Glub, Glub, Glub
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Hard-pressed to justify why New York City must spend $1.5 billion on a water filtration plant, the Environmental Protection Agency has resorted to scare tactics. “Every day the water is not filtered is a day when a million people are getting an unnecessary risk,” avers Mary Mears, a spokeswoman for the EPA’s New York office. The water “could potentially kill you,” she said, quickly adding: “I don’t mean to sound alarmist.”
Ms. Mears has reason to sound alarmist. How else does one convince the cash-strapped people of New York City that it is in their interest to shell out $1.5 billion for a filtration plant it doesn’t need? The EPA can’t point to evidence that the water poses any danger. According to the New York City Department of Environmental Protection’s 2001 report, “There is no evidence of illness related to the New York City water supply.” The report states, “The quality of New York City’s drinking water remains high and meets all health-related State and federal drinking water standards.”
Unfortunately for the city, the EPA has a law, the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, which requires all surface water systems to filter water. The only way to be excused is by applying for a waiver. New York City earned a waiver for two of its three systems, Catskill and Delaware, but left the smallest, the Croton, out to dry. This had nothing to do with the quality of the Croton water, which “continues to meet all federal and State health-related water quality standards,” according to the DEP. But it’s a boon for developers in Westchester, who, with a filtration plant, would find it easier to get approval for housing on land that once would have been protected to assure water quality.
The city never wanted the filtration plant. For more than 10 years, it has tried to have it both ways: turn over the Croton watershed to developers and put off construction of a massive plant, even prompting the EPA to sue the city in 1997. But time has run out for the city. In April it will decide which unlucky neighborhood will be forced to make room for an 11-acre plant that will store about half a million gallons of chemicals and make a fine target for terrorists. And now New York water will be replete with superlatives. It won’t be merely the cleanest but also the most expensive.
