The New York City drinking water supply system is the largest unfiltered water supply in the United States (US). It provides approximately 1.2 billion gallons of high quality drinking water to nearly one-half the population of New York State every day. This includes eight million residents of the City and one million consumers located in Ulster, Orange, Putnam, and Westchester counties.
A Billion-Dollar Investment in New York’s Water
New York Times article available here**
New York City’s water system moves over a billion gallons a day, nearly all of it unfiltered. A major investment aims to keep it that way. New Yorkers like to brag about their tap water. Not only is it safe to swill, but it has even been called the “champagne of drinking water.” Now, New York City has committed $1 billion to protect the nation’s largest municipal water system.
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"Recall that most of the water on the planet is in oceans and unavailable for human consumption due to its high salt content. Of all the water in the world, only about 3% is fresh water, and only a tiny portion of that fresh water is available for human consumption (the other fresh water is locked up in ice). Of this available fresh water, most is found as groundwater below the surface of the Earth. Only 0.3% of the world’s fresh water is surface water in rivers, lakes, and swamps."
Ocean Plastic Disappearance Presents Untold Damage to Sea Life
"One of the largest collections of human waste, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is affecting ocean life. Plastics in the waste are breaking down into small beads and are consumed by marine creatures. Will international action occur to reduce this waste and prevent further harm to these species?"
An Introduction to Urban Watersheds
A watershed is an area of land from which all water drains, running downhill, to a shared destination - a river, pond, stream, lake, or estuary. A watershed is a catchment basin that is bound by topographic features, such as ridge tops.
An Integrated Urban Water Strategy
Clean, safe water can be brought to the 1.4 billion people around the world without it for as little as $50 per person, which can prevent many of the 3.35 billion cases of illness and 5.3 million deaths caused each year by unsafe water, says a United Nations analysis. At any given time, an estimated one half of people in developing countries are suffering from diseases caused either directly by infection through the consumption of contaminated water or food, or indirectly by disease-carrying organisms (vectors), such as mosquitoes, that breed in water...
Integrated Urban Water Resources Management
IWRM is a process that promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources, in order to maximise the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems.
How Much Water Do You Use?
Chapter 9, Water
Source: AP Environmental Science by University of California, University of California College Prep
License: CC BY 2.0
Water Resources
Source: Environmental Science by Sean Whitcomb, Maricopa Open Digital Press
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Ocean Plastic Disappearance Presents Untold Damage to Sea Life
Source: 3.2 in Environmental ScienceBites Volume 2 by Brian H. Lower, Travis R. Shaul, Kylienne A. Shaul, and Ella M. Weaver
License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
An Introduction to Urban Watersheds
Source: Global Development Research Center, contact: Hari Srinivas - hsrinivas@gdrc.org
An Integrated Urban Water Strategy
Source: Hari Srinivas, GDRC Reseaarch Output E-043. Kobe, Japan: Global Development Research Center
License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Integrated Urban Water Resources Management
Source: Water Team of Global Development Research Center, contact: Hari Srinivas - hsrinivas@gdrc.org
New York City Water Supply
Source: Department of Environmental Conservation, New York State. Copyright DEC
A Billion-Dollar Investment in New York’s Water
Source: The New York Times, © 2023 The New York Times Company