NEW YORK CITY’S WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM
New York City’s water supply system provides one billion gallons of safe, high-quality drinking water every day to more than 8.2 million residents of New York City and one million people living in the counties of Westchester, Putnam, Orange, and Ulster.
New York City gets its drinking water from 19 reservoirs and three controlled lakes spread across a nearly 2,000-square-mile watershed. The watershed is located upstate in portions of the Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountains that are as far as 125 miles north of the City. New York City’s water supply system is composed of two primary surface water supplies called the Catskill/Delaware and Croton.
The City also has a permit to operate a groundwater supply in southeast Queens, although water from that system has not been delivered to customers in many years. In 2024, DEP delivered a total of 364.9 billion gallons of drinking water to New York City, withdrawing a total of 374.3 billion gallons from the system. DEP also delivered 38.2 billion gallons to 75 communities and institutions outside NYC. In all, this system serves half the population of New York State. The Catskill/Delaware provided 92.7 percent of the water and the Croton 7.3 percent. DEP estimates that 14.1 percent of water delivered was non-revenue producing in 2024
