New York - Water Supply Need Filtering

New York - Federal officials are worried that the water coming from the largest unfiltered system in the country, is getting muddier and may have to be completely filtered, at a cost of billions of dollars, if it cannot be kept clean.
For much of the last year, the century-old water system that delivers 1.3 billion gallons a day to the city has been clouded by particles of clay, washed into upstate reservoirs by violent storms in quantities that make the water look like chocolate.

To keep the tap water running clear, the city has been dumping 16 tons of chemicals a day, on average, into the water supply as an emergency measure to meet federal water quality standards. The treatment does not change the taste of the water, but the city cannot rely on this stopgap approach forever.

The condition that makes water cloudy and interferes with chlorination to eliminate contaminants appears to be getting worse because of changing weather patterns and increasing runoff from land development upstate.

If the city cannot find a permanent solution to the silt, it may not be able to avoid building a huge filtration plant that could cost about $8 billion.