Environmental Law and Justice in New York City, Where a Park is Not Just a Park

The Surface water treatment rule of the Safe Drinking Water Act has threatened to impose the burden of costly filtration plants on New York City for several years. It is now a reality, with multi-billion dollar filtration projects planned in the Croton System and threatened in the Catskill and Delaware Systems. Compounding this problem is the fierce opposition to siting a filtration plant in the densely populated low-income communities of the Bronx. This Comment explores the history of the filtration mandate and the litigation that has swirled around the decision to site the plant in the Bronx.