This story originally appeared on Inside Climate Science and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
The quality of New York’s drinking water—and the complex system that delivers it to each New Yorker’s tap—has long been a source of pride for city officials and residents alike. Intricate aqueducts, powered largely by gravity, bring water from the Delaware and Catskills watersheds, as well as from the closer Croton Reservoirs, to the city.
Partly as a result of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection’s consistent efforts to protect these watersheds through the Long-Term Watershed Protection Plan, this network is considered the gold standard for urban water supplies.
But in recent years, three