Drink All You Want, For Free

The hard work that regional farm and forest landowners do at the headwaters is startling evident in New York City...when someone opens the water faucet. Through the Watershed Agricultural Council's programs in forestry, agriculture and conservation easements, we're doing our part to keep water clean, and drinkable, for nine million New Yorkers. And with the help of New York City Environmental Protection, this tasty finite resource regularly tests high on the water quality scale. Each day, our water flows downstream, fulfilling our city neighbors' needs to a tune of 1+billion gallons of water a day. They don't call it "The Champagne of the Catskills" for nothing...yes, our water tastes really good.

Tap It is a national organization that educates people about clean drinking water and encourages them to kick the bottled water habit. Plastic water bottles produced for the U.S. use 1.5 million barrels of oil a year—enough to power 250,000 homes or 100,000 cars all year. And it takes more than 3 liters of water to produce each bottled liter of water.

Tap It's initiatives have also included advocating that cities bring back "The Water Fountain," and provide residents with free drinking water access and a place to refill the now fashionable re-usable canteen. NYC DEP has stepped up with its Water-On-The-Go program. Next time you're in New York City, you can refill that water bottle easily by locating a drinking fountain through the Tap It Google Map. They're even offering a free TapItWater app for your phone (download it here).

We're so proud of the water we protect through our farmland protection and land conservation programs, we want you to enjoy...Drink all you want, for free, at a water fountain near you and tell us where you used a NYC water fountain...