2021/6/23
Watershed Report
With the Flow - New York State Watershed Report for the Week of June 22- 27
By Gillian Ward
New York City taps flow over a billion gallons of water, supplying nine million people with the average 80 gallons of water daily. New York residents receive water that collects in the creeks and streams of the Catskills into the Delaware River system, and from the area draining rainfall into the Lower Hudson River watershed. This surface water is of a high enough quality to be permitted for unfiltered delivery, according to the Water Footprint Calculator.
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) reports on seventeen categories of US infrastructure annually. The 2021 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure has Drinking Water moving up a grade. In spite of increasing population (4%), water consumption is down (3%) nationally. Even still, aging water mains must be replaced, and critical drinking water infrastructure, reservoirs and aqueducts have to be maintained. The State of New York has been handed an estimate of $22 billion to be allocated to maintain drinking water delivery infrastructure in the next twenty years.
The ASCE report recommends leadership actions and investment, as well as resilience measures for drinking water,
“We must utilize new approaches, materials, and technologies to ensure our infrastructure can withstand or quickly recover from natural or man-made hazards.”
In terms of the watersheds that collect and channel New York’s drinking water, resilience measures include those steps taken to deal with one of the greatest challenges and threats to water quality.
Eutrophication
A process where a buildup of organic material, sediments, and nutrients triggers harmful impacts downstream, including potentially toxic algal blooms, dead zones and fish kills, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The main nutrients of interest here are nitrates and phosphorus, which in excess promote the rapid multiplication of bluegreen algae in the water.
Whether man-made (inadequately treated wastewater, population growth and development around water bodies, agricultural nutrient leaching) or natural (breakdown of plant materials, sediments) the ecosystem of the water bodies respond and adjust. Where we find higher nutrient loads, nature responds with an algae bloom. The harm is not in the unsightly mat that forms in the discoloured water, or even the sour smell that often comes with it, but the danger is in the toxins produced in the algae and released into the water.
Preventing eutrophication is one angle of the efforts underway in New York State. Watersheds in heavily populated or largely agricultural regions have nitrogen reduction plans in place to prevent excess nutrients from entering the creeks and rivers. Further downstream, the State has invested in projects to naturally remove the nutrients that do enter the waterways.
A unique project funded by the State of New York in 2017 moved an army of adult shellfish into Long Island Sound, and invested in shellfish hatcheries in an effort to tackle problematic nutrient overload. Shellfish are the natural remediators of excess nutrients in their aquatic environment.
WaterToday has previously reported the success of the wastewater treatment upgrades that successfully hold back 50 million tonnes of nitrogen from entering the Sound every year, and the good news that water quality is improving. For the rest, a shellfish clean up crew. We inquired of EPA Region 2 for a report on the success of the venture.
Innovation in the use of technology and adaptive measures is making a difference. Watershed residents and policy makers comparing notes and taking effective action, measuring and reporting results may just hold the keys to keeping the water flowing clean.
|
