#2007-13: August 10, 2007 Catskill Center supports EPA’s new ten-year Filtration Avoidance Determination for the NYC Watershed The Catskill Center for Conservation and Development, Inc. announces its support for the new Filtration Avoidance Determination (FAD) issued by the USEPA to New York City. "As a signatory to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOA,) we have spent the past 10 years working on protecting the quality of NYC’s water supply and on the economic revitalization of communities in the watershed," said Tom Alworth, Executive Director of The Catskill Center. "This new FAD affords a renewed opportunity to provide economic and environmental benefits to the communities and the people in the watershed while protecting the drinking water for over 9 million New Yorkers - and it helps maintain the water quality for Catskill communities as well." Deborah Meyer DeWan, Special Advisor to The Catskill Center who was with the organization during the MOA negotiations and has served on the Board of the Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC) since 1997, said: "The issue was and remains a complex balancing act of how to provide and assure long-term least cost water quality for half the population of NYS while providing for the viability of the communities that lie in the resource area." The July 2007 FAD includes added financial assistance to small businesses in the watershed for septic replacement, enhanced environmental education programs and technical assistance for stormwater management as well as programs to protect riparian buffers and implement stream corridor management plans. Many of these programs will be implemented by the CWC, others will involve Soil and Water Conservation Districts and other agencies. The land acquisition program will not only provide dedicated funding of $300 million over ten years, it will also include new strategies to substantially increase the role of Land Trusts and other non-governmental organizations in the City’s land protection programs. Challenges such as flood prevention, expanding the recreational use of NYC-owned land and creating public-access linkages between NYC-owned land and the state-owned Forest Preserve will be vigorously addressed by all the partnering groups and agencies. Alworth noted, "Taken together, we believe that the programs in the new FAD will provide water quality protection for NYC and advance sustainable economic development goals of the Catskill region. The Catskill Center sees the new 10-year FAD as an opportunity to take the long view necessary to effectively plan for resource protection and economic development in "a living watershed," said Alworth, "with additional funding for land acquisition and enhanced programs for stormwater, stream corridor protection and environmental education, all the while continuing the water quality partnership programs initiated by the MOA. It’s a ‘smart growth’ approach. Also, I want to emphasize, The Catskill Center is thrilled to have Deborah’s assistance at this juncture," said Alworth, "given her involvement with the initial watershed negotiations and her continuing commitment to CWC program implementation over the past decade." Ms. DeWan added, "The Catskill Center looks forward to working with all the parties in the months and years ahead. We’ve made a lot of progress in ten years but there’s much more to be done. The continued success of this program and the Upstate-Downstate Water Quality Partnership created by the MOA will benefit all New Yorkers and will be a model for the nation. We owe it to those worked hard to get here and to those who come after us."