Protecting Hudson River watershed drinking water at the source
Riverkeeper ensures that drinking water sources stay clean and safe through vigilant advocacy and conservation efforts
The challenge
Local sources of drinking water face contamination threats from development that are amplified by climate change
Threats to a human right
Protecting the drinking water for communities across New York State requires strong state policies and collaborative local efforts that can tackle the numerous challenges facing the dozens of water sources serving cities, villages, and towns in the Hudson River Watershed.
Sources of contamination include polluted agricultural and urban runoff, untreated sewage, and industrial chemicals.
The majority of the affected water supplies serve communities disproportionately burdened with other environmental justice concerns. Environmental justice is core to drinking water source protection, because most larger communities rely on water sources far outside their municipal boundaries meaning those drinking the water have little to no power to protect their water sources. Climate change amplifies many of these existing threats.
- Focus areas
- Drinking waterWater quality
What we're doing
The best way to ensure clean, safe drinking water is to protect it at the source.
Improving state policies
Riverkeeper advocates for a range of state policies — new laws, improved regulations and new programs — to improve protections for drinking water supplies statewide. These include efforts to restrict the use and discharges of toxic chemicals, reduce excess road salt and nutrients, protect wetlands and small streams, ensure that farms use best management practices to reduce downstream impacts, and conserve more open space so that the environment can naturally clean water supplies. We lobby for stronger water quality standards that apply to tap water and as well as our streams, rivers, and reservoirs. Riverkeeper helped establish NYS DEC’s Drinking Water Source Protection Program — which helps communities analyze sources of pollution and protect their drinking water — and we work to ensure that it is effectively implemented. We are also focused on strengthening the use of Watershed Rules and Regulations, a nearly 150-year-old state law that provides downstream communities with some authority to protect their water sources in upstream communities.
~400,000
people rely on the Hudson River Estuary, Upper Hudson River, Mohawk River, and Peekskill Hollow Brook as a source of drinking water
145
water supplies serving 2.65 million New Yorkers — of these, more than half delivered tap water with sodium levels exceeding health guidelines, due to excessive use of road salt
Protecting local water sources is about environmental justice
Most larger communities, including those burdened by environmental injustices, rely on water sources far outside their jurisdiction, leaving them with little or no power to effectively protect their water sources from contamination. Effective state policies are essential to protect these water sources, as are local partnerships ensuring that upstream communities with decision-making power over land use help protect the water that downstream communities rely on. Riverkeeper partners with some of the region’s largest cities to ensure that drinking water sources are effectively protected. We helped develop first-ever drinking water source protection plans for Peekskill and Ossining, and we continue to collaborate closely with these and other communities to work through local issues and connect those issues to our state policy advocacy. Our local partnerships inform our policy advocacy so that the policies we lobby in support of are addressing local priorities.
Cleaning up PFAS contamination in Newburgh
Many of the threats to drinking water come from a “death by a thousand cuts” — the cumulative impact of decisions made over decades that reduce the capacity of the landscape to naturally degrade and remove pollutants from water. But sometimes the threat comes from a hazardous waste site. In these cases, Riverkeeper pushes for proper cleanup and remediation of contamination.
When Newburgh discovered its drinking water source had been contaminated with PFAS (dangerous “forever chemicals”) stemming from the use of firefighting foam at the nearby Stewart Air National Guard Base, we worked with the city, residents and state agencies to ensure that tap water is delivered from an alternate drinking water source that is free of PFAS, that the source of contamination is cleaned up as thoroughly and quickly as possible, and that the city’s local water sources have better long-term protections.
Protecting the Hudson as a drinking water source
In 2018, Riverkeeper and local leaders launched the Hudson River Intermunicipal Drinking Water Council — known as the “Hudson 7” — for the seven communities that depend on the Hudson as their source of public drinking water. The council represents 100,000 people who rely on the river after filtration and treatment, and this visionary collaborative has changed the paradigm for a range of protection, management, and remedial programs that affect the Hudson River and its vast watershed.
Clean drinking water is a fundamental right. When communities come together and advocate for it, they can drive change that improves their own health and the health of the environment.
Dan Shapley
Senior Director of Advocacy, Policy and Planning
Novel science informs decision making
Riverkeeper works to ensure that science drives decision making. We advocate for new and stronger water quality standards to protect human health, develop sampling plans and gather data to understand conditions and trends in drinking water sources, and focus attention on emerging threats and impacts from climate change. In Peekskill Hollow Brook, a Hudson River tributary that is a source of drinking water for 100,000 people in northern Westchester County, Riverkeeper is working with Peekskill to update the state water quality assessment, an important foundation for enforcing the Clean Water Act. We’re also working with Peekskill and the Hudson 7 to develop long-term drinking water source monitoring priorities. Riverkeeper is at the cutting edge of science communication, bringing needed awareness to the emerging risks to drinking water quality that will come from climate change. Increased water temperatures and extremes of rain and drought will put new stresses on water supplies, highlighting the need to reduce existing pollution sources and enhance source water protections to boost community resilience and adapt to changing conditions.
How to get involved
Speak up or participate in an upcoming event related to this campaign.
Updates
Press release
April 10, 2024
Members of Stewart Air National Guard Restoration Advisory Board Applaud EPA’s First National Drinking Water Standards for Toxic PFAS “Forever Chemicals”
Blog
June 25, 2024
2024 State Legislative Summary: Some key environmental wins despite resistance
Blog
June 30, 2023
Riverkeeper and Peekskill Brewery brew beer to highlight drinking water source
Press release
May 4, 2021
NYS program helps protect drinking water at its source – Riverkeeper statement
Related campaigns
New York City drinking water
The water supply for 9.5 million New Yorkers depends on keeping our watersheds clean and protected
Water quality monitoring
Riverkeeper is the go-to source for information about the quality of the water along the Hudson River and its tributaries
Emerging and unregulated contaminants
Toxic chemicals can harm the health of people, wildlife, aquatic ecosystems