October 30, 2019

Photos are available on DEP’s Flickr Page

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection today announced the completion of a stormwater collection system that will enhance the City’s protection of Croton Falls Reservoir in Putnam County. The $2.8 million project, completed this month, will protect water quality by capturing runoff, sediment and nutrients from a 15-acre drainage area in the Town of Carmel.

“Stormwater controls are key to maintaining the high quality of water in our system, especially in portions of the watershed where our reservoirs are near communities or impervious surfaces,” DEP Commissioner Vincent Sapienza said. “These sensible investments in watershed protection keep New York City’s drinking water tasting great, while also helping to save money on more costly forms of treatment or filtration.”

The project will collect stormwater runoff from an area of Carmel near Drewville Road, Drew Lane, and Stoneleigh Avenue. This community is located on a large peninsula on the northern side of Croton Falls Reservoir. DEP improved and reinforced an existing drainage trench that ran along Drewville Road to properly collect stormwater from the community. That trench, known as a swale, feeds a new treatment stormwater detention basin that will capture sediment, debris and nutrients. The basin will be surrounded by native trees, shrubs, and grasses that will consume some of the nutrients captured by the system. The basin also includes an outlet structure that will allow clean water to pass into a stone-reinforced channel that leads to Croton Falls Reservoir.

DEP estimates the new system will capture nearly 10 pounds of phosphorus each year. In large quantities, nutrients such as phosphorus can degrade water quality by exacerbating the growth of algae, or by changing the taste and smell of drinking water. More than 100 stormwater control practices have been constructed near the City’s reservoir to capture sediment and nutrients, 14 of which are considered detention basins. Each of those basins is cleaned annually to ensure their proper function.

The Drewville Road stormwater project was a requirement of New York City’s Filtration Avoidance Determination (FAD), the state permit that allows the City to operate its Catskill-Delaware Water Supply System without filtration. While Croton Falls Reservoir generally operates at part of the City’s Croton Water Supply System, which is filtered, a pumping station at the reservoir is capable of moving water into the unfiltered Delaware Aqueduct to support the City during times of drought or planned infrastructure outages.

Croton Falls Reservoir stores 14.2 billion gallons of drinking water at full capacity. That water is collected from a 10,228-acre watershed, largely located in the towns of Carmel and Southeast. Built in 1911, Croton Falls was the last reservoir in the Croton Water Supply System, which provides about 10 percent of New York City’s drinking water on a typical day.

DEP manages New York City’s water supply, providing more than 1 billion gallons of high-quality water each day to more than 9.6 million New Yorkers. This includes more than 70 upstate communities and institutions in Ulster, Orange, Putnam and Westchester counties who consume an average of 110 million total gallons of drinking water daily from New York City’s water supply system. This water comes from the Catskill, Delaware, and Croton watersheds that extend more than 125 miles from the City, and the system comprises 19 reservoirs, three controlled lakes, and numerous tunnels and aqueducts. DEP has nearly 6,000 employees, including almost 1,000 scientists, engineers, surveyors, watershed maintainers and other professionals in the watershed. In addition to its $70 million payroll and $168.9 million in annual taxes paid in upstate counties, DEP has invested more than $1.7 billion in watershed protection programs—including partnership organizations such as the Catskill Watershed Corporation and the Watershed Agricultural Council—that support sustainable farming practices, environmentally sensitive economic development, and local economic opportunity. In addition, DEP has a robust capital program with $20.1 billion in investments planned over the next decade that will create up to 3,000 construction-related jobs per year. For more information, visit nyc.gov/dep, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.