Reservoir Cleanup Day

Keeping the watershed clean is an integral part of keeping New York City’s delicious drinking water pristine. We had a record 418 volunteers from across the Catskill and Hudson Valley collect more than two tons of trash and recyclables during this year’s Reservoir Cleanup Day, making it the largest cleanup event since DEP began hosting them four years ago.

The Oct. 1 event comprised cleanup efforts at eight water supply reservoirs, including Ashokan, Cannonsville, and Pepacton reservoirs in the Catskill Mountains, and at East Branch, Kensico, Lake Gleneida, Muscoot and New Croton reservoirs in the Hudson Valley. In total, volunteers including school groups, environmental advocates, business leaders, local nonprofits and watershed citizens collected more than 300 bags of debris and recyclables. The haul weighed a total of more than 4,500 pounds.

The breakdown of collected debris included: 4,948 plastic, glass and metal beverage containers, 1,196 cigarette butts, 952 food wrappers, 707 bottle caps, 485 plastic grocery bags, 792 cups and plates, 522 take-out containers, 278 yards of fishing line, 42 balloons, 26 tires, and 2,271 shards of foam, glass or plastic.

The results were a significant increase from last year’s cleanup, at which 264 volunteers retrieved more than 3,300 pounds of debris. In many cases, debris collected at the sites had blown onto the reservoir property from nearby roadsides, had washed up along the shores from past storms, or was left behind at access areas used by the public for fishing and boating.