Jim Planck in The Daily Mail reports that the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency holds a public meeting about the City of New York’s watershed protection and partnership programs Thursday, July 7, from 7-9 p.m., at Belleayre Mountain, in the Ulster County community of Highmount. This is one of four meetings that have been scheduled, and the closest for Greene County residents. New York City’s West-of-Hudson Watershed includes most of southwestern Greene County, with only a very small part of the Town of Hunter — the east half of Haines Falls and the North/South Lake area — not being within it. The city's watershed protection programs include land acquisition and conservation easements, stream management and stormwater treatment, agriculture and forestry programs, and lowering industrial use, and creating sewer extensions. The City’s also wants to avoid building a multi-billion dollar filtration plant to purify its water, which is reflected in a decision by the EPA, and which is suitably called a Filtration Avoidance Determination, or FAD. Thursday’s meeting is an opportunity for the EPA to learn about opinions on the matter. Read the full story in The Daily Mail.