water in new york city

Water in New York City Kyungwon Yang

Dilemma / Thesis

As water is really important for us to sustain our lives, and today I think people do

not recognize the importance of water. Water covers 71% of the Earth’s surface, but fresh

water that we can use is less than 1% of all the water on Earth. 1This small amount of

water is used for drinking, industry, and agriculture, etc. However, New York City’s

treat 1.3 billion gallons of wastewater daily. This wastewater includes sanitary flow, tap

water, washing machine, flushing a toilet, etc. This system is complex but we can’t live

without.2 Therefore, people should know this situation.

Before I research the water, I had no idea about water and where water does come

from and how much we waste it. Even New Yorkers do not know resources of water. The

context of the question is people do not aware of importance of water. For my thesis, I

want to study the water system in New York City. This water information includes where

water comes from (water resources), how much people waste water (shower, toilet), and

where used water goes. Briefly, the thesis is focus on a journey of water cycle. It is based

on research and is more closed to education field, so people who live in New York City

easily understand the significance of water. Targeting age is all range and it will good for

teenagers to aware of benefit information.

Precedent / Inspiration

Mostly I got the data from United Geological Survey(USGS), and it has plenty

information of surface water and ground water. New York Water Science Center in

1 “Supplying Safe Drinking Water”, ACS Chemistry for Life, 2 “New York City’s Wastewater”, NYC Environmental Protection, http://home.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/wastewater/index.shtml (accessed 3 October, 2012)

USGS provides national water data, maps, and recent water projects. There are numerous

projects that contain problem and result. When I looked around this website, it has lots of

completed projects in New York. However, most projects describe by writing. Some

precedents have a lot of text with few images, so it does not attract people, no interesting,

and no interactive. Thus, people tend to skip reading this benefit information.

Image 1. Urban Waters Initiative- Bronx & Harlem Rivers. July 2012

Besides using text, I would use various visual images, because we remember visual

images much easier and better than words. This info graphic: the secret life of drinking

water shows two thirds of the world’s population will suffer water shortage in 2025, and

it indicates importance of drinking water. The designer, Mairi Mackay uses only blue and

white color code to make mood of water. This illustration of pipe harmonizes with small

amount of text, and it makes easily understand. The bottom of the image is much better

to understand than pdf style of information design.

Image 2. Matt Barringer, the Secret life of drinking water, for CNN

Research

Where does New York City’s water come from?

“New York City’s water is supplied from a network of 19 reservoirs and three controlled

lakes in a nearly 2,000 square mile watershed that extends 125miles west of New York

City.” 3And there are three individual water supplies, which is Catskill/ Delaware supply,

Croton supply, and groundwater. Catskill/ Delaware is located in Delaware, Greene,

Schoharie, Sullivan, and Ulster counties. Croton supply is the city’s original upstate

supply and is made up 12 reservoir basins in Putnam, Westchester, and Dutchess

counties. Groundwater supplies in a southeastern Queens. And 100% of the city’s safe

drinking water came from the Catskill/Delaware in 2011.4

New York City water supply system provides approximately 1.3 billion gallons of safe

drinking water daily to over 8 million City residents and another 1 million consumers

3 “Facts about the NYC Watershed”, Department of Environmental Conservation, http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/58524.html. (accessed 20 October, 2012) 4 Michael R. Bloomberg, “Source of New York City’s Drinking Water” New York City 2011 Drinking Water Supply and Quality Report, 2.

who live in Westchester, Putnam, Ulster and Orange Counties north of City. 5 The water

system provides high quality water to half the population of New York State.6 To

compare with other public water system, the water system in New York is flexible and

economical, because 95% of the water supply is delivered by gravity. It does not use

pressure pumped. 7

Image3. Current Reservoir Levels. NYC Environmental Protection

Waste water?

Each New Yorker uses 100 gallons of water daily, and 14 wastewater treatment plants

treat 1.3 billion gallons of wastewater daily. 8(26th Ward WPCP, Bowery Bay WPCP,

Coney Island WPCP, Hunts Point WPCP, Jamaica WPCP, Newtown Creek WPCP,

5 Michael R. Bloomberg, “Where does New York City’s water come from?,” New York City’s Wastewater Treatment System, 4 6 Michael R. Bloomberg, “Source of New York City’s Drinking Water” New York City 2011 Drinking Water Supply and Quality Report, 2. 7 “History of New York City’s Water Supply System”, NYC Environmental Protection, http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/drinking_water/history.shtml 8 ibid

North Riever WPCP, Oakwood Beach WPCP, Rockaway, Owls Head WPCP.) The

reason of wastewater is turning on a tap, washing machines, flushing a toilet, etc. The

Bureau of Wastewater treatment operates to control plants everyday.

Where deos used water go?

Since wastewater treatment began in New York City in early 1900s at Brooklyn and

Queens, it continuously developed. The New York City Department of Environmental

Projection (DEP) manages the operation and maintenance of all facilities for treatment of

sewage. Bureau of Wastewater Treatment (BWT) in the major system in DEP, has 1,900

employees, an annual operating budget of $262 million, and an annual capital budget of

114 million. “The 1.4 billion gallons of wastewater discharged by eight million residents

and workers in New York City each day.”9 After the treatment process is completed, it

goes to the plants and into waterways surrounding New York City.

Image 4. New York City Plant Locations and Capacities. DEP, pg.20 9 Ibid

Methodology

I research useful information that improves my thesis. My thesis will be a journey of

water. It is based on research, so it includes water sources, wastewater, and where used

water go. The used water goes to the river around in New York, so it does not go back to

recycle step. Most of data is from USGS and other reference books. I would like to use

two media, information design and web design. First of all, information design is

efficiency to organize complex data and express it’s meaning more clearly to audiences.

Information design includes all productive data that will draw people. It is data

visualization. Secondly, website will focus on more interactive design that users can play

with information. When users click the button of each place, then it will show how water

resources flow to the Manhattan. It will arouse interest.

Bibliography Article Bloomberg, Michael. “Source of New York City’s Drinking Water.” New York City 2011 Drinking Water Supply and Quality Report. p.2 Bloomberg, Michael. “Where does New York City’s water come from?,” New York City’s Wastewater Treatment System, p. 4 Online http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/58524.html. Facts About The NYC Watershed, http://home.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/wastewater/index.shtml. New York City’s Wastewater, http://portal.acs.org/portal/acs/corg/content?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=PP_SUPERARTICLE&node_id=2099&use_sec=false&sec_url_var=region1&__uuid=51bd35de-4e00-4e38-9499-fb7178268692. Supplying Safe Drinking Water, October 22, 2012. Image 1. Shwan Fisher, Stephen Terracciano. Urban Waters Initiative- Bronx & Harlem Rivers. July 2012. USGS Science for a changing world. <http://ny.cf.er.usgs.gov/nyprojectsearch/projects/LK00-DU700.html> Image 2. Matt Barringer. The Secret Life of Drinking Water. CNN < http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/road-to-rio/secret-life-drinking-water/index.html > Image 3. Current Reservoir Levels. NYC Environmental Protection < http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/drinking_water/maplevels_wide.shtml> Image 4. New York City Plant Locations and Capacities. DEP, <http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/drinking_water/maplevels_wide.shtml>