Denver Water — From Forests to Faucets Watershed Protection Partnership (USA)
United States of America
After 1996 and 2002 wildfires choked Denver's reservoirs with sediment, Denver Water and the US Forest Service treated 120,000+ acres …
Good practice
★ 67
★ 60
★ 60
★ 53
New York City Catskills watershed protection
United States of America · Catskills, New York · See the United States of America profile
Rather than build an $8–10bn filtration plant, New York City invests in protecting its Catskill/Delaware watershed — ~$2.5bn since 1997 — keeping its drinking water clean at source under an EPA filtration-avoidance waiver.
US$8-10bn
Avoided filtration plant cost
~US$2.5bn
Watershed protection investment (since 1997)
Details
- Maturity
- Established
- Promoter
- NYC Department of Environmental Protection
- Keywords
- Avoided-cost watershed PES, Temperate forested watershed
Context
Rather than build an US$8-10bn filtration plant, New York City invests in protecting its Catskill/Delaware watershed - about US$2.5bn since 1997 - keeping its drinking water clean at source under an EPA filtration-avoidance determination.
Implementation
Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.
Data sources
Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.
- C-NAPSE evaluation — accessed 2026-06-19
- NYSDEC — NYC water supply — accessed 2026-06-19
- NYC DEP — filtration waiver — accessed 2026-06-19
Similar practices you may find useful
Seattle's Cedar River Municipal Watershed — Filtration-Avoidance Water Source Protection (USA)
United States of America
Seattle's ~100,000-acre Cedar River Municipal Watershed programme won EPA's rare 'Limited Alternative to Filtration' status in 2004, saving over $100 …
Melbourne's Protected Forested Water Catchments (Australia)
Australia
Melbourne has kept the public and farming out of its mountain-ash forest catchments since 1879, so over 65% of its …
Pimampiro Water Fund — One of the World's First Municipal Watershed PES Schemes (Ecuador)
Ecuador
Since 2000, Pimampiro's municipal water fund has paid 27 upstream households US$8–12 per hectare per year to conserve 638 hectares …