Supplying a city with water is a very difficult challenge today. Imagine having to supply a city inhabiting over one million people, one-eighth the population of New York City, with water, 2,000 years ago. In Rome’s early days, the people got water from nearby springs that were filled by the Tiber River. The water near Rome in the Tiber was becoming polluted because Rome’s sewer system, the Cloaca Maxima, dumped sewage into the Tiber. The increasing demand for clean, cool water needed a solution. Aqueducts were the answer.

The word aqueduct means a man-made conduit for carrying water. It comes from the Latin words aqua meaning water and ducere meaning to lead. The aqueducts were able to bring fresh clean water to the city, filter the water and later, excess water was used to flush out the sewers. The Romans used Greek models to build their first aqueduct, the Aqua Appia. It was built in 312 B.C. under the supervision of Appius Claudius Crassus. Although the Romans were the greatest aqueduct builders in ancient history, they were not the first. Hundreds of years before the Romans built their first aqueduct, many middle-eastern countries such as Persia, Egypt a

The castella privata supplied the private villas with their own water. People were allowed to insert a calibrated pipe into a main pipe for a fee. Smaller villas were allowed to have a one half-inch pipe to their homes while larger villas used a one-half inch pipe. At the time that this was allowed, Sextus Julius Frontinus was the head of the water system or curatores aquarum. When Frontinius came into office, he found that more water was being used than was accounted for. He started an investigation and found that the water department accepted bribes from people who wanted larger private pipes than were allowed. After this, in order to have a private water line, special permission had to be granted by the emperor. The water entered into private houses and into tanks that each person had.

The third system is the Kensico system. It is located in Westchester County, 15 miles away from New York City. It holds 30.6 billion gallons. It has a 13.1 square mile watershed. The system is very important. It receives water from the six Catskill and Delaware reservoirs. The system makes the water available for the city’s needs. The system delivers over ninety percent of the city’s water supply. Although it receives high quality water the system has a large water quality problem. The problems include sewage, waterfowl contamination, urban runoff, and Westchester airport storm water runoff. Various environmental committees in the city are working on a plan to prevent pollutants from entering the Kensico watershed.

The Jerome Park Reservoir serves as a storage reservoir for the Croton System. It is located in the Bronx. It can hold up to 800 million gallons of water. This reservoir would also be the future sight of the Croton filtration plant.

The Pepacton Reservoir has the largest capacity in the City’s system. It is located in Delaware County, 100 miles away from New York City. It has a capacity of 143.7 billion gallons. The Pepacton reservoir also provides about twenty five percent of the daily water flow into New York City. It has a watershed that is 370 square miles. It has high quality water. Its threats are sewage and poorly planned development.

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