EPA Rules Against Filtration Plant

There's some good news for the city's water drinkers, the EPA has ruled that the city doesn't have to build a water filtration plant. The environmental agency says New York can go another 10 years without building a costly water filtration plant for its upstate reservoirs under a preliminary ruling issued yesterday.

EPA officials say the city is a good steward of the quality and safety of drinking water coming from the Catskill-Delaware system. Under federal law, drinking water taken from surface sources must be filtered to remove harmful microbes. New York first received a waiver from the requirement in 1993, by demonstrating that it had a plan to keep the water clean without filtering it.