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Catskill Aqueduct Work Affecting Briarcliff Water Supply

BRIARCLIFF MANOR, N.Y. – The Village of Briarcliff Manor’s main source for water has been shut down several times in the last few weeks but state officials said the village has never been in danger of losing its supply.

The Village of Briarcliff Manor receives water from the Catskill Aqueduct, which is part of the New York City water supply system. The shutdowns are a result of the aqueduct recently being connected with a UV Disinfection Facility in Eastview, Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) officials said Tuesday. The next shutdown has not been scheduled yet, but officials said there should be several additional shutdowns within the next few months.

“DEP works with the Village of Briarcliff to ensure that they have adequate alternative supplies of water during the temporary shutdowns,” DEP officials wrote in an email Tuesday. “DEP strives to minimize the number of shutdowns to the Aqueduct and will continue to work cooperatively with those communities who have access to its water.”

The Catskill Aqueduct services 19 communities from both north and south of the Kensico Reservoir. DEP officials added Tuesday that once the aqueduct is hooked up to the facility in Eastview, the water residents receive will have an additional form of disinfection not required by any state regulations.

Briarcliff Manor Village Manager Philip Zegarelli said he receives regular calls with residents wondering why the shutdowns are occurring after the village installed its new Full Water Supply Project last year.

“We did a whole new system but ours is a delivery service into the village,” Zegarelli said. “It’s not from the source. And if the source has got problems, so do we.”

Zegarelli said some of the repairs meant that DEP officials would need to place wooden stops into the aqueduct.

“They have what are called stops but all they are, are logs,” he said. “That’s how they hold the water back. So when they’re doing repairs sometimes those leak. It’s a lot of work so they are constantly doing repairs. Like a lot of infrastructure in the metropolitan area, over the years, a lot of this type of work had been neglected.”

Zegarelli added that residents should not be concerned about the water supply but could conserve water during shutdown periods.

“It’s not an extreme situation,” he said. “It might take some time. No pun intended, but these things move at glacial speeds.”

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