An upstate county executive fired off an "open letter" to Mayor Bloomberg, complaining about the NYC Department of Environmental Protection and its role as caretaker of a nearby watershed, which the city uses for drinking water. Ulster County executive Michael Hein writes, "The NYC DEP is presently operating much like an occupying nation within our county, extracting the natural resource of clean water while simultaneously polluting our waterways and causing massive regional economic hardships." more ›

NY State environment officials imposed stricter regulations for drilling in the Marcellus Shale, a watershed that supplies most of NYC's drinking water. According to the Times Herald-Record, "The action effectively blocks drilling in the region because of the costly and time-consuming permit process that will be required. But it is not an absolute ban." The NRDC's gas drilling expert Kate Sinding said an outright ban is needed, "At the end of the day, this does nothing to protect the drinking water supplies for New York City or Syracuse. Quite the opposite - it tells us the watersheds for more than 9 million New Yorkers are still vulnerable to drilling with toxic chemicals." more ›

NYC's drinking water is touted as some of the cleanest in the nation, and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo wants to keep it that way. He's reached "groundbreaking" settlements with five facilities who were dumping and flushing their unused painkillers, antibiotics, anti-depressants and hormones down sinks and toilets that led to the NY City watershed. Two hospitals and three nursing homes are now being forced to dispose of their pharmaceutical waste properly, and pay to increase public awareness on the issue of water contamination. more ›

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has told the state that "essential environmental protection measures" must be taken before allowing The Chesapeake Energy Corporation to drill for gas within the 2,000- square-mile Catskills watershed that provides drinking water to millions of NYC residents. The EPA's letter to the State Department of Environmental Conservation reinforces criticism of the plan to blast huge volumes of water mixed with chemicals into rock to extract gas. There is worry that the drilling, which creates large amounts of wastewater, could contaminate NYC's water supply. Katherine Nadeau at Environmental Advocates of New York described the federal agency’s letter as “nothing short of awesome.” more ›

Environmentalists say they've come up with an unlikely way to keep the city's tap water from becoming polluted: cow manure. Amidst mounting concerns about the impact of upstate natural gas drilling on New York City's water supply, the blog CleanTechnica reports on the burgeoning cow-power movement. more ›

Good news for metro mammals; the New York City tap water is still safe to drink, according to a report card released yesterday by Riverkeeper and the Clean Drinking Water Coalition. The longstanding environmental advocacy group gives our water system A grades for reducing fecal coliform from waterfowl, managing stormwater runoff and waterborne disease risk assessment. High-five! more ›