ARCHIVE

An introduction to the "Views from the Watershed" series, and to the issues around the NYC water supply in the Catskills: 

Part 1: Connected by Water
The backstory to NYC's drinking water, 90% of which comes from the Catskills, 100+ miles from the City. New York City and the Catskills are physically and socially connected by water, but their relationship is complicated!

Part 2: A Difficult History, featuring Catskills historian Diane Galusha
As New York City grew, so did its need for clean water. The construction of NYC’s drinking water system displaced thousands of people in the Catskills through eminent domain, uprooting tight-knit rural communities and causing generational bitterness towards the City. 

Part 3: A Miracle of Modern Engineering, featuring Adam Bosch, former Director for Public Affairs for the NYC DEP
The NYC water supply is enormous! It serves 9.5 million people every day, and has a capacity of 570 billion gallons. NYC's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) owns, operates, and manages the water supply, with a little help from their friend, gravity. 

"Views from the Watershed" is about the landscape, history, and politics of New York City’s water supply, and the complicated relationship between the City and the Catskills communities that steward 90% of its water. It tells the stories of the watershed through firsthand, intimate perspectives from local people (including a historian, a dairy farmer, a former DEP commissioner, a grave restorer, and a forester) on what it means to be a part of the water system.

This series was originally produced by Lize Mogel as a “podcast tour” of the NYC drinking water watershed in the Catskills. Get more info including a driving map and participant bios at walkingthewatershed.com/podcasttour.

Credits:
Project Director: Lize Mogel
Sound Engineer: Brett Barry/Silver Hollow Audio
Soundscape: Suzanne Thorpe
Lead Community Partner: Catskill Mountain Club
Views from the Watershed was funded in part by the Catskill Watershed Corporation, in partnership with the NYC Department of Environmental Protection; Humanities NY, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities; and the O’Connor Foundation. 

Bio:
Lize Mogel is an interdisciplinary artist and counter-cartographer. She creates maps and mappings (among other forms) that bring the politics of place to the surface, and engages people in the myriad potentials of that place. She is co-editor of the book/map collection "Atlas of Radical Cartography.” From 2016-2024, she developed “Walking the Watershed,” about the relationship between the City and the mostly rural communities that supply its water. She’s currently developing “Wallkill Futures,” participatory projects with Wallkill River communities in the Hudson Valley. More at publicgreen.com.