User:Qkyang/sandbox

Shared Sandbox: User:Chris199012 (Wiki Ed)/sandbox

Rationale
The article we picked is called “New York City Water Supply System”. This article is related to SDG6 because it talks about how New York City provides clean running water to its residents and everyone who visits. It is also the largest water supply system in the United States. It is also known for tap water that is safe to consume. Not only does New York provide clean water to its people, it also takes $1 billion to maintain and does not require a bunch of sanitation plants to maintain. The goal of SDG6 is to provide everyone in the world with clean running water. The goal is for the countries who are part of the UN to help undeveloped countries to provide clean, running water for their people. Since New York is part of the United States and the United States is a member of the UN, the United States has the ability to use New York’s effective water supply system to help undeveloped countries to provide clean water to their people. The reason why this article is important is because it shows that it is possible to provide clean running water to people without costing countries a lot of money. For example, New York’s water supply system provides running water to over 8 million people and only takes $1 billion dollars to maintain. Another reason why this article is important is because 11% of the world’s population does not have access to clean water. Also, many people die from drinking unclean water each year. Over 3 million people die from dirty water consumption each year. One reason why this is a good article to edit is because there is so much information that needs to be added to this article. For example, there is a leak in the pipes. There is also a few pieces of unnecessary information that needs to be removed.

Introduction
Stretching up to 125 miles away from the city, New York City's water supply system is one of the most extensive municipal water systems in the world. With Croton, Catskill and Delaware three major water systems, New York City's water supply system is a combination of aqueducts, reservoirs, and tunnels that meets the daily needs of New York City's more than eight million residents and its many visitors.

New York's water treatment process is simpler than most other American cities. This is largely due to the fact of how well-protected the watersheds are. The city has sought to restrict development throughout its watershed. One of its largest watershed protection programs is the Land Acquisition Program, under which the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has purchased or protected, through conservation easement, over 130,000 acres (53,000 ha) since 1997. With all the care given, the city's water supply system is exempted from filtration requirements by both the federal and the state government, saving more than "$10 billion to build a massive filtration plant, and at least another $100 million annually on its operation". Moreover, the special topography the waterways run on allows 95% of the system's water to be supplied by gravity. The percentage of pumped water does change when the water level in the reservoirs is out of the normal range.

Before the System was Established
Until the eighteenth century, New York City solely depended on primitive means such as wells and rainwater reservoirs to collect water for daily use. The first public well was dug in Bowling Green, New York, in 1677, and the first reservoir was built on the east side of New York in 1776 after the population grew up to 22,000. Later, the City was aware of its deteriorated water quality, owing to its rapid population growth (60,000 to 200,000 from 1800 to 1830), which had a considerable danger of causing epidemics. As a result, New York City started to use cast iron pipes to transport spring water into the city. In the late 1800s, systematic aqueducts were installed in New York City to fit the demand. Ever since the Old Croton aqueduct was established in 1842, the New York water supply system has been running unceasingly, apart from a few inspections during the era of Civil War.

Old & New Croton Aqueduct
In 1842, the City's first aqueduct is built from the Croton River (which now belongs to Westchester County) to Manhattan. According to NYC's governmental website, the Old Croton Aqueduct's capacity is around 90 million gallons per day. In need of expansion, the new Croton Aqueduct project was launched in 1885 and established in 1890, running with a capacity of 300 million gallons per day.

Catskill Aqueduct
In 1905, the City's newly-established Board of Water Supply launched the Catskill aqueduct project, which would play an additional role in supplying the City's ever-growing population of residents and visitors. In 1915, Ashokan Reservoir and Catskill Aqueduct were established. As the additions to the original, Schoharie Reservoir and Shandaken Tunnel was put into use 13 years later in 1928. The Catskill System has an operational capacity of approximately 850 million gallons per day. To be noted, Catskill aqueduct is the furthest away from the City in the water system. The distance is approximately 125 miles.

Delaware Aqueduct
The Board of Water Supply requested to use the Delaware River as an additional water source for New York City in 1927 to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment. Even though their request was improved, Delaware Aqueduct project was delayed due to a Supreme Court case filed by the State of New Jersey to prevent the state of New York from using the Delaware River as a water source. New York won the case in May 1931, and in March of 1937 the construction of the Delaware Aqueduct was initiated. The Aqueduct was completed in 1944, and from 1950 to 1964 Rondout, Neversink, Pepacton, and Cannonsville Reservoir were established successively to complete the Delaware System. With more than 500 million gallons of water operating to the City per day, Delaware Aqueduct supports half of the whole City's water usage.