Under an extremely tight deadline mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, New York City is building its first-ever water filtration plant, which, once operational in 2012, will end a long, costly and often controversial saga that began nearly two decades ago.
Originally estimated at $992 million, the now $2.8-billion Croton Water Filtration Plant entailed more than 10 years of planning before contractors broke ground in early 2007. But unlike the breakneck, 51-month construction schedule, the idea for the 290-million-gallon-per-day plant has been slowly gestating in New York since 1989, the year EPA began requiring filtration for all surface drinking water.