AWWA ACE94060

In December 1993, EPA issued a new determination granting filtration avoidance for the Catskill/Delaware water supply until December 1996. During the three-year waiver period, DEP must comply with over 150 conditions, including producing a preliminary design for a filtration plant by 1999, as well as successful implementation of the whole watershed protection program. The City is totally committed to watershed protection. As we have seen with recent outbreaks of cryptosporidiosis in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Carrolton, Georgia, and Jackson County, Oregon, filtration does not provide a foolproof barrier to waterborne pathogens. New York City's drinking water meets and exceeds all of the objective criteria in the Surface Water Treatment Rule. The City is confident that its Watershed Protection Program will not only maintain and improve water quality throughout the system, but will ensure complete compliance with the Rule's Filtration Avoidance Criteria. More importantly, the City believes that its Watershed Protection Program is the most effective way to protect the public health. In short, the City believes that watershed protection combined with effective disinfection is a far better ounce of prevention than the enormously expensive pound of cure that is filtration.