Stop the Mud—Send DEP Back to the Drawing Board!

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has drafted a plan to protect drinking water resources from the Ashokan Reservoir by releasing water into the Esopus Creek downstream of the reservoir. The problem is, the water to be released will be full of silt, aka, "turbid." And the draft plan doesn't fully consider the need for other steps to prevent turbity in the Esopus.

Turbid, muddy waters harm the ecology, economy, and quality of life along the stream, which flows into the Hudson River, and new information suggests that the turbidity may be contaminating drinking water for ...

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has drafted a plan to protect drinking water resources from the Ashokan Reservoir by releasing water into the Esopus Creek downstream of the reservoir. The problem is, the water to be released will be full of silt, aka, "turbid." And the draft plan doesn't fully consider the need for other steps to prevent turbity in the Esopus.

Turbid, muddy waters harm the ecology, economy, and quality of life along the stream, which flows into the Hudson River, and new information suggests that the turbidity may be contaminating drinking water for the Town of Esopus and other communities along the Hudson.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has the power to make DEP return to the drawing board and consider better options that will preserve drinking water quality AND protect the creek.

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Make NYC DEP #Stopthemud

People can’t drink muddy water, and fish can’t live in it. Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) may give permission to the New York City Department of Environmental Preservation (NYC DEP) to release muddy waters from the Ashokan Reservoir into the Esopus Creek. Take a moment to send NYS DEC an email--tell them to send NYC DEP back to the drawing board!

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As a supporter of Catskill Mountainkeeper, I want the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to make the New York City Department of Environmental Protection do more to prevent the release of turbid (muddy) water from the Ashokan Reservoir. Please take the following steps as part of the ongoing environmental review process:

1. Make NYC DEP #Stopthemud -- give communities downstream of the Ashokan Reservoir cleaner water! The current state of Ashokan releases is unsustainable and unacceptable. The NYC DEP must offer a different long-term plan to stop the mud, specifically accounting for climate change impacts.

2. Clean up everyone’s water: require New York City to increase its level of investment in stream bank restoration both upstream and downstream of the Ashokan Reservoir.

3. Make New York City document and study short-term, long-term and cumulative impacts on the downstream communities along the Esopus Creek and Hudson River, including impacts on other drinking water systems, local economies, ecologies, and aesthetics; this should include an immediate study of the impacts from the releases following the 2020 Christmas storm event. (NYC DEP should contemplate offering compensation to struggling downstream communities.)

4. Insist that New York City take a legally required “hard look” at engineering alternatives to decrease turbidity in releases downstream to the Esopus Creek.

5. Do not issue any permit without the NYC DEP demonstrating a greater effort to solve the problem of turbidity: the NYC DEP should revise its Draft Environmental Impact Statement or supplement it with a more comprehensive study both of impacts and alternatives.

We appreciate the role of the NYS DEC in protecting water quality in the Esopus Creek by requiring a full and complete review of the current situation resulting from NYC DEP’s water management protocols at the Ashokan Reservoir and a thorough and comprehensive analysis of alternatives to improve water quality for everyone living along, recreating on, and drinking water from the Esopus Creek.

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