Drinking Water

Benchmarks, Standards and Guidlines Established to Protect Public Health

Drinking Water Monitoring

In addition to routine monitoring conducted by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, EPA sampled drinking water from 13 water mains under city streets in lower Manhattan on September 15. New York City receives about 1.3 billion gallons of drinking water each day from reservoirs north of the city. Samples are typically taken at water main distribution points, not at the tap. The samples were analyzed for a wide range of potential drinking water contaminants, including PCBs, metals and bacteria.

No contaminants were detected above federal Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs), drinking water standards set to protect human health.

This map shows water monitoring stations in the lower Manhattan area. Summary information common to all samples taken is provided in the table below; therefore, the map does not link to individual site data.

map of water monitoring stations in New York

Date	Parameter	Result
15-SEP-2001	Metals	All results below federal MCL
15-SEP-2001	Pesticides	All results below federal MCL
15-SEP-2001	PCBS	All results below federal MCL
15-SEP-2001	BNAs	All results below federal MCL
15-SEP-2001	VOCs/THM	All results below federal MCL
15-SEP-2001	HAA	All results below federal MCL
15-SEP-2001	Total Coliform	All results below federal MCL
15-SEP-2001	e. coli	All results below federal MCL
15-SEP-2001	Heterotrophic Plate Count (HPC)	All results below federal MCL
15-SEP-2001	Color	Within secondary MCL
15-SEP-2001	Fluoride	Within secondary MCL
15-SEP-2001	pH	Within secondary MCL
15-SEP-2001	Free Chlorine	Adequate disinfection
15-SEP-2001	Radionuclides	All results below federal MCL

The information contained in this database should be considered provisional and may be subject to adjustment upon final analysis.