Stuff You Should Know Selects: NYC Water: An Engineering Marvel
Nov 25, 2023
Discover the engineering marvel behind NYC's tap water, delivering over a billion gallons daily. New Yorkers proudly praise their water for its role in creating perfect bagels and pizza. Dive into historical challenges like cholera outbreaks that shaped infrastructure. Learn about the vast Catskill and Delaware Aqueducts and how water flows through 7,000 miles of pipes with minimal pumps. Explore water quality monitoring and the fascinating science revealing why tap water can be both a culinary secret and a public health triumph.
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Scale And Unfiltered Majority
- New York delivers more than a billion gallons of water daily through the largest municipal system in the U.S..
- About 90% of that water reaches taps without conventional filtration because it comes from protected upstate watersheds.
Rare EPA Filtration Waiver
- NYC is one of only five major U.S. cities with an EPA waiver allowing most supply to bypass filtration.
- The other cities include Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and surprisingly, Boston.
Cholera Drove Water Reform
- Early New Yorkers relied on ponds and public pumps that often became contaminated and caused cholera outbreaks.
- A cholera epidemic in 1832 killed 3,500 people and forced 100,000 to flee, prompting the city to seek cleaner upstate sources.