Water Supply

OneNYC is a comprehensive sustainability plan for New York City’s future.

Goal: Ensure the high quality and reliability of our water supply system.

Drinking Water Quality

If the NYC water network is properly maintained and operated, then we expect it to deliver consistently clean and potable water throughout the city. To ensure that our water supply is potable, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) collects approximately 15,000 drinking water samples and performs approximately 200,000 analyses of water quality annually. We are tracking the percentage of samples that are below all of the 227 different New York State maximum contaminant levels (MCL), which are the highest levels allowed in city drinking water. The NYS MCLs are more stringent than federal levels. New York City is fortunate to have access to drinking water that has consistently met state and federal drinking water standards.

Drinking Water Demand

New York City will be better able to meet its need for water if there is less demand on the water network. For this reason, decreasing city water use is a critical component to ensuring long-term water reliability. We are assessing progress toward our goal by measuring the amount of water used annually (using the average daily diversion to in-city supply), divided by the annual estimated NYC population.