The Friends of the Croton Watershed
New York City is planning to build a $1 billion filtration plant to filter water that is drawn from the Croton Reservoir. They are planning to do this despite the fact that Croton water meets all federal health requirements, is of better quality than most filtered water, and has been improving in quality. The widely reported five-year delay for a decision regarding a filtration plant applies only to the Catskill-Delaware system. One of the proposed sites was the cove in Yorktown pictured above. The City has chosen another site for its first choice for the location of its filtration plant. See - City selects Bronx site for filtration facility.
The Friends of the Croton Watershed has joined with other groups to form the Croton Watershed Clean Water Coalition - CWCWC to work towards finding alternatives to the construction of a filtration plant. We believe that it is better to keep the water clean and to remove potential sources of pollution. We are working to strengthen our environmental laws and to see that they are enforced.
Does NYC protect our watershed? See the Gannett article on the Riverkeeper audit, or the NY Times report on the audit by NYC Comptroller Hevesi.
For Current Information on the Croton Watershed -
See the web site of the Croton Watershed Clean Water Coalition - CWCWC
For more details of past events, read:
- Community and Environmental Groups Seek Intervenor Status in the U.S. Government's Lawsuit Against New York City - June 19, 1997.
- "More News About the Billion-Dollar Boondoggle" - The Lawsuit, Action in Congress, Taxes, published in the September 1997 Yorktown Observor.
- Croton Watershed Clean Water Coalition (CWCWC) - Groups form regional coalition. List of groups updated August, 1998.
- The Principal Brief presented by John Klotz and updated news of litigation of the DEP/EPA lawsuit.
- Don't shortchange study of New York City water filter plant - Gannett editorial, February 9, 1998.
- The Croton Aqueduct Degrades Water Quality - A version of this article was published in the Gannett papers on July 19, 1998, by Paul Moskowitz and Mickie Grover. Were we kidding? "Environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says city officials engaged in a two-year coverup of a major oil spill", NY Post, September 29, 1998.
- Yorktown dodges massive plant - City selects Bronx site for filtration facility, North County News, December 2, 1998.
- Read the articles in our archives.
Left - Proposed Yorktown filtration plant site. Click on the map or here for the complete NYC DEP map of the filtration plant site.
Right - Preliminary work on the filtration plant? - A drilling rig at work in the cove.
Web Links
The FCW Organizing Committee: Lynn Anderson, Aaron Bock, Brian Carroll, Michael Collier, John Holland, Dave Klaus, Paul Moskowitz, RoseMarie Panio, John Schroeder, Nancy Truitt, David Wright. This web site was created by Paul Moskowitz.