Wetlands Pollution-Yorktown Heights (Photo Credit: Nicholas J. Mankovich)

Most of the drinking water for New York City travels by aqueduct from three upstate reservoir systems, called watersheds. The watersheds, while comprising only 4.2% of New York State’s land mass, provide up to 1.5 billion gallons of unfiltered drinking water to over nine million New Yorkers daily. The campaign to protect that drinking water demands vigilance on multiple fronts, and will be active for decades to come. Riverkeeper played a critical role in the first broad-based watershed legislation in 1997, and continues to be one of the primary watchdogs enforcing compliance in the City’s three major watershed regions.