Wednesday, June 16, 2010

City Buys Buffer Land Around Reservoirs by Emily B. Hager - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

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New York City’s water supply got a little more protection Tuesday with the purchase of 1,124 additional acres scattered around the city’s upstate reservoirs, for $4.75 million. That makes 155,000 acres that the city has bought or obtained easements on to create open-space buffers around its 19 drinking water reservoirs to guard against contamination. The new parcels are in Greene, Ulster and Delaware Counties. “This land acquisition is part of a $1.5 billion overall investment in watershed protection programs that allows New York City to continue supplying the majority of its drinking water from unfiltered sources — a status that only five large cities in the country share,” Cas Holloway, commissioner of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, said in a statement.