:  New York City Department of Environmental Protection’s Drinking Water Protection Programs,”   said the Big Apple’s water quality remains high.

The CDWC is a partnership of The Catskill Center for Conservation and Development, NYPIRG, and Riverkeeper, all signatories to the landmark 1997 Watershed Memorandum of Agreement.  The DEP Report Card grades, analyzes, and provides recommendations for 33 of DEP’s watershed protection programs as specified in the MOA and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s filtration avoidance determinations.  

“We are pleased to report that New York City’s drinking water continues to remain high quality, and overall DEP gets a good grade for protecting our water supplies; however, we also found some areas that need improvement,” said Cathleen Breen, NYPIRG’s Watershed Protection Coordinator.

In determining the grades for each program, the CDWC relied on their own experience as watershed watchdogs, interviewed 23 New York City Watershed partners, stakeholders, and regulators including representatives of DEP, US EPA, NYS Department of Health, the Catskill Watershed Corporation and watershed town representatives, as well as analyzed DEP’s federally mandated progress reports.

“The Report Card highlights the need for New York City to provide DEP with additional funding to protect the city’s greatest natural resource.  Clean, affordable drinking water must be a basic human right,” said Alex Matthiessen, Riverkeeper president and Hudson Riverkeeper.  “It also helps demonstrate the evolution of different watershed programs.”

“This Report Card clearly shows the value of the partnership that was created by the signatories to the MOA of protecting NYC’s drinking water, and the need to strengthen support for these critical partnership programs that protect water quality and promote stakeholder involvement” said Deborah Meyer DeWan, interim executive director of The Catskill Center for Conservation and Development.