Nita Lowey: “I thank the gentleman, [Mr. Boehlert], my outstanding colleague from New York who has truly been a leader on this issue.…”

“I thank the gentleman, [Mr. Boehlert], my outstanding colleague from New York who has truly been a leader on this issue. It has been an honor for me to work with the gentleman and to see this project actually become a reality. I also want to thank the gentleman, because we know that for more than 150 years, Mr. Chairman, the residents of the New York metropolitan area have received their drinking water from reservoirs in upstate New York. This 2,000-square-mile watershed has the distinction of being the largest unfiltered surface drinking water supply in the entire Nation. As my colleagues from New York State know, protecting the New York City watershed is absolutely critical, and it is simply a matter of dollars and cents. Why? Reserving the purity of the city's water system at its source in the upstate reservoirs will avoid the need to construct a filtration plant that would cost more than $6 billion, I repeat, $6 billion. For too long, there was antagonism and mistrust between residents of the metropolitan area, who want to ensure the water's purity, and upstate residents, who rely on the land for their economic livelihood.”