The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

Tap water © dibytes / Creative Commons

See the latest edition of Going Green on NY1 and learn more about New York City's drinking water.

Where does your water come from—the faucet? The supermarket? The sky? Many New Yorkers don't know the answer. State director Bill Ulfelder sat down with NY1 recently to spill some water secrets.

Watch this segment on NY1!

Did you know...

• 80% of Americans’ drinking water comes from rivers and lakes.
• New York City is one of only five large cities in the U.S. that does not have to filter its drinking water because the watershed is so well protected.
• Every day over 1 billion gallons of fresh, clean water is delivered from large reservoirs in upstate New York, including the Neversink, Cannonsville and Pepacton Reservoirs in the Delaware River Basin.
• Our state’s Watershed Protection Program is one of the most comprehensive in the world and has been so successful at protecting New York City’s water supply that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded the City a 10-year Filtration Avoidance Determination (FAD) in 2007.
• The Conservancy is protecting these water sources by doing things like removing the Cuddlebackville Dam, which was blocking mussel larva from traveling down the Neversink river, so that the mussels could reproduce. This same dam was also keeping migratory fish in the Neversink River from migrating. Currently, we are working to have natural-flow regulations as statewide policies.

Drink Up!

The number one thing that you can do to protect the tap water that you love so much is as easy as can be. Do not drink bottled water, which produces up to 1.5 million tons of plastic waste per year. Instead, continue to drink that perfect, crisp upstate NY punch right from the tap!