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What are problems
for a reservoir system?
Some of
the water from these reservoirs goes into nearby rivers. The people
at the Water Authority have to watch river levels and make sure that they
are not storing so much water that the river levels go down. Imagine
what it would be like if you were out on the river in a boat--and water
levels dropped very low! The Water Authority is very careful about
this, though.
We asked about 9/11 and its effect on the reservoir
system. We were told that access is very limited to any water
facility in the state and that they have very good emergency plans.
There are also backup water sources just in case. This is a good
thing to know, since other things can happen like drought or pipe
problems.
The Water Authority works very hard to keep everything
working well. When we were in the facility, we took a ride around
the reservoir and saw a piece of pipe that had broken down after years of
use. We saw that:
We stood
inside of a piece of pipe that was made of concrete with heavy rods inside
of it. At regular times, the water is shut off in the pipes and
people walk through for inspection. They hit the sides with a
hammer. They can tell if something is wrong just by listening to the
sound that the hammer makes. This piece had broken rods inside the
cement. If your town buys its water from a water authority, then
pipes like these are used.
What did we find out about New York
reservoirs?
All of
our team members spent lots of time visiting many different
reservoirs. We [the New York team members] made a class trip to the
Pepacton reservoir. It was huge. Two Department of Environmental
Protection [D.E.P.] officers told us about the reservoir. We learned so
much that our brains practically exploded with so many water facts.
The D.E.P. people said that the police officers are
patrolling the reservoir twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
If someone throws a bottle in the reservoir, the officers just leave it
there. If someone puts a barrel or something large into the reservoir, the
D.E.P. takes it out.
How do they take it out? Taking objects out of the
water is complicated. Depending on the size of the object, the D.E.P. can
send a scuba diver, boat or even a crane to retrieve it. They really take
care of that reservoir.
The Pepacton is a vast reservoir; the largest in the
New York water system. It is located in the Catskill Park. It’s about 15
miles long and holds about 140.2 billion gallons of water at its full
capacity. It gives New York City 25% of its water so it is very important
to its water supply. It’s been giving the city water for
almost fifty years and will for future generations.
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