WEBVTT - Selects: NYC Water: An Engineering Marvel

0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:03.880
<v Speaker 1>Hell to everybody. I hope you're having a lovely Saturday

0:00:04.000 --> 0:00:07.000
<v Speaker 1>wherever you are in the world. Chuck, here with a

0:00:07.040 --> 0:00:10.639
<v Speaker 1>Saturday Select selection, and I'm going to go with from

0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:15.000
<v Speaker 1>November twenty nineteen, not even so long ago, as the

0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:20.880
<v Speaker 1>Crow Flies. The episode is NYC Water Colon an Engineering Marvel.

0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:24.640
<v Speaker 1>I love New York City. Everyone knows that I go

0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:27.280
<v Speaker 1>on and on about that city on the show, and

0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:33.440
<v Speaker 1>I'm constantly amazed that city runs, and that the trash

0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:37.479
<v Speaker 1>gets taken away and the mail gets delivered, and that

0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:41.040
<v Speaker 1>people have enough drinking water and water to bathe in

0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:45.120
<v Speaker 1>and cook with. And so it's a pretty unique situation

0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:47.000
<v Speaker 1>there in New York how they get their water. And

0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:55.320
<v Speaker 1>here's that story. Please to enjoy. Welcome to Stuff You

0:00:55.320 --> 0:01:00.560
<v Speaker 1>Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.

0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:06.600
<v Speaker 2>Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's

0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:09.880
<v Speaker 2>Charles so B, Chuck Bryant, there's guest producer Andrew. This

0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:12.399
<v Speaker 2>is Stuff you should Know. Let's get this a.

0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:16.000
<v Speaker 1>I'm excited about this one.

0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:21.800
<v Speaker 2>This was your pick and I was like, what is

0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:25.520
<v Speaker 2>Chuck talking about? Were you really yes? And then Chuck,

0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:27.760
<v Speaker 2>I happened to stumble upon I don't know what I

0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:30.959
<v Speaker 2>was looking for, but an email from somebody who sent

0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:35.200
<v Speaker 2>like a Google doc or something that was a list

0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:39.520
<v Speaker 2>of episodes we said we should do, and people have

0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:41.679
<v Speaker 2>set those in before, but this one was kind of

0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:44.800
<v Speaker 2>condensed and that was on there. So I've stumbled upon

0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:46.040
<v Speaker 2>your dirty little secret.

0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:48.920
<v Speaker 1>I don't think that's where I got it. Oh really,

0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:52.360
<v Speaker 1>I don't think so, but maybe Okay, I just know

0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:56.840
<v Speaker 1>that I am always fascinated by not only New York City,

0:01:56.960 --> 0:02:02.360
<v Speaker 1>but by the fact that New York City functions with

0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:05.520
<v Speaker 1>that many people and all that everything. It's just all

0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:08.919
<v Speaker 1>amazing to me that that city functions with that many people,

0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:10.960
<v Speaker 1>that many buildings, that like, I want to do an

0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:13.200
<v Speaker 1>episode on out trash removal.

0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:17.080
<v Speaker 2>Okay, I want to do one on the mail on

0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:20.640
<v Speaker 2>wastewater treatment. Yeah, oh yeah, that's just New York in general.

0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:21.680
<v Speaker 1>That's been long brewing.

0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:23.080
<v Speaker 2>Are you okay with that?

0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:24.000
<v Speaker 1>Yeah?

0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:27.280
<v Speaker 2>Just I mean, we can mention New York or whatever.

0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:31.880
<v Speaker 1>Big thanks to Dave Ruse though, one of our great writers.

0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:34.359
<v Speaker 1>They put this together and it's really really fascinating.

0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:38.119
<v Speaker 2>Dave's just an amazing human. All of our writers are amazing,

0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:40.680
<v Speaker 2>for sure. Dave is great as well. He's one of

0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:43.040
<v Speaker 2>a few select amazing people.

0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:43.560
<v Speaker 1>Right.

0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:48.200
<v Speaker 2>So the reason why New York, why anybody would ask

0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:51.600
<v Speaker 2>about New York's water is because if you've ever interacted

0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:54.520
<v Speaker 2>with the New Yorker, they talk about their water a lot.

0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:57.240
<v Speaker 2>It's like kind of a thing in New York where

0:02:57.280 --> 0:02:59.480
<v Speaker 2>they're like, our tap water is the best water in

0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:04.160
<v Speaker 2>the country, and they have like a lot of stuff

0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:06.920
<v Speaker 2>to back that up with, and so much so that

0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:10.160
<v Speaker 2>that they say this, this water is actually the reason

0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:12.400
<v Speaker 2>why our bagels and our pizza are so good.

0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:15.440
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I was. We were both just there for our

0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:17.560
<v Speaker 1>final shows of the year at the Bellhouse thanks to

0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:20.440
<v Speaker 1>people who came out. Yes, they were great, a lot

0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:23.280
<v Speaker 1>of fun. And by the way, the guy that fell

0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:27.840
<v Speaker 1>asleep on the front row on night number two, I

0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:30.560
<v Speaker 1>think it was night number two. I was walking down

0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:33.520
<v Speaker 1>the street and he randomly passed by driving in a

0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:37.240
<v Speaker 1>car and rolled down his window and said, hey man,

0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:39.440
<v Speaker 1>He said great show the other night.

0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:41.880
<v Speaker 2>Right, And I was waiting for him to say, is

0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:42.720
<v Speaker 2>that Freedom Rock?

0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:45.120
<v Speaker 1>And I said thanks dude, I was like front row

0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:47.720
<v Speaker 1>And he was so excited that I remembered that, and

0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:50.280
<v Speaker 1>he said front row and he drove on before I

0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:52.760
<v Speaker 1>had a chance to say you fell asleep.

0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:56.320
<v Speaker 2>He's like, I feel like I was there. Maybe I

0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:57.680
<v Speaker 2>felt like a dream too.

0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:01.800
<v Speaker 1>I don't know, but we were just there. And there

0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:05.160
<v Speaker 1>are many many restaurants in New York where there will

0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:08.040
<v Speaker 1>be like a water cooler or a place where you

0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:10.600
<v Speaker 1>can help yourself to your own cup of water, and

0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:13.200
<v Speaker 1>it will have a big sign on it that says

0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:18.799
<v Speaker 1>New York City tap water and proud all caps underlined letters.

0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:22.280
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And they mean like they're just getting water out

0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:25.000
<v Speaker 2>of the tap, Whereas in other cities that's a dirty,

0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:27.000
<v Speaker 2>shameful secret that people don't talk about.

0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:27.560
<v Speaker 1>That's right.

0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:32.800
<v Speaker 2>In New York, they proudly boast about it. And just

0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:36.560
<v Speaker 2>the fact that New York or any New Yorker in

0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:40.960
<v Speaker 2>the city gets water at all is pretty spectacular. It's

0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:43.039
<v Speaker 2>like you said, there's a lot of people, there's a

0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:46.200
<v Speaker 2>lot of buildings, and something like more than a billion

0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:49.680
<v Speaker 2>gallons of water flow into New York through the taps

0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:50.279
<v Speaker 2>every day.

0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:53.719
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I said day with the d yes. It is

0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:57.960
<v Speaker 1>the largest water system in the United States. People from

0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:03.479
<v Speaker 1>all over the world, government officials fly in and take

0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:07.640
<v Speaker 1>meetings with the New York City water people just to see,

0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:08.760
<v Speaker 1>like how have you done it?

0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:13.800
<v Speaker 2>They're just agog, how could we do better? So that's

0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:17.000
<v Speaker 2>impressive enough that a billion, more than a billion gallons

0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:20.359
<v Speaker 2>of water is delivered every day to New Yorkers. Pretty great.

0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:23.440
<v Speaker 2>But the idea that you can just drink it straight

0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:28.640
<v Speaker 2>from the tap and it is ninety percent unfiltered, yeah,

0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:31.239
<v Speaker 2>that is a truly impressive feat.

0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:35.600
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. And by ninety percent unfiltered, we mean ninety percent

0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:38.960
<v Speaker 1>of the water is unfiltered and ten percent is filtered.

0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:41.240
<v Speaker 2>Right, And you might say, look, how can you just

0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:43.800
<v Speaker 2>filter ninety percent of the water. Well, it comes from

0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:46.880
<v Speaker 2>different places, that's right. So ninety percent of the water

0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:50.919
<v Speaker 2>comes from two places, two watersheds that combined are called

0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:55.400
<v Speaker 2>the Catskill Delaware Watershed or water system I think. And

0:05:55.440 --> 0:05:58.360
<v Speaker 2>then the other one from the Crow Croton I always

0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:01.359
<v Speaker 2>want to say Crow toWin. Yeah, but from the Croton Reservoir.

0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:04.360
<v Speaker 2>That ten percent is actually filtered. We'll get into all

0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:09.320
<v Speaker 2>of that. But ninety percent of New York's water is not.

0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:12.520
<v Speaker 2>It doesn't go through a filtering process. And that makes

0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:15.320
<v Speaker 2>New York one of only five major cities in the

0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:18.080
<v Speaker 2>United States to get a waiver from the EPA that

0:06:18.120 --> 0:06:22.320
<v Speaker 2>says your water is so deliciously pure and delightful that

0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:26.040
<v Speaker 2>you don't need to filter it. Almost every other city

0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:28.720
<v Speaker 2>has to have a filtering process before it gets delivered

0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:29.279
<v Speaker 2>to taps.

0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:33.360
<v Speaker 1>That's right. And the other four naturally Seattle, Portland, Oregon,

0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:36.920
<v Speaker 1>San Francisco. The one that's a bit of a surprise

0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:38.280
<v Speaker 1>is Boston, Massachusetts.

0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:44.719
<v Speaker 2>What's that's how surprising it is, Chuck, Yeah, that's right.

0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:47.159
<v Speaker 1>So let's talk a little bit about the history of

0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:50.400
<v Speaker 1>New York and their water, because back in the day,

0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:54.520
<v Speaker 1>we've always talked about how what a disgusting, disease ridden

0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:58.839
<v Speaker 1>poop and horse urine ridden place New York City was.

0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:02.560
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, supposedly there's a good twelve inches of horse manure

0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:06.279
<v Speaker 2>on the street at all times. They before they really

0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:07.600
<v Speaker 2>started cleaning their place up.

0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:09.000
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's pretty bad.

0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:12.680
<v Speaker 2>I think that was in the wind Criest Typhoid Marry episode,

0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:13.640
<v Speaker 2>which is a great.

0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:16.640
<v Speaker 1>One, another great New York episode. So if we're talking

0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:20.320
<v Speaker 1>New Amsterdam, pre New York City, they got water where

0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:24.520
<v Speaker 1>you would think from ponds and natural springs, underwater springs,

0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:28.200
<v Speaker 1>and they had a forty eight acre pond it's about

0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:32.560
<v Speaker 1>sixty feet deep in Tribeca. What is now Tribeca called

0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:35.880
<v Speaker 1>the Collect and also the little Collect that was just

0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:39.679
<v Speaker 1>south of there, And that name comes from the Dutch

0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:44.880
<v Speaker 1>word caulk, which means small body of water. And the

0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:46.560
<v Speaker 1>Collect was where they got their water for a long

0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:52.320
<v Speaker 1>time until the city let some tanners built a tannery

0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:55.360
<v Speaker 1>on the shores of the Collect, not smart New York,

0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:56.360
<v Speaker 1>which ruined everything.

0:07:57.000 --> 0:08:00.520
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, because it started to get polluted. They all were

0:08:00.560 --> 0:08:03.840
<v Speaker 2>able to drill wells and stuff around places where people

0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:07.080
<v Speaker 2>pooped and peed and then dump their poop and pee.

0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:10.160
<v Speaker 2>It was a dirty, dirty place because this is pre

0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:13.040
<v Speaker 2>germ theory, or at least around the time the germ

0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:16.640
<v Speaker 2>theory was being developed and people didn't understand it. And

0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:19.720
<v Speaker 2>I think it was our great stink episode where they

0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:24.400
<v Speaker 2>traced a colera epidemic to a public well, a public

0:08:24.440 --> 0:08:27.680
<v Speaker 2>water pump. John Snow, if I remember correctly did that.

0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:29.640
<v Speaker 2>And this would have been around the time that New

0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:33.120
<v Speaker 2>Yorkers were suffering from cholera epidemics, one of which took

0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:35.960
<v Speaker 2>place in I think the eighteen thirties, eighteen thirty two.

0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:39.319
<v Speaker 2>It killed thirty five hundred New Yorkers and that was

0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:43.080
<v Speaker 2>a substantial amount of the population at the time, and

0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:46.280
<v Speaker 2>another one hundred thousand New Yorkers had to flee just

0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:49.560
<v Speaker 2>to get away from this colera epidemic, and it was

0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:53.480
<v Speaker 2>because their sewage and their water was coexisting in very

0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:57.360
<v Speaker 2>unhealthy ways. So New York said, maybe we should try

0:08:57.400 --> 0:09:00.160
<v Speaker 2>something else. Let's look a little further outside the city

0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:02.199
<v Speaker 2>where we're dumping our waists and everything. See if we

0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:03.360
<v Speaker 2>can get our water from there.

0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:04.240
<v Speaker 1>And they did.

0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:07.040
<v Speaker 2>They built the Croton Reservoir. They damned the river, and

0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:10.280
<v Speaker 2>reservoir collected and they said, now we have some beautiful

0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:13.080
<v Speaker 2>pure water. We will never need to do anything again

0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:14.120
<v Speaker 2>to get our water.

0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:17.600
<v Speaker 1>That's right. Previous to that, though, in the eighteenth century,

0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:20.160
<v Speaker 1>they had these public pumps like you were talking about

0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:23.920
<v Speaker 1>on street corners, about every four blocks or so, a

0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:27.840
<v Speaker 1>big wooden pump where you would get your water from

0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:32.280
<v Speaker 1>underground streams and springs and stuff. But there were only

0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:35.480
<v Speaker 1>a few of these that actually delivered good water. A

0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:38.720
<v Speaker 1>lot of it was really brackish and gross tasting, and

0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:43.400
<v Speaker 1>Americans and early European settlers obviously loved their tea, and

0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:45.960
<v Speaker 1>so they marked this was almost like an early yelp

0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:50.000
<v Speaker 1>or whatever. They had these pumps that actually delivered like

0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:52.040
<v Speaker 1>the two or three good pumps in the city that

0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:54.280
<v Speaker 1>delivered good water labeled tea water.

0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:56.880
<v Speaker 2>Pumps, but like it was good enough to use for tea.

0:09:56.679 --> 0:10:00.040
<v Speaker 1>Good enough to use for making good tea, okay, so

0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:01.600
<v Speaker 1>they would go to these tea water pumps. You would

0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.679
<v Speaker 1>have to buy the water. The best one was apparently

0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:09.000
<v Speaker 1>at Chathaman Roosevelt. There was another and sort of what

0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:10.920
<v Speaker 1>the Lower east Side is today that was a good

0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:13.960
<v Speaker 1>tea water pump. And this worked out for a long

0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:19.840
<v Speaker 1>time until the collect and all this stuff. It started

0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:23.600
<v Speaker 1>to sort of get nasty and stinky, and so they

0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:27.600
<v Speaker 1>built a canal to channel that water into the river.

0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:29.040
<v Speaker 1>Like that, we got to get rid of it and

0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:32.480
<v Speaker 1>drain this thing. So they build this canal forty feet wide,

0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:35.040
<v Speaker 1>they channel it. Right after they finish it, this canal

0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:38.480
<v Speaker 1>begins to sink, and in eighteen twenty one it got

0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:41.319
<v Speaker 1>so bad. The smell was so bad that they eventually

0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:44.120
<v Speaker 1>just covered up the canal. And guess what that became.

0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:50.520
<v Speaker 2>I don't know, Central Park Canal Street. Oh, how about

0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:55.199
<v Speaker 2>that so stupid? I wasn't even in the right part

0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:55.720
<v Speaker 2>of the city.

0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:56.360
<v Speaker 1>That's all right.

0:10:56.600 --> 0:10:58.920
<v Speaker 2>We've even done an episode on Central Park and that

0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:02.240
<v Speaker 2>wouldn't it forget it? Yes, Canal Street obviously.

0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:03.840
<v Speaker 1>That's where Canal Street came from. That was literally a

0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:07.400
<v Speaker 1>canal and then eventually an underground sewage system under running

0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:11.000
<v Speaker 1>under Canal Street. Right, And there's another cool little tidbit

0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:13.160
<v Speaker 1>if you want like your little New York history, if

0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:14.880
<v Speaker 1>you like to walk around on subways and tell people

0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:18.679
<v Speaker 1>about cool things. Yeah, one of the first public reservoirs

0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:21.760
<v Speaker 1>in the city was dug by Aaron Burr and his

0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:26.360
<v Speaker 1>Manhattan Company, and that didn't work out. They transported it

0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:29.480
<v Speaker 1>through wooden logs as pipes bury beneath the city.

0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:33.000
<v Speaker 2>Somebody found a piece of that wooden log. It's in

0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:36.040
<v Speaker 2>one of the museums up there. Now, Oh no way, Yeah.

0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:38.840
<v Speaker 1>That is very cool. But the water didn't taste great

0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:43.000
<v Speaker 1>and it didn't work out for Aaron Burr, so he changed.

0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:45.200
<v Speaker 1>He still kept the Manhattan Company, but he got into

0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:48.400
<v Speaker 1>banking and the Manhattan Company became Chase Manhattan Bank.

0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:52.120
<v Speaker 2>I saw somewhere that that was his aim all along,

0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:55.200
<v Speaker 2>that the water thing was just basically a fleece to

0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:58.240
<v Speaker 2>raise money to found oh really, and that that's why

0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:02.280
<v Speaker 2>the water was so shoddy and the delivery was so shoddy.

0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:04.600
<v Speaker 2>But what they were selling was so bad supposedly the

0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:06.000
<v Speaker 2>horses wouldn't even drink.

0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:06.840
<v Speaker 1>It, So it's a scam.

0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:09.160
<v Speaker 2>It was basically a scam. Aaron Burr was not the

0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:13.880
<v Speaker 2>greatest historical American shot Alexander Hamilton.

0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:16.559
<v Speaker 1>I know that's enough right there, right.

0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:19.640
<v Speaker 2>And then also scammed a bunch of people out of

0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:24.080
<v Speaker 2>their water investment. That's right, because I mean, if you

0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:25.640
<v Speaker 2>want to invest in a bank, you want to invest

0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:27.120
<v Speaker 2>in a bank. If you want to invest in a

0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:29.360
<v Speaker 2>water outfit, you want to invest in a water outfit.

0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:31.960
<v Speaker 2>You want people to be above the boards with stuff

0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:32.480
<v Speaker 2>like that.

0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:34.320
<v Speaker 1>That's right above the dogs.

0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:35.400
<v Speaker 2>That's my tirade.

0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:39.119
<v Speaker 1>So you mentioned the Croton Dam and the Croton Reservoir.

0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:42.600
<v Speaker 1>I want to say crow atone as well. Yeah, that

0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:47.000
<v Speaker 1>became and that aqueduct became operational and things were okay,

0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:50.280
<v Speaker 1>but then a tragedy struck with the Great Fire of

0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:51.280
<v Speaker 1>eighteen thirty.

0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:54.040
<v Speaker 2>Five, Yes, which actually I guess that the Great Fire

0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:56.839
<v Speaker 2>took place right before the reservoir was opened, which is

0:12:56.880 --> 0:13:00.679
<v Speaker 2>why the greats are bad. Yeah. So in eighteen thirty five,

0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:05.880
<v Speaker 2>on a night in December, a warehouse caught fire and

0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:10.480
<v Speaker 2>it just leveled Lower Manhattan, like just destroyed something like

0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:16.000
<v Speaker 2>seventeen city blocks, fifty acres of the most densely populated

0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:19.840
<v Speaker 2>part of New York at the time, and luckily only

0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:24.640
<v Speaker 2>two people died. Was too many, but considering that it

0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:28.120
<v Speaker 2>was seventeen city blocks that got reduced to ash, that's

0:13:28.320 --> 0:13:32.000
<v Speaker 2>not bad actually, especially considering that the way that they

0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:35.800
<v Speaker 2>ended up fighting this fire was by setting buildings on

0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:38.760
<v Speaker 2>the perimeter on fire because they didn't have the amount

0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:39.960
<v Speaker 2>of water that they needed.

0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:43.040
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, the reason for that it was just sort of

0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:46.600
<v Speaker 1>really bad luck. They were two smaller fires that drained

0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:49.199
<v Speaker 1>our hour. Like I'm a New Yorker, listen to.

0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:51.560
<v Speaker 2>Me, you're an honorary New Yorker, I would guess.

0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:54.600
<v Speaker 1>It drained the cisterns, the reserve cisterns that they had,

0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:57.240
<v Speaker 1>and because of those two smaller fires, they didn't have

0:13:57.320 --> 0:13:59.679
<v Speaker 1>enough to fight the Great Fire. And the long and

0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:01.960
<v Speaker 1>short of all this, as New York said, we got

0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:04.440
<v Speaker 1>to really speed up this Croton Reservoir work.

0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:07.440
<v Speaker 2>Yep, and they did. And so the Croton Reservoir was

0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:10.400
<v Speaker 2>broad online in the middle of the nineteenth century, and

0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:14.839
<v Speaker 2>they had a big old parade and everything, and it

0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:20.080
<v Speaker 2>delivered something like ninety million gallons of delicious pure water

0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:24.040
<v Speaker 2>to New York in the middle of the nineteenth century.

0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:26.400
<v Speaker 2>It was a really big deal and it worked really

0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:29.360
<v Speaker 2>well for a very long time. But there was also

0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:34.479
<v Speaker 2>they built the murray Hill Reservoir so the Croton Reservoir

0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:37.080
<v Speaker 2>would be where the water collected upstate. And then they

0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:40.560
<v Speaker 2>built an aqueduct system which is still around in parts today,

0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:44.480
<v Speaker 2>an elevated aqueduct to what's called the murray Hill Reservoir,

0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:48.200
<v Speaker 2>which was a four acre above ground swimming pool.

0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:50.640
<v Speaker 1>Basically, it's pretty cool if you look at pictures.

0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:54.360
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Yeah, it was like a real spot in the

0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:58.880
<v Speaker 2>city while it was around, I think something till eighteen

0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:01.040
<v Speaker 2>forty two to nineteen hu it was around, and people

0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:03.600
<v Speaker 2>used to take strolls around it and make paintings of

0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:05.520
<v Speaker 2>it and that kind of thing. And it is where

0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:08.600
<v Speaker 2>the New York Public Library is now today, where the

0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:12.360
<v Speaker 2>Ghostbusters did some of their early work. All right, right,

0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:16.640
<v Speaker 2>but it worked really well for you know, the time.

0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:18.760
<v Speaker 2>But then as New York grew and grew and grew,

0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:22.360
<v Speaker 2>it became very painfully obvious yet again that New York

0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:23.760
<v Speaker 2>had outgrown its water supply.

0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:27.360
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, they needed more water. Ninety million gallons a day

0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:32.400
<v Speaker 1>wasn't enough. And then what made matters worse was in

0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:36.000
<v Speaker 1>eighteen ninety eight, New York City officially made it a

0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:40.080
<v Speaker 1>declaration that we are now not just Lower Manhattan. Of course,

0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:42.440
<v Speaker 1>they didn't call Lower Manhattan at the time, right, that

0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:44.040
<v Speaker 1>was just sort of where the city ended.

0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:45.440
<v Speaker 2>They called it Manahattan.

0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:46.440
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, Manhattan.

0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:48.760
<v Speaker 2>I saw that episode, by the way, it was one

0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:52.320
<v Speaker 2>of the better ones ever, which one think of what

0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:54.720
<v Speaker 2>we do in the dark. Oh, that's right, where they

0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:57.360
<v Speaker 2>go to party in Manhattan Manahattan.

0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:01.920
<v Speaker 1>Yea, what we do in the shadows? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:05.680
<v Speaker 1>I'm so stupid, that's all right. The Five Burrows were

0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:08.120
<v Speaker 1>included in eighteen nine to eight officially, so New York

0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:11.600
<v Speaker 1>and the water needed to get to the people was

0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:15.800
<v Speaker 1>officially grown to more than three million people by the

0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:18.440
<v Speaker 1>time the twentieth century turned.

0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:21.200
<v Speaker 2>Right, which is just precious today. Three million New Yorkers,

0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:23.840
<v Speaker 2>Oh my gosh, I really do. So they started to

0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:26.080
<v Speaker 2>look upstate again because they had hit upon like a

0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:31.040
<v Speaker 2>pretty good idea. The city is a cesspool. We need

0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:33.920
<v Speaker 2>our water from outside of this cesspool. And they started

0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:36.120
<v Speaker 2>looking up state. So this time they looked up to

0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:39.440
<v Speaker 2>the cat Skills and they found two watersheds, which we

0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:42.000
<v Speaker 2>did an episode on watersheds that I would love to forget,

0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:43.440
<v Speaker 2>but it came up just now.

0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:44.440
<v Speaker 1>Oh I thought it was good.

0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:47.440
<v Speaker 2>No, oh man, it was horrendous, was it? Yes? I

0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:48.840
<v Speaker 2>thought it was terrible and boring.

0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:50.440
<v Speaker 1>January twenty seventeen.

0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:53.000
<v Speaker 2>I don't remember when it came out. Like I said,

0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:54.560
<v Speaker 2>I tried to forget that it ever happened.

0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:55.600
<v Speaker 1>I thought it was pretty good.

0:16:55.920 --> 0:17:00.880
<v Speaker 2>But anyway, So a watershed is basically a specific topographical

0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:06.520
<v Speaker 2>air area where rain, snow, whatever precipitation falls down into

0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:11.800
<v Speaker 2>this area and is delivered to a specific creek, river stream,

0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:15.080
<v Speaker 2>something like that that eventually empties into like a lake

0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:18.160
<v Speaker 2>or reservoir or something like that. So there's two watersheds,

0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:22.240
<v Speaker 2>the Delaware and the Catskill Watershed that put together create

0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:27.879
<v Speaker 2>something like two thousand square miles of water catching goodness,

0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:31.600
<v Speaker 2>and it delivers it to a number of different reservoirs.

0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:33.960
<v Speaker 2>And that is now today where New York gets like

0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:35.280
<v Speaker 2>ninety percent of its water.

0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:37.840
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so you know, obviously they had to dam up

0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:41.280
<v Speaker 1>rivers to create these reservoirs, and this all happened to

0:17:41.440 --> 0:17:44.359
<v Speaker 1>you in the early nineteen hundreds. And then finally they

0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:47.520
<v Speaker 1>were like, great, We've got all these reservoirs and the Catskills,

0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:50.640
<v Speaker 1>but let me remind you, we're on the lower east

0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:54.960
<v Speaker 1>side of Manhattan, surrounded by horse hearin and a lot

0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:57.359
<v Speaker 1>of it and poop. We need our fresh water. How

0:17:57.400 --> 0:18:01.639
<v Speaker 1>do we get it here? So in nineteen seventeen, the

0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:04.800
<v Speaker 1>engineers of New York City completed the ninety two mile

0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:10.960
<v Speaker 1>Catskill Aqueduct YEP, which is amazing. It's basically a big

0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:16.480
<v Speaker 1>concrete tunnel that sends water ninety two miles from the

0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:19.680
<v Speaker 1>Catskills down to New York. It's as wide as thirty

0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:23.280
<v Speaker 1>feet in some places. It is not a tunnel the

0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:26.000
<v Speaker 1>entire length, as we will see here in a minute.

0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:29.160
<v Speaker 1>Not a continuous tunnel. I'm not sure what that means.

0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:30.200
<v Speaker 1>What is it just like open.

0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:34.639
<v Speaker 2>There's parts of it that aren't technically a tunnel in

0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:37.440
<v Speaker 2>that it's a covered trench. Okay, they cut a trench

0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:39.200
<v Speaker 2>and then they covered it back up, which I don't

0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:41.240
<v Speaker 2>know how you do that. But it's not technically a

0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:43.280
<v Speaker 2>tunnel like a circle or tube.

0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:46.160
<v Speaker 1>Interesting, and here is to me one of the facts

0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:48.760
<v Speaker 1>of the show. You get this water down there in

0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:52.000
<v Speaker 1>the aqueduct and you get to the Hudson River, and

0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:53.800
<v Speaker 1>what are you gonna do? You gotta go under it.

0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:57.240
<v Speaker 2>Right to me, it'd just be like just pump it

0:18:57.280 --> 0:18:59.680
<v Speaker 2>in the Hudson and hope it comes out the other side.

0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:02.879
<v Speaker 2>But then I would have gotten fired immediately when night

0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:06.479
<v Speaker 2>he's no engineer. No, he's a sham.

0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:11.200
<v Speaker 1>He's a rapscallion. So it gets to the Hudson River

0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:14.760
<v Speaker 1>and then it goes way down into the ground, about

0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:18.560
<v Speaker 1>eleven hundred feet below sea level, and then climbs back

0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:22.080
<v Speaker 1>up the other side. And it does all this via gravity.

0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:25.920
<v Speaker 2>Yes, and they did that not just to show off,

0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:28.960
<v Speaker 2>but because they decided. I read this awesome, you know

0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:32.040
<v Speaker 2>how I'm always like read the contemporary articles. I read

0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:34.600
<v Speaker 2>one from nineteen oh seven where they were talking about

0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:37.600
<v Speaker 2>the construction of the aqueduct and they said that the

0:19:37.720 --> 0:19:40.840
<v Speaker 2>reason why they were going down that far is because

0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:44.400
<v Speaker 2>they wanted to hit bedrock because it would be fissure free,

0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:47.080
<v Speaker 2>meaning there would be no leakage, and they could just

0:19:47.119 --> 0:19:49.199
<v Speaker 2>pump the water through the hole that they bored in

0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:51.240
<v Speaker 2>the bedrock. Well, they thought the bedrock was going to

0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:54.000
<v Speaker 2>be about five hundred feet down, and by nineteen oh

0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:57.040
<v Speaker 2>seven when they wrote the Scientific American article, they'd reached

0:19:57.040 --> 0:19:59.440
<v Speaker 2>like seven hundred feet still hadn't hit it. It ended

0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:03.000
<v Speaker 2>up being like eleven hundred feet below sea level where

0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:05.200
<v Speaker 2>they finally hit bedrock. And that's why they had to

0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:08.520
<v Speaker 2>drill so far down. And they drilled a tunnel, a

0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:15.440
<v Speaker 2>vertical shaft from the from the Hudson down to that tunnel,

0:20:15.560 --> 0:20:18.679
<v Speaker 2>and they built like a tube to pressurize it. So

0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:22.720
<v Speaker 2>the water eleven hundred feet under the Hudson is at

0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:26.520
<v Speaker 2>like fifteen tons per square foot of pressure, which also helps.

0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:28.760
<v Speaker 2>But the fact that there's no pumps or anything, it's

0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:30.399
<v Speaker 2>all gravity and pressure driven.

0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:34.280
<v Speaker 1>Yes, And sadly though, that story has a sad ending

0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:38.159
<v Speaker 1>because it took so long that their fissure free and

0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:41.800
<v Speaker 1>three T shirts were all rendered useless.

0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:47.920
<v Speaker 2>What No, I don't know that it's a great joke.

0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:50.640
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna go back and listen to it and I'll

0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:55.000
<v Speaker 2>probably think it's hilarious, So compliments on it in advance.

0:20:56.160 --> 0:20:58.360
<v Speaker 1>Oh man, that was a quality joke.

0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:03.720
<v Speaker 2>Three gotcha? Okay, sure, sure, yeah, yeah, yeah, I gotcha,

0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:06.320
<v Speaker 2>All right, I got you. We're all together. Now, Okay,

0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:07.320
<v Speaker 2>that is a pretty good joke.

0:21:08.440 --> 0:21:11.399
<v Speaker 1>Gee. Should we take a break after that? Yeah, all right,

0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:13.399
<v Speaker 1>let's take a break. We'll talk a little bit more

0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:15.560
<v Speaker 1>about this so called aqueduct right after this.

0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:42.600
<v Speaker 3>Stuff you should know, Josh, and shuck stuff you should know.

0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:57.960
<v Speaker 2>Okay, Chuck. So we've got the Catskill Aqueduct delivering water.

0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:04.639
<v Speaker 2>There's another one in two called the Delaware Aqueduct. And

0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:06.720
<v Speaker 2>this one actually is like a genuine tunnel.

0:22:06.840 --> 0:22:10.800
<v Speaker 1>Yes, it's eighty five miles, completed in forty four. I'm

0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:13.600
<v Speaker 1>not gonna make a T shirt joke about that. And

0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:17.720
<v Speaker 1>it is still the longest continuous tunnel in the world

0:22:18.680 --> 0:22:21.520
<v Speaker 1>at eighty five miles. And they did this all, you know,

0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:25.719
<v Speaker 1>just this digging process is amazing in and of itself,

0:22:25.760 --> 0:22:30.200
<v Speaker 1>digging these tunnels and these trenches with steam shovels and

0:22:30.240 --> 0:22:33.280
<v Speaker 1>pouring the concrete tunnel, which I was like, how do

0:22:33.280 --> 0:22:35.639
<v Speaker 1>you do that? Even, Yeah, you do the bottom half

0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:37.800
<v Speaker 1>let it set, and then you do the top half

0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:41.040
<v Speaker 1>and let that set. So they were like Charles Bronson

0:22:41.040 --> 0:22:43.520
<v Speaker 1>in The Great Escape. They were digging tunnels.

0:22:43.720 --> 0:22:46.440
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean we're talking like dynamite and stuff like that.

0:22:46.520 --> 0:22:48.639
<v Speaker 2>Like they really did it the old school way to

0:22:48.640 --> 0:22:51.200
<v Speaker 2>build these aqueducts, and they're still in use today, so

0:22:51.359 --> 0:22:55.320
<v Speaker 2>much so that there's three tunnels. Tunnel number one and

0:22:55.359 --> 0:22:58.560
<v Speaker 2>tunnel number two have been in operation since nineteen seventeen

0:22:58.600 --> 0:23:03.440
<v Speaker 2>and nineteen thirty six. They've never stopped operating. They've never

0:23:03.520 --> 0:23:07.000
<v Speaker 2>been stopped up and drained and inspected in over one

0:23:07.080 --> 0:23:09.280
<v Speaker 2>hundred years. For tunnel number one.

0:23:09.520 --> 0:23:12.200
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think the current memo going around is I'm

0:23:12.200 --> 0:23:12.919
<v Speaker 1>sure it's fine.

0:23:13.760 --> 0:23:17.160
<v Speaker 2>Well, so they're building tunnel number three, and they decided

0:23:17.160 --> 0:23:20.000
<v Speaker 2>to start building tunnel number three nineteen fifty four. They

0:23:20.040 --> 0:23:23.080
<v Speaker 2>actually started in nineteen seventy. They are still not done

0:23:23.080 --> 0:23:24.080
<v Speaker 2>with tunnel number three.

0:23:24.280 --> 0:23:24.960
<v Speaker 1>It's amazing.

0:23:25.200 --> 0:23:27.800
<v Speaker 2>Parts of it are online. And when it does fully

0:23:27.800 --> 0:23:31.280
<v Speaker 2>come online, tunnel number three will have a capacity enough

0:23:31.400 --> 0:23:34.800
<v Speaker 2>so that they can individually stop and drain and inspect

0:23:34.840 --> 0:23:38.040
<v Speaker 2>and repair tunnel number one and then eventually tunnel number two.

0:23:38.240 --> 0:23:41.520
<v Speaker 2>So the tunnel number three, Yeah, tunnel number three will

0:23:41.600 --> 0:23:44.240
<v Speaker 2>save the other two. And it's good that they're doing

0:23:44.280 --> 0:23:46.000
<v Speaker 2>it now. But I saw that it's going to be

0:23:46.119 --> 0:23:48.840
<v Speaker 2>fully operational in twenty twenty one.

0:23:48.960 --> 0:23:51.000
<v Speaker 1>They think, oh wow, so we're almost there.

0:23:51.480 --> 0:23:52.240
<v Speaker 2>Almost man.

0:23:52.520 --> 0:23:57.320
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's the New York's longest running municipal project, five

0:23:57.359 --> 0:24:00.600
<v Speaker 1>billion dollar price tag so far and count I guess.

0:24:01.200 --> 0:24:04.159
<v Speaker 1>And then those three tunnels or two, and however many

0:24:04.640 --> 0:24:09.720
<v Speaker 1>parts of three are working deliver one point three gallons

0:24:09.760 --> 0:24:14.800
<v Speaker 1>of water a day through a network of mainz and

0:24:15.200 --> 0:24:21.360
<v Speaker 1>then individual pipes leading to apartments and homes and businesses

0:24:22.080 --> 0:24:25.200
<v Speaker 1>and skyscrapers, and all of those pipes, if you total

0:24:25.240 --> 0:24:29.119
<v Speaker 1>them up, would lay out about seven thousand miles.

0:24:29.480 --> 0:24:32.080
<v Speaker 2>That's pretty impressive. I would also like to point out

0:24:32.160 --> 0:24:34.600
<v Speaker 2>that I think you meant one point three billion gallons?

0:24:34.640 --> 0:24:39.120
<v Speaker 2>Would I say one point three gallons? Yeah? Really, which

0:24:39.160 --> 0:24:41.600
<v Speaker 2>would be hilarious that they went to all this trouble,

0:24:41.880 --> 0:24:44.680
<v Speaker 2>spend all this money, and they're like, we can crank

0:24:44.720 --> 0:24:48.720
<v Speaker 2>out one three gallons a day, New York. Gather around

0:24:48.720 --> 0:24:49.520
<v Speaker 2>and get your water.

0:24:50.040 --> 0:24:52.080
<v Speaker 1>I was still thinking about my t shirt joke.

0:24:53.520 --> 0:24:54.240
<v Speaker 2>It's a good joke.

0:24:54.800 --> 0:24:57.240
<v Speaker 1>And here's the kicker too. Another great fact of the show.

0:24:57.280 --> 0:25:00.240
<v Speaker 1>Only five percent of all of the city's water lies

0:25:00.320 --> 0:25:04.359
<v Speaker 1>on pumps to get to its final destination, which it

0:25:04.400 --> 0:25:05.160
<v Speaker 1>means your tap.

0:25:05.560 --> 0:25:08.080
<v Speaker 2>It's pretty awesome. Yeah, So that means that it can't

0:25:08.160 --> 0:25:11.080
<v Speaker 2>break down or if something does happen. They still have

0:25:11.240 --> 0:25:14.520
<v Speaker 2>things like gravity to help things along. It's great. So

0:25:15.440 --> 0:25:20.359
<v Speaker 2>the reason why the EPA gave New York a waiver

0:25:20.760 --> 0:25:23.280
<v Speaker 2>and said you don't have to filter the water coming

0:25:23.320 --> 0:25:27.560
<v Speaker 2>from the Catskill and the Delaware watersheds is because.

0:25:27.160 --> 0:25:30.399
<v Speaker 1>Because Giuliani greased the palms of the EPA.

0:25:30.359 --> 0:25:34.359
<v Speaker 2>Right exactly, it started well, it started out as so pure,

0:25:34.400 --> 0:25:38.960
<v Speaker 2>in pristine and just great water to begin with. But

0:25:39.040 --> 0:25:41.639
<v Speaker 2>they have taken steps along the way to ensure that

0:25:41.720 --> 0:25:44.040
<v Speaker 2>it stayed that way. Because one of the things that

0:25:44.119 --> 0:25:48.080
<v Speaker 2>happened with the Croton Reservoir is development was allowed to

0:25:48.080 --> 0:25:52.280
<v Speaker 2>grow up around it, Agriculture was allowed to pollute it.

0:25:52.280 --> 0:25:55.719
<v Speaker 2>It just got it turned. And after that, the EPA,

0:25:55.760 --> 0:25:58.200
<v Speaker 2>I think in the nineties the late nineties, said, yep,

0:25:59.240 --> 0:26:01.439
<v Speaker 2>you guys have to are't filtering that water. It's no

0:26:01.480 --> 0:26:06.400
<v Speaker 2>longer unfilterable. It's it's not drinkable as is, So they

0:26:06.440 --> 0:26:08.560
<v Speaker 2>had to start filtering. It used to be one hundred

0:26:08.560 --> 0:26:12.919
<v Speaker 2>percent of New York's water was unfiltered that Croton Reservoir.

0:26:13.080 --> 0:26:16.720
<v Speaker 2>Now is ten percent that is filtered. But so they

0:26:17.000 --> 0:26:19.600
<v Speaker 2>learned a valuable lesson from that, and now they're very

0:26:19.640 --> 0:26:25.520
<v Speaker 2>proactive and keeping the Delaware and Catskill reservoir or watershed

0:26:25.560 --> 0:26:30.960
<v Speaker 2>water from becoming corrupted by things like development and agriculture.

0:26:31.359 --> 0:26:34.119
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and by you know, the lesson they learned is money,

0:26:34.119 --> 0:26:36.240
<v Speaker 1>because you might be thinking, like, what's the big deal,

0:26:36.240 --> 0:26:38.399
<v Speaker 1>why don't they just filter all of it. It's a

0:26:38.400 --> 0:26:40.479
<v Speaker 1>lot cheaper to take care of the land and make

0:26:40.520 --> 0:26:43.360
<v Speaker 1>sure you never have to filter it than to install

0:26:43.400 --> 0:26:44.280
<v Speaker 1>a filtering plant.

0:26:44.840 --> 0:26:47.560
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, because they estimate that a filtering plant would cost

0:26:47.600 --> 0:26:50.159
<v Speaker 2>something like ten billion dollars up front and then one

0:26:50.240 --> 0:26:53.320
<v Speaker 2>hundred million dollars a year to operate. New York is

0:26:53.480 --> 0:26:57.240
<v Speaker 2>spending something like one billion dollars every several years to

0:26:57.320 --> 0:27:01.720
<v Speaker 2>protect the Delaware the Catskill water sheds. So it is

0:27:01.760 --> 0:27:04.919
<v Speaker 2>an enormous investment. But also it's great because it's natural

0:27:04.960 --> 0:27:06.119
<v Speaker 2>water that's unfiltered.

0:27:06.720 --> 0:27:08.399
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. And you know, they do this in a number

0:27:08.400 --> 0:27:12.080
<v Speaker 1>of ways, aside from buying up forty percent of the land,

0:27:12.160 --> 0:27:14.760
<v Speaker 1>which was a good move and making sure nothing happens

0:27:14.800 --> 0:27:15.040
<v Speaker 1>to it.

0:27:15.480 --> 0:27:18.880
<v Speaker 2>Yep. So New York City owns a lot of land upstate.

0:27:19.040 --> 0:27:22.920
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah to stef Yi, Yeah, forty percent. Yeah, it's

0:27:22.920 --> 0:27:26.119
<v Speaker 2>a lot of land, not forty percent of New York

0:27:26.160 --> 0:27:28.600
<v Speaker 2>State but forty percent of the property around the Catskill

0:27:28.680 --> 0:27:32.280
<v Speaker 2>and Delaware water sheds. They also did things like, hey,

0:27:32.359 --> 0:27:35.879
<v Speaker 2>let's look at all the wastewater treatment facilities upstream, and

0:27:35.960 --> 0:27:39.440
<v Speaker 2>let's invest a lot of money in upgrading those. Hey all,

0:27:39.480 --> 0:27:42.200
<v Speaker 2>you people that have septic tanks that are falling apart,

0:27:42.720 --> 0:27:45.880
<v Speaker 2>that matter, So we're going to reimburse you fifty two

0:27:45.960 --> 0:27:48.200
<v Speaker 2>hundred homeowners. Yeah that's impressive.

0:27:48.359 --> 0:27:50.159
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, install a new septic tank, and we're going to

0:27:50.240 --> 0:27:50.560
<v Speaker 1>pay for it.

0:27:50.960 --> 0:27:51.160
<v Speaker 2>Yep.

0:27:51.800 --> 0:27:55.920
<v Speaker 1>They remove dead trees, they replace those with little sapling

0:27:55.960 --> 0:27:59.640
<v Speaker 1>trees who apparently have roots that are young and can

0:27:59.680 --> 0:28:02.480
<v Speaker 1>abs or a lot of harmful nutrients from that rain water.

0:28:03.680 --> 0:28:06.600
<v Speaker 1>And here's another good fact of the show. Some of

0:28:06.640 --> 0:28:10.480
<v Speaker 1>the water from those reservoirs or from that watershed can

0:28:10.560 --> 0:28:13.040
<v Speaker 1>take up to a full year to make its way

0:28:13.080 --> 0:28:14.879
<v Speaker 1>down to the tap that you're drinking out of.

0:28:15.119 --> 0:28:16.959
<v Speaker 2>That's a good one. I like that one. It's almost

0:28:17.000 --> 0:28:19.040
<v Speaker 2>like the how long it takes sunlight to reach us?

0:28:19.080 --> 0:28:21.320
<v Speaker 1>And you were gonna say that it's the same thing.

0:28:21.400 --> 0:28:22.040
<v Speaker 1>It's the same thing.

0:28:22.720 --> 0:28:25.280
<v Speaker 2>They also did you talk about farmers.

0:28:25.800 --> 0:28:27.480
<v Speaker 1>The only difference between those stats is you don't have

0:28:27.520 --> 0:28:30.400
<v Speaker 1>to explain what a photon is you can just say water.

0:28:30.800 --> 0:28:34.159
<v Speaker 2>It's a tiny packet of light. It's the carrier of

0:28:34.200 --> 0:28:35.680
<v Speaker 2>electromagnetic and it's right.

0:28:36.280 --> 0:28:37.439
<v Speaker 1>What did you ask right before that?

0:28:37.480 --> 0:28:39.680
<v Speaker 2>Did you talk about the farmers how they train farmers

0:28:40.000 --> 0:28:43.840
<v Speaker 2>upstate too? I did not, So they say, hey, you hicks,

0:28:44.320 --> 0:28:47.680
<v Speaker 2>you're gonna learn these techniques, man to I'm just kidding.

0:28:47.720 --> 0:28:50.040
<v Speaker 2>I love farmers. I would actually, as a matter of fact, Chuck,

0:28:50.240 --> 0:28:55.520
<v Speaker 2>when I retire, I really really want like a small

0:28:56.000 --> 0:28:59.120
<v Speaker 2>working farm. Oh yeah, very small, Like what do you want,

0:28:59.400 --> 0:29:00.880
<v Speaker 2>like a tenth of an acre? Small?

0:29:01.240 --> 0:29:02.840
<v Speaker 1>No? No, what kind of stuff do you want to farm?

0:29:02.880 --> 0:29:03.560
<v Speaker 1>What do you want on it?

0:29:04.280 --> 0:29:07.440
<v Speaker 2>Oh? I don't care? Yeah, oh yeah, some animals, but

0:29:07.840 --> 0:29:11.760
<v Speaker 2>just you know, having pigs around, not to eat or milk,

0:29:12.200 --> 0:29:19.000
<v Speaker 2>but to like basically but to like to churen up

0:29:19.080 --> 0:29:22.160
<v Speaker 2>like a field so that I can plan it the

0:29:22.200 --> 0:29:24.000
<v Speaker 2>next year and move the pigs to the next part

0:29:24.080 --> 0:29:26.479
<v Speaker 2>of the land. That kind of stuff. For chickens to

0:29:26.520 --> 0:29:28.479
<v Speaker 2>just walk around and eat their eggs and things like that.

0:29:28.840 --> 0:29:31.360
<v Speaker 1>You want some chickens, some pigs, you want some probably

0:29:31.400 --> 0:29:33.120
<v Speaker 1>a couple of goats. A couple of goats. You want

0:29:33.160 --> 0:29:36.600
<v Speaker 1>some planting you want to farm, some plants and vegetables.

0:29:36.320 --> 0:29:38.840
<v Speaker 2>Sure, yeah, but mainly just to have something to do,

0:29:39.040 --> 0:29:42.600
<v Speaker 2>like with the earth. So I was one hundred million

0:29:42.680 --> 0:29:45.760
<v Speaker 2>percent teasing when when I said that New York was

0:29:45.760 --> 0:29:48.280
<v Speaker 2>calling the farmers hecks. New York probably did call the

0:29:48.320 --> 0:29:51.320
<v Speaker 2>farmer's hicks. But I wasn't condoning that. I was just

0:29:51.320 --> 0:29:52.000
<v Speaker 2>making a joke.

0:29:52.280 --> 0:29:53.840
<v Speaker 1>Right, you're the guy who wants a tenth of an

0:29:53.840 --> 0:29:56.200
<v Speaker 1>acre one day to do something on that. You're not sure.

0:29:56.280 --> 0:29:58.320
<v Speaker 2>Those pigs are gonna be Like, this is some pretty

0:29:58.360 --> 0:30:00.760
<v Speaker 2>tight quarters around here. Oh you know what else? I

0:30:00.760 --> 0:30:02.280
<v Speaker 2>would do what? And I would need more of a

0:30:02.360 --> 0:30:03.960
<v Speaker 2>tenth more than a tenth of an acre for this?

0:30:04.240 --> 0:30:07.120
<v Speaker 2>Raise bees. That is where I will eventually raise bees.

0:30:07.400 --> 0:30:08.560
<v Speaker 2>It's on Josh's farm.

0:30:08.720 --> 0:30:13.440
<v Speaker 1>Well, brother, you better get some land soon because it's leaving.

0:30:14.360 --> 0:30:17.800
<v Speaker 1>At a land is leaving, Yeah, I mean it's people

0:30:17.800 --> 0:30:21.200
<v Speaker 1>are buying land. There's I remember my parents looking at

0:30:21.240 --> 0:30:23.520
<v Speaker 1>land when I was like ten years old, and they

0:30:23.520 --> 0:30:24.200
<v Speaker 1>didn't buy it.

0:30:25.000 --> 0:30:26.840
<v Speaker 2>They say it's leaving, and it's.

0:30:26.640 --> 0:30:28.360
<v Speaker 1>A different deal. Now. It's a lot harder to find

0:30:28.400 --> 0:30:31.480
<v Speaker 1>the land that you want. You know, people bought it

0:30:31.520 --> 0:30:31.960
<v Speaker 1>all up.

0:30:32.800 --> 0:30:34.640
<v Speaker 2>I know you can still get it, but you got

0:30:34.680 --> 0:30:35.760
<v Speaker 2>to pay through the nose for.

0:30:35.680 --> 0:30:37.400
<v Speaker 1>It, yeah, or it's up to them if they want

0:30:37.400 --> 0:30:39.440
<v Speaker 1>to sell it or not. You know, sure we're getting

0:30:39.480 --> 0:30:41.200
<v Speaker 1>second rate, we're getting sloppy seconds.

0:30:42.080 --> 0:30:45.920
<v Speaker 2>Oh god, oh man, that's gonna be one of those

0:30:45.960 --> 0:30:48.320
<v Speaker 2>things that, like our younger listeners is going to be

0:30:48.320 --> 0:30:50.440
<v Speaker 2>in college smoking pot in a dorm room and it'll

0:30:50.440 --> 0:30:52.880
<v Speaker 2>just hit them what you just said, like fifteen years on.

0:30:53.600 --> 0:30:58.800
<v Speaker 1>Oh goodness. So you mentioned the croat and watershed needs

0:30:58.840 --> 0:31:03.000
<v Speaker 1>the filtering and they're trying to avoid that at all

0:31:03.040 --> 0:31:07.320
<v Speaker 1>costs with the other watersheds. But the croat and water

0:31:07.360 --> 0:31:10.840
<v Speaker 1>supply when they built this filtering system. It costs three

0:31:10.840 --> 0:31:12.960
<v Speaker 1>point two billion dollars and it's under a golf course

0:31:12.960 --> 0:31:14.000
<v Speaker 1>in New Jersey.

0:31:14.240 --> 0:31:17.440
<v Speaker 2>Which is so appropriate. That's where the tainted water is

0:31:18.160 --> 0:31:22.040
<v Speaker 2>under a golf course in Jersey and Bedminster perhaps sure,

0:31:22.160 --> 0:31:24.000
<v Speaker 2>I don't know what that is, but it sounds right.

0:31:24.480 --> 0:31:25.720
<v Speaker 1>Oh, some people will get that one.

0:31:27.920 --> 0:31:30.160
<v Speaker 2>New York's like, hey, you Hicks, build a golf course

0:31:30.200 --> 0:31:34.040
<v Speaker 2>over this. New York just calls everybody else Hicks. And

0:31:34.120 --> 0:31:35.000
<v Speaker 2>that's right. They do.

0:31:35.120 --> 0:31:37.240
<v Speaker 1>When we can fly in, do they welcome Hicks?

0:31:39.120 --> 0:31:42.600
<v Speaker 2>So have we taken our second break yet.

0:31:42.440 --> 0:31:44.040
<v Speaker 1>No, we probably should though. This is a good time.

0:31:44.280 --> 0:31:45.960
<v Speaker 2>Okay, We're going to take another break, and we're going

0:31:46.040 --> 0:31:48.320
<v Speaker 2>to come back and explain what New York does do

0:31:48.480 --> 0:31:50.720
<v Speaker 2>to its water and whether or not it is a

0:31:50.840 --> 0:32:20.320
<v Speaker 2>secret ingredient in bagels and pizza.

0:32:11.640 --> 0:32:32.160
<v Speaker 3>Stuff. You should know, Josh and shuck stuff. You should know, all.

0:32:32.200 --> 0:32:35.120
<v Speaker 2>Right, Chuck. So one thing that you're gonna want to say.

0:32:35.200 --> 0:32:36.959
<v Speaker 2>If you're a New Yorker and you're boasting about your

0:32:36.960 --> 0:32:39.560
<v Speaker 2>tap water, there are some things you should know. Number one,

0:32:39.560 --> 0:32:43.040
<v Speaker 2>it's chlorinated. Number two, it's been run through a UV filter.

0:32:43.520 --> 0:32:46.720
<v Speaker 2>Even if it hasn't been filtered, filtered, there's still things

0:32:46.720 --> 0:32:48.480
<v Speaker 2>that are done to it. It's not like it's coming

0:32:48.840 --> 0:32:50.840
<v Speaker 2>straight out of the cat skills into your tap.

0:32:51.360 --> 0:32:54.320
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, they take it very seriously. Obviously. Here's a good

0:32:54.360 --> 0:32:57.480
<v Speaker 1>stat In one year, there are more than fifteen thousand

0:32:57.560 --> 0:33:01.880
<v Speaker 1>water samples taken an analy at the source. So this

0:33:01.960 --> 0:33:07.840
<v Speaker 1>is upstream. They have AI, well not AI or is

0:33:07.840 --> 0:33:08.280
<v Speaker 1>it AI?

0:33:08.840 --> 0:33:11.040
<v Speaker 2>There's AI involved somehow? There always is.

0:33:11.160 --> 0:33:13.320
<v Speaker 1>I always ask if it's AI. Want to I always

0:33:13.320 --> 0:33:15.920
<v Speaker 1>ask you? Because you know, sure, I know. Thanks to

0:33:16.160 --> 0:33:17.520
<v Speaker 1>the end of the World with Josh Clark.

0:33:17.880 --> 0:33:19.400
<v Speaker 2>Oh thanks for the plug.

0:33:19.320 --> 0:33:23.720
<v Speaker 1>Still available on iTunes, the iHeart podcast app or wherever

0:33:23.720 --> 0:33:24.680
<v Speaker 1>you find your podcast.

0:33:25.080 --> 0:33:27.640
<v Speaker 2>Wow, that wasn't just a plug, that was an AD.

0:33:28.400 --> 0:33:32.600
<v Speaker 1>So they have these robotic buoys that monitor the Kensico Reservoir,

0:33:33.360 --> 0:33:35.440
<v Speaker 1>one of the reservoirs that feeds down into New York.

0:33:36.040 --> 0:33:40.640
<v Speaker 1>And these things take one point nine million measurements a

0:33:40.760 --> 0:33:46.440
<v Speaker 1>year and wirelessly transmit that back to the Department of

0:33:46.560 --> 0:33:48.440
<v Speaker 1>Environmental Protection in New York.

0:33:48.880 --> 0:33:51.760
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, which is pretty awesome. And they had a booy before,

0:33:51.840 --> 0:33:54.120
<v Speaker 2>but they had to remove it in winter because ice

0:33:54.120 --> 0:33:57.440
<v Speaker 2>would mess with it, and this new one apparently is

0:33:57.960 --> 0:33:59.400
<v Speaker 2>ice loving.

0:33:59.800 --> 0:34:00.240
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah.

0:34:00.800 --> 0:34:04.640
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. They also if you walk down the street, there's

0:34:04.680 --> 0:34:10.040
<v Speaker 2>something like thirteen hundred, no sixty five, nine hundred and

0:34:10.080 --> 0:34:13.560
<v Speaker 2>sixty five little gray boxes that if you could open

0:34:13.640 --> 0:34:16.400
<v Speaker 2>up you would find a little sink and a faucet.

0:34:16.480 --> 0:34:21.240
<v Speaker 2>It's adorable, maybe a little sample size of loxatain soap.

0:34:22.040 --> 0:34:27.040
<v Speaker 2>And that's a water sampling station, it says nydep Department

0:34:27.040 --> 0:34:30.560
<v Speaker 2>of Environmental Protection, and scientists walk up to these things,

0:34:30.640 --> 0:34:33.480
<v Speaker 2>unlock them and take samples and test for all sorts

0:34:33.480 --> 0:34:37.120
<v Speaker 2>of different things to make sure that the water getting

0:34:37.160 --> 0:34:39.120
<v Speaker 2>to New York is good.

0:34:39.400 --> 0:34:41.919
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it says more than that. It says New York

0:34:42.160 --> 0:34:44.640
<v Speaker 1>City Drinking Water Sampling Station on the front of it.

0:34:45.080 --> 0:34:47.560
<v Speaker 2>Oh wow, they really they really spell it out. Yeah,

0:34:47.560 --> 0:34:51.160
<v Speaker 2>I said Fisher free and O three stamped on.

0:34:51.280 --> 0:34:56.160
<v Speaker 1>There, so that you know they're testing. They take thirteen

0:34:56.239 --> 0:34:58.440
<v Speaker 1>hundred water samples a month. I'm not sure if you

0:34:58.480 --> 0:35:01.400
<v Speaker 1>said that, but they were a from these particular stations

0:35:01.760 --> 0:35:03.880
<v Speaker 1>and they do all kinds of tests. Are testing obviously

0:35:03.920 --> 0:35:10.560
<v Speaker 1>for turbidity, which is cloudiness, pH chlorine, bacteria, does it

0:35:10.680 --> 0:35:12.720
<v Speaker 1>stink like all kinds of tests that they're.

0:35:12.560 --> 0:35:16.880
<v Speaker 2>Doing, right, And usually the New York City water is

0:35:16.920 --> 0:35:19.200
<v Speaker 2>going to pass all these tests like it's there's not

0:35:19.239 --> 0:35:21.520
<v Speaker 2>going to be a problem. This is just a extra

0:35:21.600 --> 0:35:24.160
<v Speaker 2>little quality assurance that they're doing because by the time

0:35:24.200 --> 0:35:27.120
<v Speaker 2>it reaches these testing stations, that's where it's going to

0:35:27.160 --> 0:35:30.239
<v Speaker 2>the taps anyway, it's tapping into the tap water basically, right,

0:35:30.960 --> 0:35:35.360
<v Speaker 2>so that ten percent of water goes through a couple

0:35:35.440 --> 0:35:39.920
<v Speaker 2>extra steps that is that that the other ninety percent

0:35:39.960 --> 0:35:42.000
<v Speaker 2>doesn't go through. One of the first things it does

0:35:42.040 --> 0:35:45.160
<v Speaker 2>in a treatment plan is it's mixed with alum which

0:35:45.200 --> 0:35:50.400
<v Speaker 2>is a component of aluminum, right, and alum attracts organic

0:35:50.480 --> 0:35:53.560
<v Speaker 2>compounds and basically says, rise to the surface with me,

0:35:53.640 --> 0:35:57.040
<v Speaker 2>and it creates flock, which is a white, frothy sludge,

0:35:57.120 --> 0:35:59.040
<v Speaker 2>and all that is just skimmed off the top.

0:36:00.400 --> 0:36:03.680
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, this sounds so gross and it is, but like

0:36:03.880 --> 0:36:06.120
<v Speaker 1>in the end, you get your good water. The next

0:36:06.160 --> 0:36:09.880
<v Speaker 1>thing that happens is it flows through these giant water filters.

0:36:11.160 --> 0:36:13.720
<v Speaker 1>Day've put it as like these giant Brita filters. It's

0:36:14.239 --> 0:36:17.080
<v Speaker 1>essentially sort of the same thing. And this is just

0:36:17.120 --> 0:36:20.480
<v Speaker 1>going to further purify the water, passing through layers and

0:36:20.600 --> 0:36:25.480
<v Speaker 1>layers of stuff like sand and anthracite. And then comes

0:36:25.520 --> 0:36:28.080
<v Speaker 1>the ultra violet light that you referenced earlier, right.

0:36:28.360 --> 0:36:31.080
<v Speaker 2>Yes, and one hundred percent of New York's water is

0:36:31.360 --> 0:36:34.319
<v Speaker 2>sent through a UV filter because UV filters are really

0:36:34.320 --> 0:36:40.040
<v Speaker 2>good at disrupting reproduction of bacteria, and so all water

0:36:40.280 --> 0:36:43.400
<v Speaker 2>is apped. But that ninety percent of water that's not

0:36:43.480 --> 0:36:46.560
<v Speaker 2>filtered that goes through a separate UV filtering plant that's

0:36:46.560 --> 0:36:49.200
<v Speaker 2>built just for those, that's right, And that's where like

0:36:49.239 --> 0:36:51.720
<v Speaker 2>a billion gallons of water a day are z apped

0:36:51.760 --> 0:36:55.880
<v Speaker 2>with UV lights. But so all of that gets combined

0:36:55.920 --> 0:37:00.760
<v Speaker 2>together eventually and comes out your tap. And New Yorkers

0:37:01.480 --> 0:37:04.680
<v Speaker 2>drink it straight from the tap. Literally. It is very

0:37:04.680 --> 0:37:07.240
<v Speaker 2>bizarre because I don't know if it's a placebo effect

0:37:07.320 --> 0:37:10.680
<v Speaker 2>or what, but I feel like it does taste pretty

0:37:10.680 --> 0:37:13.799
<v Speaker 2>good for tap water. It does, but at the same time,

0:37:13.840 --> 0:37:17.160
<v Speaker 2>I typically don't drink just straight tapwater, so my frame

0:37:17.200 --> 0:37:19.160
<v Speaker 2>of reference isn't necessarily right there.

0:37:19.320 --> 0:37:21.359
<v Speaker 1>You want to hear something funny, Yeah, you know what

0:37:21.360 --> 0:37:23.880
<v Speaker 1>my brother's favorite water is and what it's probably just

0:37:23.920 --> 0:37:26.839
<v Speaker 1>a bit, but he claims it's true. What hose water?

0:37:28.239 --> 0:37:29.440
<v Speaker 2>Oh, I know what he's talking about.

0:37:30.040 --> 0:37:32.960
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, like when you're watering the car or watering the car.

0:37:33.000 --> 0:37:36.759
<v Speaker 1>When you're washing the car, here's right, grow car when

0:37:36.800 --> 0:37:39.399
<v Speaker 1>you're watering your mini, so it grows into an suv, right.

0:37:39.719 --> 0:37:43.680
<v Speaker 2>So I think the reason why Scott is onto something

0:37:43.719 --> 0:37:46.320
<v Speaker 2>is because when you're drinking from a hose, it's summertime

0:37:46.360 --> 0:37:47.040
<v Speaker 2>and it's hot.

0:37:46.880 --> 0:37:48.720
<v Speaker 1>Out, yeah, and you're probably working hard.

0:37:50.280 --> 0:37:53.160
<v Speaker 2>Maybe it definitely it definitely does taste different, for sure.

0:37:53.800 --> 0:37:57.280
<v Speaker 1>So when it comes to New York water, everyone says

0:37:57.280 --> 0:38:00.920
<v Speaker 1>it's the best in the country. There are rankings, actually,

0:38:01.480 --> 0:38:05.480
<v Speaker 1>and it is thirteen out of one hundred metro areas

0:38:05.520 --> 0:38:06.080
<v Speaker 1>in the US.

0:38:06.480 --> 0:38:09.239
<v Speaker 2>So it's not the best literally by definition, not the

0:38:09.239 --> 0:38:10.160
<v Speaker 2>best water in the cut.

0:38:10.200 --> 0:38:12.360
<v Speaker 1>You've got to move to Arlington, Texas if you want.

0:38:13.400 --> 0:38:16.600
<v Speaker 1>And this this was from ten years ago, but I'm

0:38:16.640 --> 0:38:18.839
<v Speaker 1>not sure what the current status is. Imagine Arlington's still

0:38:18.920 --> 0:38:19.640
<v Speaker 1>up there though.

0:38:19.800 --> 0:38:21.279
<v Speaker 2>Sure, but you're going to have to have a lot

0:38:21.320 --> 0:38:24.600
<v Speaker 2>more reasons than that to move to Arlington, Texas. Ouch

0:38:26.440 --> 0:38:27.480
<v Speaker 2>that one, I'm not taking that.

0:38:27.800 --> 0:38:29.840
<v Speaker 1>What are some of the problems though with New York water.

0:38:30.160 --> 0:38:33.320
<v Speaker 2>Well, there's two big problems. Turbidity, which you mentioned earlier,

0:38:33.360 --> 0:38:38.320
<v Speaker 2>which is sediment suspension in the water, which gives it

0:38:38.400 --> 0:38:41.600
<v Speaker 2>kind of a cloudy or darker, gritty kind of look,

0:38:42.040 --> 0:38:45.040
<v Speaker 2>which is it's not just that it looks bad, its

0:38:45.600 --> 0:38:48.440
<v Speaker 2>pathogens can cling to that sediment, so it's not something

0:38:48.440 --> 0:38:51.680
<v Speaker 2>you want suspended. Plus it also makes it much more

0:38:51.680 --> 0:38:54.800
<v Speaker 2>difficult to filter that stuff out. It's like extra work

0:38:54.840 --> 0:38:57.360
<v Speaker 2>that has to be done to get rid of that sediment.

0:38:57.880 --> 0:38:59.879
<v Speaker 2>And if you're not filtering your water to begin with,

0:39:00.360 --> 0:39:03.839
<v Speaker 2>that's kind of a problem. And then secondly, the other

0:39:03.960 --> 0:39:09.520
<v Speaker 2>one is nutrients. It's over nutrient meaning it's just packed

0:39:09.520 --> 0:39:10.520
<v Speaker 2>with ribal flavor.

0:39:12.840 --> 0:39:16.560
<v Speaker 1>Well, what it actually is is fertilizer runoff. You know,

0:39:16.800 --> 0:39:20.759
<v Speaker 1>those farmers are doing their best, but there is fertilizer

0:39:21.239 --> 0:39:25.520
<v Speaker 1>that goes downstream and runs into the watersheds, and phosphorus

0:39:25.560 --> 0:39:29.040
<v Speaker 1>is one of the biggest problems because farmers do fertilize

0:39:29.040 --> 0:39:33.240
<v Speaker 1>with phosphorus and if it runs off. The phosphorus alone

0:39:33.520 --> 0:39:35.440
<v Speaker 1>is not great because it can cause algae blooms and

0:39:35.480 --> 0:39:38.840
<v Speaker 1>stuff like that, and it can taste bad and stink.

0:39:39.239 --> 0:39:41.480
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, because when the algae dies, it decays and it

0:39:41.520 --> 0:39:42.479
<v Speaker 2>does not smell good.

0:39:42.560 --> 0:39:46.160
<v Speaker 1>No, it does not smell good. But a bigger problem, though,

0:39:46.640 --> 0:39:48.800
<v Speaker 1>is when you combine that with the chlorine. Because, like

0:39:48.840 --> 0:39:52.799
<v Speaker 1>we said, New York water is chlorinated and fluoridated. We

0:39:52.880 --> 0:39:54.080
<v Speaker 1>have the T shirts to prove.

0:39:53.920 --> 0:39:56.480
<v Speaker 2>It, right. I don't think we said it was fluoridated,

0:39:56.480 --> 0:39:57.399
<v Speaker 2>but yeah, everybody knows.

0:39:57.480 --> 0:40:02.640
<v Speaker 1>Yeah it's fluoridated. And when you combine that chlorine with

0:40:02.680 --> 0:40:08.120
<v Speaker 1>a phosphorus, it can create byproducts called disinfection byproducts, and

0:40:08.160 --> 0:40:09.200
<v Speaker 1>that is no good at all.

0:40:09.440 --> 0:40:13.600
<v Speaker 2>No, those are nasty. They're called d bps and they

0:40:13.960 --> 0:40:20.840
<v Speaker 2>are basically like chemicals that are accidentally made from sanitizing water.

0:40:21.360 --> 0:40:24.520
<v Speaker 2>And not just with chlorine, but chlorine chlorine. There's a

0:40:24.520 --> 0:40:27.440
<v Speaker 2>bunch of different stuff that they use to disinfect water,

0:40:27.800 --> 0:40:32.000
<v Speaker 2>and all of them can combine with organic compounds to

0:40:32.080 --> 0:40:39.640
<v Speaker 2>create really just nasty stuff like carcinages or carcinogens. Some

0:40:39.680 --> 0:40:44.120
<v Speaker 2>can produce miscarriages. It's just really really bad stuff that

0:40:44.160 --> 0:40:45.880
<v Speaker 2>can be produced in the drinking water.

0:40:46.160 --> 0:40:48.399
<v Speaker 1>Chloroform is one of those byproducts.

0:40:48.840 --> 0:40:52.080
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, which is why New Yorkers frequently faint when they're

0:40:52.120 --> 0:40:53.040
<v Speaker 2>drinking tapwater.

0:40:53.840 --> 0:40:58.720
<v Speaker 1>But this all sounds super scary New York City. They are.

0:40:59.400 --> 0:41:01.880
<v Speaker 1>They have I think there are eight to known contaminants,

0:41:03.000 --> 0:41:06.760
<v Speaker 1>but they are still apparently well under the legal limit,

0:41:07.920 --> 0:41:09.960
<v Speaker 1>depending on what you think about how the legal limits

0:41:09.960 --> 0:41:10.400
<v Speaker 1>are set.

0:41:10.280 --> 0:41:12.360
<v Speaker 2>Up for it, right, exactly, it's a good caveat.

0:41:12.360 --> 0:41:14.560
<v Speaker 1>But New York City drinking water is thirty point nine

0:41:14.600 --> 0:41:18.360
<v Speaker 1>parts per billion chloroform and the national average is eleven.

0:41:18.440 --> 0:41:21.000
<v Speaker 1>So they're way higher on chloroform. But as far as

0:41:21.000 --> 0:41:24.799
<v Speaker 1>all of those DBPs total, they're far below the legal

0:41:24.840 --> 0:41:27.440
<v Speaker 1>limit and just a little bit above average nationally.

0:41:28.000 --> 0:41:31.239
<v Speaker 2>Right, And then the total number of DBPs that they

0:41:31.280 --> 0:41:34.000
<v Speaker 2>have is actually less than those in Arlington.

0:41:34.160 --> 0:41:34.960
<v Speaker 1>So interesting.

0:41:35.120 --> 0:41:36.320
<v Speaker 2>Chew on that Arlington.

0:41:36.440 --> 0:41:38.640
<v Speaker 1>That's right, Chew on that bad pizza.

0:41:39.080 --> 0:41:43.560
<v Speaker 2>Speaking of chewing, Chuck and pizza. Let's just answer this question.

0:41:44.080 --> 0:41:47.480
<v Speaker 2>Is New York City's water the key ingredient to New

0:41:47.560 --> 0:41:49.640
<v Speaker 2>York City bagels and pizza? H?

0:41:49.920 --> 0:41:52.600
<v Speaker 1>I think, I mean, you can't definitively say, but I

0:41:52.600 --> 0:41:54.600
<v Speaker 1>think it does have something to do with it. For sure.

0:41:54.800 --> 0:41:58.680
<v Speaker 2>It's got to because science is involved. So here's the thing.

0:41:59.000 --> 0:42:02.120
<v Speaker 2>The water from the Catskills and from the Delaware is

0:42:02.239 --> 0:42:06.839
<v Speaker 2>naturally soft, meaning that it's lowing calcium and magnesium. Where

0:42:06.880 --> 0:42:10.239
<v Speaker 2>do you fall on loving softer hard water? I'm a

0:42:10.280 --> 0:42:12.200
<v Speaker 2>hard water guy, same here man.

0:42:12.360 --> 0:42:15.560
<v Speaker 1>When I lived in Arizona, they had soft water where

0:42:15.600 --> 0:42:19.120
<v Speaker 1>I lived in my sister's house that I lived in,

0:42:19.120 --> 0:42:23.160
<v Speaker 1>and most of the houses had water softening or I

0:42:23.160 --> 0:42:26.240
<v Speaker 1>guess hardening units or whatever in the house.

0:42:26.840 --> 0:42:29.319
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, because you can't feel clean, like you never feel

0:42:29.360 --> 0:42:32.280
<v Speaker 2>like you got the shampoo or the soap off. It's awful.

0:42:32.800 --> 0:42:33.800
<v Speaker 2>It's just awful.

0:42:33.840 --> 0:42:35.279
<v Speaker 1>Does anyone like soft water?

0:42:35.640 --> 0:42:37.720
<v Speaker 2>I don't know, weirdo's probably.

0:42:37.800 --> 0:42:41.320
<v Speaker 1>I mean hard water. Sorry, no, I had it all backwards.

0:42:42.120 --> 0:42:44.240
<v Speaker 2>Okay, So so you like soft water.

0:42:44.160 --> 0:42:47.960
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's why I actually, that's why I misspoke. They

0:42:47.960 --> 0:42:51.400
<v Speaker 1>had water softeners in Arizona because the water was hard

0:42:52.200 --> 0:42:53.360
<v Speaker 1>New York water is soft.

0:42:53.480 --> 0:42:57.359
<v Speaker 2>I like soft, Okay, I like hard water typically because

0:42:57.400 --> 0:43:01.359
<v Speaker 2>I feel like I'm clean afterward. But water like just

0:43:01.400 --> 0:43:03.920
<v Speaker 2>the New York water is fine with me. But a

0:43:04.040 --> 0:43:07.360
<v Speaker 2>softened like a chemically softened water, I can't stand.

0:43:07.440 --> 0:43:09.440
<v Speaker 1>Oh really, yes, interesting.

0:43:10.200 --> 0:43:14.480
<v Speaker 2>But New York's is naturally soft, so it doesn't have calcium, magnesium,

0:43:14.560 --> 0:43:17.480
<v Speaker 2>or it's very low in those things comparatively, and that

0:43:17.560 --> 0:43:20.960
<v Speaker 2>actually has an effect on taste, like calcium and magnesium

0:43:21.040 --> 0:43:23.959
<v Speaker 2>can provide like a bitter taste to water. So there's

0:43:24.000 --> 0:43:26.759
<v Speaker 2>one thing that they're saying, like, Okay, the dough isn't

0:43:26.800 --> 0:43:30.000
<v Speaker 2>going to taste naturally bitter because of the calcium magnesium.

0:43:30.160 --> 0:43:33.600
<v Speaker 1>That's something that is something, and it also interacts with

0:43:33.640 --> 0:43:36.239
<v Speaker 1>the flour. If you're going to make a bagel or

0:43:36.239 --> 0:43:39.080
<v Speaker 1>a biali or pizza crust, sure you can be or

0:43:39.400 --> 0:43:41.440
<v Speaker 1>you know a lot of things when you're baking, but

0:43:41.480 --> 0:43:43.640
<v Speaker 1>those are the big three. In New York. You're going

0:43:43.719 --> 0:43:47.239
<v Speaker 1>to be using flour and water as your base for

0:43:47.360 --> 0:43:51.200
<v Speaker 1>your dough and hard water. The minerals in those tapwater

0:43:51.239 --> 0:43:53.320
<v Speaker 1>are going to fortify the gluten and they're going to

0:43:53.400 --> 0:43:56.320
<v Speaker 1>make it tough and less flexible. You don't want it

0:43:56.360 --> 0:43:58.920
<v Speaker 1>too soft, though, because it'll have the opposite effect. It

0:43:58.920 --> 0:44:00.319
<v Speaker 1>will be gooey and you won't be able to work

0:44:00.320 --> 0:44:03.480
<v Speaker 1>it as well. Right, And apparently the American Chemical Society

0:44:03.480 --> 0:44:06.400
<v Speaker 1>says New York City tap water is the Goldilocks of

0:44:06.440 --> 0:44:07.120
<v Speaker 1>bagel water.

0:44:07.719 --> 0:44:10.760
<v Speaker 2>It is just right yep, not too hard, not too soft,

0:44:11.040 --> 0:44:14.279
<v Speaker 2>just perfect for a begel and for a pizza. And

0:44:14.480 --> 0:44:17.839
<v Speaker 2>that that American Chemical Society quote came from a Smithsonian

0:44:17.960 --> 0:44:21.359
<v Speaker 2>article and they went on to say, probably though, it's

0:44:21.400 --> 0:44:24.520
<v Speaker 2>actually the techniques that New Yorkers use to make bagels.

0:44:24.560 --> 0:44:27.520
<v Speaker 2>Like they poach the bagel dough first, like they boil it.

0:44:28.080 --> 0:44:30.920
<v Speaker 1>That's the only way to do a bagel. Sure it's boiled,

0:44:31.000 --> 0:44:31.640
<v Speaker 1>it's not a bagel.

0:44:31.880 --> 0:44:32.400
<v Speaker 2>No it's not.

0:44:32.520 --> 0:44:35.480
<v Speaker 1>It's like a bake donut. It's not a donut basically.

0:44:35.760 --> 0:44:40.439
<v Speaker 2>And then they also will they'll let the yeast sit

0:44:40.560 --> 0:44:42.359
<v Speaker 2>for a little while to make it for mint, which

0:44:42.400 --> 0:44:48.280
<v Speaker 2>creates volatile flavor compounds, so it just tastes better. They're saying,

0:44:48.360 --> 0:44:51.160
<v Speaker 2>probably those are the reasons why New Yorkers make better

0:44:51.200 --> 0:44:54.839
<v Speaker 2>bagels or pizza. And it's not really the water. The

0:44:54.880 --> 0:44:57.360
<v Speaker 2>water just contributes a very small amount.

0:44:58.440 --> 0:44:59.640
<v Speaker 1>I think it's all those things.

0:45:00.080 --> 0:45:02.480
<v Speaker 2>Why not? No one can say for certain, so let's

0:45:02.520 --> 0:45:05.279
<v Speaker 2>just say yes, it is exactly things. Well, if you

0:45:05.320 --> 0:45:07.479
<v Speaker 2>want to know more about New York City's tap water,

0:45:07.600 --> 0:45:10.759
<v Speaker 2>go on to New York City and try their tap water.

0:45:11.239 --> 0:45:15.719
<v Speaker 2>And since I said that it's time for listener mail everybody.

0:45:16.520 --> 0:45:20.919
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna call this house rolling. And we talked about

0:45:20.920 --> 0:45:24.680
<v Speaker 1>tepeing houses. Yep, love the podcast. Guys, just finish up

0:45:24.680 --> 0:45:27.520
<v Speaker 1>trick or treating, and you were talking about rolling houses.

0:45:27.640 --> 0:45:31.000
<v Speaker 1>I grew up in Franklin, Tennessee, where we used to

0:45:31.040 --> 0:45:34.279
<v Speaker 1>roll houses all the time. In Franklin, Tennessee, for people

0:45:34.360 --> 0:45:37.239
<v Speaker 1>don't know, is where a lot of big shot Nashville

0:45:37.680 --> 0:45:40.640
<v Speaker 1>big wigs live because you can buy a huge house

0:45:40.680 --> 0:45:45.040
<v Speaker 1>with lots of land. That was Chuck speaking right. Funny

0:45:45.040 --> 0:45:48.280
<v Speaker 1>thing though, guys, I'm back to being Brandon. Okay, funny

0:45:48.280 --> 0:45:51.160
<v Speaker 1>thing though, guys. My neighbor was Brad Paisley. There was

0:45:51.160 --> 0:45:53.560
<v Speaker 1>a couple of years before his first Grammy award. And

0:45:53.600 --> 0:45:55.520
<v Speaker 1>once we found this out, we knew that we had

0:45:55.560 --> 0:45:57.759
<v Speaker 1>to get them. So my sister and I gathered all

0:45:57.800 --> 0:46:00.440
<v Speaker 1>of our friends dressed in black and snow out to

0:46:00.520 --> 0:46:03.839
<v Speaker 1>roll this country. Music Stars house. We were halfway through

0:46:03.840 --> 0:46:07.560
<v Speaker 1>the job when his freaking tour bus rolled up on us.

0:46:08.120 --> 0:46:09.960
<v Speaker 1>At first, we all ran away frightened, but we were

0:46:10.000 --> 0:46:12.480
<v Speaker 1>pretty much caught in the act. Nowhere to go. He

0:46:12.520 --> 0:46:14.200
<v Speaker 1>got off the bus and was super nice about the

0:46:14.200 --> 0:46:16.400
<v Speaker 1>whole thing. Actually, he gave us a quick tour of

0:46:16.400 --> 0:46:19.040
<v Speaker 1>the tour bus, chatted us up for a little while.

0:46:19.360 --> 0:46:21.040
<v Speaker 1>We even cleaned up the little bit of mess we

0:46:21.040 --> 0:46:24.560
<v Speaker 1>had made, and left starstruck. I highly doubt he remembers

0:46:24.560 --> 0:46:26.000
<v Speaker 1>that night at all, but my friends and I will

0:46:26.040 --> 0:46:29.399
<v Speaker 1>certainly never forget anyway. That's all I got. Guys, have

0:46:29.400 --> 0:46:32.520
<v Speaker 1>a spooky Halloween. That is from Brandon Saunders.

0:46:33.560 --> 0:46:36.080
<v Speaker 2>That is very nice. Brandon, thanks a lot for that email,

0:46:36.120 --> 0:46:39.479
<v Speaker 2>and hats off to Brad Paisley for being so cool.

0:46:39.719 --> 0:46:41.279
<v Speaker 1>He doesn't take his hat off, but.

0:46:41.320 --> 0:46:43.960
<v Speaker 2>All right, exactly, but also how about just a hat

0:46:43.960 --> 0:46:44.359
<v Speaker 2>tip then?

0:46:44.520 --> 0:46:47.240
<v Speaker 1>Yeah? Or actually I was thinking Kenny Chesney because he's bald.

0:46:47.360 --> 0:46:50.200
<v Speaker 2>None of those guys take their hats off, dude. So

0:46:50.440 --> 0:46:52.719
<v Speaker 2>but also he hangs out with Peyton Manning, which means

0:46:52.719 --> 0:46:54.840
<v Speaker 2>that he must be a good guy. Right, Oh yeah,

0:46:54.960 --> 0:46:56.280
<v Speaker 2>isn't Peyton a good dude?

0:46:56.480 --> 0:46:58.279
<v Speaker 1>Sure? I'm just tired of seeing him on my TV.

0:46:59.160 --> 0:47:01.799
<v Speaker 2>Oh that's not gonna app anytime soon. Pretty soon you'll

0:47:01.800 --> 0:47:04.000
<v Speaker 2>see them in augmented reality, and you're going to say

0:47:04.080 --> 0:47:08.480
<v Speaker 2>everywhere you go, like it or not, Charles. Okay, Well,

0:47:08.480 --> 0:47:09.759
<v Speaker 2>if you want to get in touch with this, like

0:47:09.800 --> 0:47:13.160
<v Speaker 2>Brad Paisley did, you can go on to stuff youshould

0:47:13.200 --> 0:47:16.400
<v Speaker 2>Know dot com and check out our social links, and

0:47:16.560 --> 0:47:18.560
<v Speaker 2>you can also send us a good old fashioned email,

0:47:18.800 --> 0:47:20.920
<v Speaker 2>wrap it up, spank it on the bottom, with it

0:47:21.080 --> 0:47:23.480
<v Speaker 2>some good old country goodness, and send it off to

0:47:23.640 --> 0:47:28.280
<v Speaker 2>stuff podcast at iHeartRadio dot com.

0:47:29.520 --> 0:47:32.400
<v Speaker 1>Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For

0:47:32.480 --> 0:47:36.640
<v Speaker 1>more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

0:47:36.760 --> 0:47:38.640
<v Speaker 1>or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.