Empire of Water: An Environmental and Political History of the New York City Water Supply

by David Soll

Overview

Supplying water to millions is not simply an engineering and logistical challenge. As David Soll shows in his finely observed history of the nation’s largest municipal water system, the task of providing water to New Yorkers transformed the natural and built environment of the city, its suburbs, and distant rural watersheds. Almost as soon as New York City completed its first municipal water system in 1842, it began to expand the network, eventually reaching far into the Catskill Mountains, more than one hundred miles from the city. Empire of Water explores the history of New York City’s water system from the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century, focusing on the geographical, environmental, and political repercussions of the city’s search for more water.

Soll vividly recounts the profound environmental implications for both city and countryside. Some of the region’s most prominent landmarks, such as the High Bridge across the Harlem River, Central Park’s Great Lawn, and the Ashokan Reservoir in Ulster County, have their origins in the city’s water system. By tracing the evolution of the city’s water conservation efforts and watershed management regime, Soll reveals the tremendous shifts in environmental practices and consciousness that occurred during the twentieth century. Few episodes better capture the long-standing upstate-downstate divide in New York than the story of how mountain water came to flow from spigots in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Soll concludes by focusing on the landmark watershed protection agreement signed in 1997 between the city, watershed residents, environmental organizations, and the state and federal governments. After decades of rancor between the city and Catskill residents, the two sides set aside their differences to forge a new model of environmental stewardship. His account of this unlikely environmental success story offers a behind the scenes perspective on the nation’s most ambitious and wide-ranging watershed protection program.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501725111
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	07/15/2018
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

David Soll is Assistant Professor in the Watershed Institute for Collaborative Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire.

Table of Contents

Introduction. The Evolution of a Water SystemChapter 1. From Croton to CatskillChapter 2. Up CountryChapter 3. Drought, Delays, and the DelawareChapter 4. Back to the Supreme CourtChapter 5. The Water System and the Urban CrisisChapter 6. The Rise of Watershed ManagementChapter 7. Implementing the Watershed AgreementEpilogue. Putting Politics in Its PlaceNotes
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Martin Melosi

This is first-rate environmental history. In Empire of Water, David Soll goes well beyond the existing literature on New York City and its water supply. He makes clear that we cannot understand the insatiable urban demand for water and the regional impact of that demand without examining the larger consequences.

Editorial Reviews

Empire of Water examines the development of the water supply system of New York City from the 19th century to the early 21st century through a political ecology lens.... The author's writing style would appeal to general readers who are curious about New York City’s water supply system; the book could also serve as a text for university environmental history courses. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through researchers/faculty; general readers.

Choice

Empire of Water examines the development of the water supply system of New York City from the 19th century to the early 21st century through a political ecology lens.... The author's writing style would appeal to general readers who are curious about New York City's water supply system; the book could also serve as a text for university environmental history courses. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through researchers/faculty; general readers.

-- "Choice"

David Soll ably deepens our understanding of New York's water supply in two ways. First, he focuses on the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, more specifically the period beginning in 1905, when the nation's leading city began tapping the streams of the Catskills. In the 1960s it would reach to the headwaters of the Delaware River. Second, Soll offers what he accurately characterizes in his subtitle as a political and environmental, as opposed to technological, history.

-- "American Historical Review"

From the Publisher

"This is first-rate environmental history. In Empire of Water, David Soll goes well beyond the existing literature on New York City and its water supply. He makes clear that we cannot understand the insatiable urban demand for water and the regional impact of that demand without examining the larger consequences."

Martin Melosi

"David Soll ably deepens our understanding of New York's water supply in two ways. First, he focuses on the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, more specifically the period beginning in 1905, when the nation's leading city began tapping the streams of the Catskills. In the 1960s it would reach to the headwaters of the Delaware River. Second, Soll offers what he accurately characterizes in his subtitle as a political and environmental, as opposed to technological, history."

American Historical Review - Carl Smith

David Soll ably deepens our understanding of New York's water supply in two ways. First, he focuses on the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, more specifically the period beginning in 1905, when the nation's leading city began tapping the streams of the Catskills. In the 1960s it would reach to the headwaters of the Delaware River. Second, Soll offers what he accurately characterizes in his subtitle as a political and environmental, as opposed to technological, history.

American Historical Review