4/11/2025
Sarah Thiessen
 Drinking water questions? Drinking water questions? Give us a call at 877-52-WATER (877-529-2837), or email info@wtny.us
Friday, April 11, 2025 1243 pm EDT
Safe Drinking Water Profile: NYC water distribution system
Aging infrastructure and lead exposure in NYC
According to US Army Corps of Engineers and the American Society of Civil Engineers, "the average life of a significant piece of infrastructure is 50 years. The average age of a US bridge is 44 years, 45 for significant pipes and 57 for dams. There is a significant backlog of underfunded projects in the US."
New York City has some of the oldest water infrastructure in the USA. Approximately half the population of New York State resides in New York City, with 2.6 million in Brooklyn, another 2.3 million in Queens and 1.4 million in the Bronx, the oldest of NYC boroughs. According to municipal drinking water supply consulting firm Olympian Water Testing (OWT), residents in these older boroughs are at higher risk for water contamination and lead leaching. OWT explains, "Aging infrastructure often leads to water leakage and contamination risks. Pollution particularly from industrial activities and improper waste disposal poses a significant risk to water sources."
In the older boroughs, lead service lines connect 12 to 19% of the homes, according to a report by . Some reports indicate this number could be as high as 30%. The water supplied from the NY DEP water plants tests within the National Primary Drinking Water Regulations, however lead lines connecting the homes can release lead into the water for those residences.
There are 8,180 licensed public drinking water facilities in New York State. See more New York Drinking Water Facility Profiles, here.
DWF Profile: NYC Department of Environmental Protection - Kensico Reservoir
Watershed: Atlantic Ocean - Long Island Sound
Status: Violations Identified
Owner: local government
Location: Valhalla, NY
County: New York County
Active Permit: NY7003493
System Type: community water system
Population Served: 8271000
Source: surface water
Treatment: From the 2023 Annual Water Quality Report, surface water collected on the east side of the Hudson River "is filtered at the Croton Water Filtration Plant, located underground in the Bronx. Treatment includes coagulation, filtration, dissolved air flotation and disinfection. During coagulation, chemicals are added to untreated water, causing any particulates to bunch together and become a mass of particles called floc. Then injected air bubbles float the floc to the top where it is skimmed off using a process called dissolved air flotation. Finally, the water flows through a filter bed of granular activated carbon and sand removing any remaining particles. Just like the Catskill/Delaware supply, Croton water is disinfected with chlorine and UV light to protect against potentially harmful microorganisms, and is treated with food grade phosphoric acid, sodium hydroxide, and fluoride."
Daily Capacity: up to 290 million gallons (Croton Water Filtration Plant)
Admin Contact: NYC Department of Environmental Protection
EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline 1-800-426-4791
Latest Compliance Inspection: no record returned
No data records returned - will update when information becomes available
The following information gathered from federal EPA pertains to the quarter ending Sept 30, 2024 (data last refreshed on EPA database Jan 11 2025)
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Non-compliant inspections
(of the previous 12 quarters)
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with Significant Violations
(of the previous 12 quarters)
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Informal
Enforcement Actions
(last 5 yrs)
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Formal
Enforcement Actions
(last 5 years)
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12 out of 12
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0 out of 12
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Violations and Non-compliance History:
Treatment Technique Violation - Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule - noted Feb 1 2017 - present - addressed
*Note that drinking water information provided on this site is aggregated from the federal EPA database, state resources and local government sources where available.
EPA publishes violation and enforcement data quarterly, based on the inspection reports of the previous quarter. Water systems, states and EPA take up to three months to verify this data is accurate and complete.
Specific questions about your local water supply should be directed to the facility.
The EPA safe drinking water facilities data available to the public presents what is known to the government based upon the most recently available information for more than one million regulated facilities. EPA and states inspect a percentage of facilities each year, but many facilities, particularly smaller ones, may not have received a recent inspection. It is possible that facilities do have violations that have not yet been discovered, thus are shown as compliant in the system.
EPA cannot positively state that facilities without violations shown in ECHO are necessarily fully compliant with environmental laws. Additionally, some violations at smaller facilities do not need to be reported from the states to EPA. If ECHO shows a recent inspection and the facility is shown with no violations identified, users of the ECHO site can be more confident that the facility is in compliance with federal programs.
The compliance status of smaller facilities that have not had recent inspections or review by EPA or the states may be unknown or only available via state data systems.
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