Correction added at end of story (1/16/09) Turn on the tap and
New Yorkers get completely unfiltered H2O, flowing from the
upstate streams and rivers to faucets from the Bronx to
Brooklyn. Since 1993, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency
has exempted New York City from its filtration requirement,
making it only one of a handful of major U. S. cities that does
not have to filter its water before letting its citizens gulp.
The city's system is the largest unfiltered water delivery
system in the country. Now, some New York City officials worry
that anticipated gas drilling will jeopardize the water supply
of more than 9 million people in the city and several upstate
counties. Gas producers want to drill into the Marcellus Shale
formation, part of which lies upstate. They would then inject
millions of gallons of water treated with chemicals in order to
extract what experts believe could be trillions of cubic feet of
natural gas. Proponents of the drilling say tapping the state's
deep reserves of natural gas