 Hudson Valley Hudson River Regions |
|
Hudson Valley and the Catskills
|
|
 |
Towns | Counties | Free Listing | Fun Zones | Ski | Hiking | Calendar | Email | Points of Interest
Hudson Valley Reservoirs
Not listed? Submit your site for free |
Access Permits
The Access Permit that allows for fishing and hiking on certain designated areas in the watershed. Access Permit holders may also obtain a DEP Hunting Tag for deer hunting and a DEP Boat Tag for keeping a rowboat at one of the reservoirs for fishing.
Boating for the purposes of fishing is allowed on NYC reservoirs to those with the appropriate DEP permits.
Ashokan Reservoir: (845) 657-2663
Schoharie Reservoir: (607) 588-6231
Rondout and Neversink Reservoirs: (845) 985-0386
Cannonsville and Pepacton Reservoirs: (607) 363-7009
East of Hudson Reservoirs: (914) 232-1309
Reservoirs
Alcove Reservoir
Photo by Daniel Case, June 2008, from Wikipedia
Alcove Reservoir is a reservoir located in Albany County. It serves as water supply for the city of Albany. At 618 ft in elevation, the closest hamlet is Alcove, part of the town of Coeymans. Rt 32 passes the reservoir on the west. The reservoir was built 1928–1932, inundating the village of Indian Fields.
The
water supply for the City of New York is composed of three systems.
Together, these systems provide water for 8 million residents in New
York City, as well as 1 million residents north of the city.
The Catskill and Delaware systems (Schoharie, Cannonsville, Pepacton, Ashokan, Neversink, and Rondout Reservoirs) lie west of the Hudson River, covering an area of approximately 2000 square miles.
The Kensico and West Branch Reservoirs of the Catskill/Delaware systems (plus the independent Croton system) lie east of the Hudson River.
Map from the city of NY - DEP
After exploring alternatives for increasing supply, the City decided to impound water from the Croton River, in what is now Westchester County, and to build an aqueduct to carry water from the Old Croton Reservoir to the City. This aqueduct, known today as the Old Croton Aqueduct, had a capacity of about 90 million gallons per day (mgd) and was placed in service in 1842.
Croton Reservoir
After exploring alternatives for increasing supply, the City decided to impound water from the Croton River, in what is now Westchester County, and to build an aqueduct to carry water from the Old Croton Reservoir to the City. This aqueduct, known today as the Old Croton Aqueduct, had a capacity of about 90 million gallons per day (mgd) and was placed in service in 1842.
Map from the city of NY - DEP
In 1905 the Board of Water Supply was created by the State Legislature. After careful study, the City decided to develop the Catskill region as an additional water source.
The Board of Water Supply proceeded to plan and construct facilities to impound the waters of the Esopus Creek, one of the four watersheds in the Catskills, and to deliver the water throughout the City.
This project, to develop what is known as the Catskill System, included the Ashokan Reservoir and Catskill Aqueduct and was completed in 1915.
It was subsequently turned over to the City's Department of Water Supply, Gas and Electricity for operation and maintenance.
The remaining development of the Catskill System, involving the construction of the Schoharie Reservoir and Shandaken Tunnel, was completed in 1928.
The Croton Falls Reservoir is a small reservoir that is located in Putnam County, New York in the Croton Watershed. It is within the townships of Carmel, New York, and Southeast, New York, making it over 30 miles (48 kilometres) north of New York City, which the reservoir supplies water to. It was formed by impounding the West Branch and Middle Branch of the Croton River, which are tributaries of the Muscoot River, which in turn is a tributary of the Croton River, which flows into the Hudson River.
Catskill Reservoir
Construction of the Delaware System was begun in March 1937. The Delaware System was placed in service in stages: The Delaware Aqueduct was completed in 1944, Neversink Reservoir in 1950, Rondout Reservoir in 1951, Pepacton Reservoir in 1954 and Cannonsville Reservoir in 1967.
Map from the city of NY - DEP
Water from the Pepacton, Neversink and Cannonsville Reservoirs is sent to the Rondout Reservoir by gravity via the 25-mile-long East Delaware Tunnel, the 44-mile West Delaware Tunnel and the Neversink Tunnel, which is six miles long.
The combined waters are then sent to the city in the world’s longest continuous underground tunnel, the Delaware Aqueduct, which extends 85 miles from the Rondout Reservoir to Hillview Reservoir in Yonkers.
The aqueduct, 1,550 feet below ground at one point, runs 600 feet beneath the Hudson River at Chelsea.
Impetus for the Upper Delaware River Watershed Study, authorized by Congress in May 1996, was the severe floods that struck the region in both January and November 1996.
The flooding caused millions of dollars in damages to homes, businesses and infrastructure, primarily in Delaware and Sullivan counties.
Both flood events resulted in federal disaster declarations for this area, which has a long history of flooding dating back to the late 1800s.
NY Board of water supply transcript relating to the Pepeacton and Cannonsville reservoirs
The Catskill / Delaware Watersheds
Ashokan Reservoir
Photo from the city of NY - DEP
The Ashokan was constructed under the auspices of the New York City Board of Water Supply (BWS) between 1907 and 1915.
Its Olive Bridge Dam backed up
Esopus waters for 12 miles, necessitating the removal of homes, farms,
businesses, churches, schools and other structures throughout the
valley.
Two-thousand residents were displaced as the city condemned eight
communities: Shokan, Broadhead Bridge, Brown’s Station, Olive Bridge,
West Hurley, Glenford, Olive and Ashton.
The blended waters reach the city’s distribution system through the 92-mile-long Catskill Aqueduct which consists of deep-rock tunnels, steel pipe siphons and buried conduits snaking beneath mountains, valleys and rivers.
The aqueduct burrows 1,114 feet beneath the Hudson River between Storm King and Breakneck Mountains near Cornwall.
Click here to see more photos of this reservoir
Cannonsville Reservoir
Photo taken 2/2001 by Gary Teed;
posted here with his premission
When a dam constructed across the West Branch of the Delaware River was closed in 1967, the village of Cannonsville in southwestern Delaware County was flooded and the Cannonsville Reservoir was formed.
The reservoir is about fifteen miles long and averages one-half mile wide. Maximum depth is about 140 feet with an average depth of 61 feet.
When full, the reservoir comprises 4800 surface acres and is 1150 feet above sea level. The reservoir was created to supply water to New York City, and water is diverted to the city via the West Delaware tunnel.
Water is also released into the West Branch of the Delaware River through values located at the base of the dam. These cold releases from the bottom of the reservoir have fostered an excellent trout fishery in the river below the dam.
Photo by Teresa Bedford 2008
Common fish species include brown trout, smallmouth bass, brown bullhead, rock bass, yellow perch, white sucker, carp and alewife.
The Cannonsville Reservoir and 44 mile long underground aqueduct cost 140 million dollars to build. When the water filled the valley in 1966, it consumed 19,910 acres of Delaware County; eliminating 94 farms, destroying five settlements - Cannonsville, Granton, Rock Rift, Rock Royal and Beerston, and displacing 941 people.
New photos taken in the fall of 2001
Neversink Reservoir
The Neversink Reservoir a few miles distant in Sullivan County was constructed between 1941 and 1953
Photo by Daniel Case from Wikipedia (2006-03-21 from Route 55 along the dam.)
Water from the Pepacton, Neversink and Cannonsville Reservoirs is sent to the Rondout Reservoir by gravity via the 25-mile-long East Delaware Tunnel, the 44-mile West Delaware Tunnel and the Neversink Tunnel, which is six miles long.
The combined waters are then sent to the city in the world’s longest continuous underground tunnel, the Delaware Aqueduct, which extends 85 miles from the Rondout Reservoir to Hillview Reservoir in Yonkers.
The aqueduct, 1,550 feet below ground at one point, runs 600 feet beneath the Hudson River at Chelsea.
Old
Neversink by Geoff Brown, Between the Lakes Group, LLC
Great site of the full History of
Neversink
Rio Reservoir
Located in Sullivan County. Old Plank Road, off Route 42, 2 1/4 miles southwest of the Hamlet of Forestburgh. Hand launching just north of dam, parking for 10 cars. Hard surface ramp off Plank Road. Parking for 15 cars and trailers. Open April 1 - November 30. Electric motors only.
Pepacton Reservoir
Photo by Mike Szyszka
Pepacton Reservoir was created in 1955 by impounding the East Branch of the Delaware river near the village of Downsville in Delaware County. The impoundment was named after the small hamlet of Pepacton, which was covered under 120 feet of water.
The reservoir is about twenty miles long and averages about one-half mile wide. When full, the reservoir comprises 5700 surface acres and is 1280 feet above sea level. Water usage results in seasonal changes in reservoir levels. Although typically full between the months of March and June, water withdrawals usually result in a gradual drawdown of the reservoir during the summer and fall. Common fish species include brown trout, smallmouth bass, brown bullhead, rock bass, yellow perch, white sucker and alewife.
Click here to see more photos of this reservoir
Rondout Reservoir
Photo by Daniel Case from Wikipedia (2007-10-07)
The Rondout Reservoir straddling the Ulster and Sullivan County line was built between 1937 and 1954. It was first placed in service in 1951.
Rondout Reservoir is part of New York City's water supply network. It is located 75 miles (120 km) northwest of the city in the Catskill Mountains, near the southern end of Catskill Park, split between the towns of Wawarsing in Ulster County and Neversink in Sullivan County. It is the central collection point for the city's Delaware System, which provides half its daily consumption.
The reservoir was made possible by the construction of Merriman Dam along Rondout Creek. Construction began in 1937 and ended in 1954, three years after the reservoir began delivering water. It would be the first of four built by the city to satisfy its growing demand in the years after World War II. Three villages — Lackawack, Montela and Eureka — were condemned and flooded in the process. The small settlement of Grahamsville remains in existence just west of the reservoir. Source: Wikipedia
Schoharie Reservoir
Building a dam at Gilboa to create
the Schoharie Reservoir. This reservoir, built between 1919 and 1927,
forced the removal of 350 residents of the community of Gilboa and
neighboring valley lands. 
Water from the Schoharie is sent down the Shandaken Tunnel, an 18-mile-long conduit which leads to the Esopus Creek and then runs eastward into the Ashokan Reservoir.
The Schoharie Reservoir is a small reservoir in the Catskill Mountains of New York State that was created to be one of 19 reservoirs that supplies New York City with water. It was created by impounding the Schoharie Creek.
After the Ashokan Reservoir was
created to be the
13th reservoir that supplied New York City with water, and the Kensico
Reservoir was completed soon after for holding the water, the water
supply was still insufficient for the city's high population. So the
City of New York started to search for a new place to put a reservoir,
and they eventually stumbled across the village of Gilboa, New York.
They purchased the village and the surrounding area, and started to
forcefully evacuate the citizens.
They evacuated all of the citizens of the village, and destroyed most
of the trees and buildings up to the water line. They completed the dam
in the 1920s out of stone bricks, and finished flooding the reservoir
in 1924, when it was put into service. The village of Gilboa was
relocated west of the reservoir; the location of the original town is
now only visble when water levels recede during a drought[citation
needed].
The resulting reservoir is located about 36 miles (58 km) southwest of
Albany and roughly 110 miles (180 km) northwest of New York City. It is
the northernmost NYC reservoir, located at the southern end of
Schoharie County, the northeastern end of Delaware County, and at the
northwestern end of Greene County. It neighbors such towns as Gilboa,
Prattsville, and Conesville. It is an impounded portion of the
Schoharie Creek, which is a tributary of the Mohawk River, which in
turn is a tributary of the Hudson River.
It was finally put into service in 1926. The resulting reservoir
consists of a single 6-mile (9.6-km) basin, and holds 17.6 billion
gallons (66.5 million m³) of water at full capacity, making it one of
the smaller New York City reservoirs. Despite its size, the Schoharie
Reservoir provides nine million people with approximately 15-16 percent
of their annual water supply needs. It is the smaller of the two
reservoirs that make up the New York City Catskill Water System. The
other reservoir in the Catskill system is the Ashokan Reservoir, in
Olive, NY. Water that doesn't end up in a tap and instead overflows
will go over the Gilboa Dam into the Schoharie Creek, ultimately
flowing into the Hudson River.
Water from the Schoharie Reservoir flow to New York City through the
16-mile-long (26 km) Shandaken Tunnel, and empties into the Esopus
Creek at Shandaken. Another 11 miles (18 km) down the Esopus it empties
into the Ashokan Reservoir. From there water enters the 92-mile (147
km) Catskill Aqueduct to the Kensico Reservoir, and then flows into New
York City. Source: Wikipedia
Tomhannock Reservoir
Near towns - Pittstown, Schaghticoke in Rensselaer County
The water source for the City of Troy, NY is the Tomhannock Reservoir, a man made reservoir 6 ½ miles northeast of the City. The reservoir is 5 ½ miles long and holds 12.3 billion gallons when full. The quality of the water from the Tomhannock Reservoir is good to excellent.
Construction of the reservoir began in 1900. In 1960 a study determined that the Tomhannock Reservoir could serve the entire water system area of the City of Troy, a limited region including the communities immediately adjacent to Troy (East Greenbush, North Greenbush, Brunswick, a portion of Schaghticoke, and West Sand Lake) which included most of the populated area of Southern Rensselaer County. Source: Wikipedia
Cannonsville,
NY
When a dam constructed across the West Branch of the Delaware River was
closed in 1967, the village of Cannonsville in southwestern Delaware
County was flooded and the Cannonsville Reservoir was formed.
Reservoir Stories
The City of New York, Department of Environmental Protection
New York State Reservoirs
Next page is a list of reservoirs
End of page content
Disclaimer / Copyright Information / Privacy Policy
Copyright ©
1995-2009 Bear Systems 
PO Box 1427 Woodstock,
NY 12498
(845) 853-9962
All rights reserved