Title: History of NYC Water Supply
1History of NYC Water Supply
- Systems used to provide drinking water
- Consequences of inadequate water supply
History of NYC water supply
2Drinking Water Systems
- Wells and springs 1664 - 1842
- Croton Aqueduct 1842
- New Croton System 1890
- Catskill System Stage 1 1917
- Catskill System Stage 2 1928
- Delaware System 1937-1964
3Early History (Wells)
- 1626 - Peter Minuit purchased Manhattan Island
from the Indians - 1664 (1500 inhabitants) - water obtained from
private wells - 1658 - first public well was dug near Bowling
Green. More public wells were dug at the street
corners.
4Pre-Revolutionary War History
- 1750 - water drawn from many of the public wells
was notoriously foul - The absence of a sewer system permitted much
unwholesome matter to find its way into the
ground. (Hall, 1917) - Tubbs of odour and nastiness were emptied into
the street... (Hall, 1917) - 1774 (30,000 inhabitants) - water shortage
5Fire
- On September 21, 1776, six days after the
British captured the city, a fire broke out at
the foot of Whitetail street and spread to
Broadway, burning up on the east side as far as
Mr. Harrison's brick house and on the west side
to St. Paul's chapel. Trinity church and 493
houses were destroyed. - Frisbie, R. (Ed.). (1993). Water for New York
City. Saugerties NY Hope Farm Press. - The fire of 1776 destroyed almost one quarter of
the houses in the city. - Weidner, C. H. (1974). Water for a City A
History of New York City's Problem from the
Beginning to the Delaware River System. New York
Rutgers University Press.
6First Water Works (shortly before the revolution)
- 1774 - Common Council made its first move to
construct a _________________ water supply system
- Christopher Colles, an English civil engineer
attempted to pump water from wells and the
Collect (a pond) through hollow logs to a
reservoir at Broadway and White Street using a
New-commen engine - The revolution interrupted the work
municipally owned
7Disease
- In 1798 yellow fever took the lives of two
thousand persons in New York City. The annual
deaths from cholera, typhoid fever, and other
diseases directly attributable to contaminated
water and wretched sanitary conditions at the
time that yellow fever was making its regular
visitations in the 1790s and 1800s will never be
known. From all accounts the number was great. - Weidner, C. H. (1974). Water for a City A
History of New York City's Problem from the
Beginning to the Delaware River System. New York
Rutgers University Press.
8Disease
- There were epidemics of yellow fever in 1795,
1798, 1805, 1819, and 1822, and of cholera in
1832, 1834, 1849, and 1855. The epidemic of 1805
was particularly severe. John Lambert's diary
says that in that year 26,000 persons moved from
the interior of the City to Greenwich village to
escape the plague. - Frisbie, R. (Ed.). (1993). Water for New York
City. Saugerties NY Hope Farm Press.
9The Manhattan Company
- 1799 - Common Council submitted to the New York
state legislature a bill to grant the city of New
York with pure and wholesome water. - The bill included a provision for the
incorporation of the Manhattan Company (Aaron
Burr, Daniel Ludlow, John B. Church) - said company was to pursue the laudable
undertaking of supplying the city with water,
which promised, under the blessing of God, to be
conducive to the health and safety of the
inhabitants of said city. - Burr included a clause in the Bill providing
that its surplus capital might be employed in any
transactions not inconsistent with the laws of
the State. - A capital of 2,000,000 was at once provided, and
the Manhattan Companys Bank began its long and
successful career.
flow of capital, not flow of water
10The Manhattan Company
- 1799 - reservoir of 550,000 gallons and a new
well, 6 miles of wooden pipes and water to 400
families - 1808 - 20 miles of wooden pipes
- 1809 - tree roots clogged many of the original
pipes - 1812 - interrupted service for 5 weeks while
installing a new pump engine - 1830 - 40 miles of wooden pipes and water to
about 60,000 (Manhattan had a population of
200,000) - Provided 700,000 gallons/day
C.H. Weidner, Water for a City A History of New
York City's Problem from the Beginning to the
Delaware River System, Rutgers University Press,
New York (1974).page 22
11More Fires
- Disastrous fires, which might have been
controlled had there been an adequate supply of
water, occurred in 1828 and 1835. The latter
leveled twenty blocks and was stopped only by
blowing up buildings in its path. Before it was
extinguished it had destroyed 674 buildings, 530
of which were stores or commercial
establishments. Estimates of property loss were
as high as 40,000,000. More than fifteen hundred
merchants were ruined several thousand clerks
and laborers were thrown out of work. Nearly all
the fire insurance companies in the city went
bankrupt. - Weidner, C. H. (1974). Water for a City A
History of New York City's Problem from the
Beginning to the Delaware River System. New York
Rutgers University Press.
NYCFD
12Col. Clintons 1832 report
- Shipping paid 50,000 per year for water supplied
from Long Island and New Jersey - Many ships carried enough water to last them for
the journey back to Europe to avoid having to use
NYC water! - Clinton recommended a dam on the Croton river
with an aqueduct to transport the water to NYC
13Old Croton Aqueduct
- Follows the surface of the ground along the bank
of the Croton River to the Hudson, and along the
Hudson to Yonkers. - Capacity 72 to 95 million gallons/day
- 1842 population served was 300,000
- per capita consumption was expected to be 22
gallons/day
Old Croton Aqueduct
14Inadequacy of Old Croton Aqueduct and Reservoir
- 25 years after completion the aqueduct was
running at more than its design capacity - Croton reservoir was also inadequate
- Severe shortages of water in 1869, 1871, 1880,
1881. - All reservoirs emptied
- Lakes in Croton watershed emptied by condemnation
(with violent opposition from the property owners)
15New Croton Aqueduct
- Aqueduct opened in 1890
- 15 ft diameter tunnel
- 50 to 500 ft below surface
- not pressurized
- 33.1 miles long
- capacity 340 million gallons/day
- water consumption jumped from 102 mgd to 170 mgd
- by _____ demand was exceeding the supply
1899
16New Croton Dam
- The New Croton Dam began construction in 1892 and
was completed on New Years Day 1907 - The Dam cost New York City approximately 12
million dollars - It was built in large part by Irish, German and
Italian immigrants
New Croton Dam
17Catskill System Stage 1More Water!
- Completed in 1917
- Ashokan Reservoir
- Catskill Aqueduct
- Kensico Reservoir
- Hillview Reservoir
- City Tunnel 1
- Silver Lake Reservoir in Staten Island
18Catskill System
- Stage 2 More Water!
- Schoharie watershed
- Enlarged city distribution system
- Catskill system completed in 1928
- Provided 614 mgd
- 1932 estimated to be the time when the demand
would once again exceed supply
19Delaware System
- 1931 - The US Supreme Court handed down a decree
permitting NYC, under certain conditions, to take
440 mgd from the tributaries of the Delaware
River - NYC required to build a wastewater treatment
plant at Port Jervis - NYC was required to maintain a minimum flow at
Port Jervis, NY and at Trenton NJ - Currently 1520 cubic feet per second required in
the Delaware River at Montague, NJ
20Delaware System
- 170 miles of deep-rock pressure and grade tunnels
- Designed to carry all the water available in the
Delaware River watershed - 1 bgd (billion gallons/day)
- Construction from 1937-1964
- No treatment beyond chlorination
21Supply Aqueducts and Tunnels
22NYC Population
population
Delaware
Croton
New Croton
year
Catskill
23Filtration Prediction
- I venture to express the belief that by 20 years
hence the public will have become educated to
demand a higher standard of purity in public
water supplies and that all future work should be
laid out with a view to filtration 10 or 20 years
hence of all water entering the distribution
system. The conduits should run past land
suitable for filter beds and head or fall be
reserved suitable for working the filters without
any expense for pumping. Personally, I believe
that with complete meters and proper waste
restriction filters could be properly advised at
once for the Croton supply, and I find as
detailed in the report that to filter the present
supply with all its waste would cost only about
35 cents per capita per year.
J.R. Freeman, Report upon New York's Water
Supply, Martin B. Brown Co., New York (1900). p.
12
24NYC Water Supply Summary
- NYC almost continuously expanded its water supply
from the beginning until the late 1960s - NYC continues to expand its water distribution
system - NYC water demand has stabilized
- NYC is focusing its efforts on water quality and
on water conservation
25Brainstorm!Water Sources for NYC
- Source Advantages Disadvantages
26Old Croton Aqueduct
Historic view of the Old Croton Aqueduct being
reconstructedin the Division Wall of the Jerome
Park Reservoir in 1898(1907 Report to the
Aqueduct Commissioners).
27Saw Mill River Bridge
Historic illustration of the Saw Mill River
Bridge, Old Croton Aqueduct, Yonkers (Tower,
1843).
28High Bridge
- Carried the Old Croton aqueduct over the Harlem
River into Manhattan
29High Bridge
Historic illustration of the High Bridge over the
Harlem River, just prior to its completion.
Manhattan Island is at left, "The Continent of
America" at right (Schramke, 1846).
30New Croton Dam
31New Croton Dam
32NYC Fire Department
33Old Croton Dam
- Constructed between 1837 and 1842
- 50 ft high (elevation 166.2 ft)
- 240 ft wide spillway
34Cornells Hydraulic Experiments
- An investigation by experiments on full-size
model of the Croton dam crests-made in the new
hydraulic laboratory of Cornell University -
proves that the formula used heretofore for
computing the water wasted exaggerated this flow
about 9 per cent.
J.R. Freeman, Report upon New York's Water
Supply, Martin B. Brown Co., New York (1900).
page 13
35Watersheds
36Port Jervis
Port Jervis