Selects: NYC Water: An Engineering Marvel | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

howy everybody I hope you're having a. lovely Saturday wherever you are in the. world Chuck here with a Saturday select. selection and I'm going to go with from. November. 2019 not even so long ago as the crow. flies the episode is NYC water colon and. Engineering Marvel uh I love New York. City everyone knows that I go on and on. about that City on the show and I'm. constantly amazed that that City runs.

and that the trash gets taken away and. the mail gets delivered and that people. have enough drinking water and water to. bathe in and cook with uh and so it's a. pretty unique situation there in New. York how they get their water then. here's that story please to. enjoy welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. Radio.

hey and welcome to the podcast I'm Josh. Clark there's Charles W Chuck Bryant. there's guest producer Andrew this is. stuff you should know let's get. busy I'm excited about this one this was. your um your pick and I was like what is. Chuck talking about were you really yes. and then Chuck I happened to stumble. upon I don't know what I was looking for. but an email from somebody who sent like.

a Google doc or something that's that. was a list of of episodes we said we. should. do and people have set those in before. but this one was kind of condensed and. that was on there so I've I've stumbled. upon your dirty little secret I don't. think that's where I got it oh really I. don't think so but maybe okay uh I just. know that I am um always fascinated by. not only New York City but by the fact. that New York City.

functions with that many people and all. that everything it's just all amazing to. me that that City functions with that. many people that many buildings that. like I want to do an episode on trash. removal okay I want to do one. on on wastewater treatment yeah oh yeah. not just New York in general though. that's been long Brewing are you okay. with that yeah just just I mean we can. mention New York or. whatever big thanks to Dave though uh.

one of our great writers they put this. together and it's really really. fascinating Dave's just an amazing human. all of our writers are amazing for sure. Dave is great as well he's one of a few. select amazing people right so um the. the reason why New York why anybody. would ask about New York's water is. because if you've ever interacted with a. New Yorker they talk about their water a. lot it's like kind of a thing in New. York where they're like our tap water is. the best water in the country country.

and they have like a lot of um stuff to. back that up with and so much so that. that that they say this this water is. actually the reason why our bagels and. our pizza are so good yeah I was uh we. were both just there for our final shows. of the year at the bellhouse thanks to. people who came out yes they were great. a lot of fun and by the way the guy that. fell asleep on the front row on night. number two mhm I think it was night. number two I I was walking down the.

street and he randomly passed by driving. in a car and rolled down his window and. said hey man he said great show the. other night right I was waiting for him. to say is that freedom Rock and I said. thanks dude I was like front row and he. was so excited that I remembered and he. said front row and he drove on before I. had a chance to say you fell. asleep he's like I feel like I was there. maybe I felt like a dream too I don't. know but um we were just there and uh.

there are many many restaurants in New. York where there will be like a water. cooler or place where you can help. yourself to your own cup of water and it. will have a a big sign on it that says. New York City tap water and proud all. caps underlined letters yeah and and. they mean like they're just getting. water out of the tap whereas in other. cities that's a dirty shameful secret. that people don't talk about that's. right in New York they proudly boast. about it and.

um the just the fact that New York or. any New Yorker in the city gets water at. all is pretty spectacular it's like you. said there's a lot of people there's a. lot of buildings and something like more. than a billion gallons of water flow. into New York through the Taps every day. yeah I said day with the D yes it is the. largest water system in the United. States MH uh people from all over the. world uh government officials fly in and.

take. meetings with the New York City water. people just to see like how have you. done it they're just a Gog whole how. could we do better so so that's. impressive enough that a billion more. than a billion gallons of water is. delivered every day to New Yorkers. pretty great but the idea that it you. can just drink it straight from the tap. and it is 90% unfiltered yeah that is a. truly impressive feet yeah and by 90%.

unfiltered we mean 90% of the water is. unfiltered and 10% is filtered right and. you might say well how can you just. filter 90% of the water well it comes. from different places that's right so. 90% of the water comes from two places. two watersheds that combined are called. the Catskill Delaware Watershed or water. system I think um and then the other one. from the cro croin I always want to say. croonin yeah but from the croin.

reservoir that 10% is actually filtered. we'll get into all of that but. 90% of New York's water is not it. doesn't go through a filtering process. and that makes New York one of only five. major cities in the United States to get. a waiver from the EPA that says your. water is so deliciously pure and. delightful that you don't need to filter. it um almost every other city has to. have a filtering process before it gets. delivered to taps that's right and the.

other four naturally Seattle Portland. Oregon San Francisco mhm the one that's. a bit of a surprise is Boston. Massachusetts. what that's that's it that's how. surprising it is Chuck yeah that's right. so let's talk a little bit about the. history of New York and their water uh. CU back in the day we've always talked. about how what a disgusting uh disease. ridden poop and horse urine ridden Place. New York City was yeah like supposedly.

there was a good 12 Ines of horse manure. on the street at all times before they. um before they really started cleaning. their place up yeah it's pretty bad I. think that was in the Wind Cries Typhoid. Mary episode which is a great one. another great New York episode yeah so. if we're talking New Amsterdam pre- New. York City M uh they got water where you. would think from ponds and natural. springs underwater Springs and they had. a 48 acre pond it's about 60 feet deep.

uh in Tribeca what is now Tribeca called. the the collect and also the little. collect that was just uh south of there. and that name comes from the Dutch word. caul uh which means small body of water. and the collect was where they got their. water for a long time until the city let. uh some uh Tanners built a Tannery on. the shores of the collect not smart new. which ruined everything yeah because it. started to get polluted they also were.

able to drill Wells and stuff around. places where people pooped and peed and. then dumped their poop and pee um it was. a dirty dirty place because this is pre-. germ Theory or at least around the time. that germ theory was being developed and. people didn't understand it um and I. think it was our great stink episode. where they traced a CER epidemic to a. public well um a public water pump Jon. Snow if I remember correctly did that. and this would have been around the time. that New Yorkers were suffering from.

Coler epidemics one of which took place. in I think the 1830s 1832 it killed 3500. New Yorkers and that was a substantial. amount of of the population at the time. and another 100,000 New Yorkers had to. flee just to get away from this Coler. epidemic yeah and it was because their. sewage and their water was coexisting in. in very unhealthy way so New York said. maybe we should try something else let's. look a little further outside of the. city where we're dumping our waste and.

everything and see if we can get our. water from there and they did they built. the croen reservoir they damned the. river and a reservoir collected and they. said now we have some beautiful pure. water we will never need to do anything. again to get our water that's right uh. previous to that though in the 18th. century they had uh these public pumps. like you were talking about M on street. corners about every four blocks or so a. big wooden pump where you would get your. water from uh underr uh Underground. streams and springs and stuff but there.

were only a few of these that actually. delivered good water a lot of it was. really brackish and gross tasting and uh. Americans and early European settlers. obviously loved their tea and so they. marked this was almost like an early. Yelp or whatever they had these pumps. that actually delivered like the two or. three good pumps in the city that. delivered good water uh labeled tea. water pumps like it was good enough to. use for tea good enough to use for. making good tea okay and so they would.

go to these tea water pumps you would. have to buy the water um the best one. was apparently at uh chadman. Roosevelt uh there was another in sort. of what the Lower East Side is today. that was a good tea water pump and this. worked out for a long time until uh the. uh the collect and all this stuff it. started to sort of um get nasty and. stinky M and so they built a canal to. channel that water into the river like. we got to get rid of it drain this thing.

right so they build this canal 40 ft. wide they Channel it right after they. finish it this canal begins to sink and. in 1821 it got so bad the smell was so. bad that they eventually just covered up. the canal and guess what that. became I don't know Central Park Canal. Street oh how about that so. stupid that wasn't even the in the right. part of the city that's all right we've. even done an episode on Central Park and. that way would forget it yes Canal.

Street obviously that's where Canal. Street came from there was literally a. canal and then eventually an underground. sewage system under running under Canal. Street right uh and there's another cool. little tidbit if you want like your. little New York history if you like to. walk around on subways and tell people. about cool things yeah um one of the. first public reservoirs in the city was. dug by Aaron Burr and his Manhattan. company and that didn't work out they. transported it through wooden logs as. pipes buried beneath the city somebody.

found um a piece of that wooden log it's. in one of the museums up there now oh no. way yeah that is very cool uh but the. water didn't taste great and it didn't. work out for Aaron Burr so he uh CH he. still kept the Manhattan company but he. got into Banking and the Manhattan. company became Chase Manhattan Bank I. saw somewhere that that was his aim all. along that the water thing was just. basically a fleece to raise money to. found this B and that that's why the the. water was so shoddy and the delivery was.

so shoddy but what they were selling was. so bad supposedly the horses wouldn't. even drink it so it was a scam it was. basically a scam Aaron Burr was not the. greatest historical. American shot Alexander Hamilton I know. that that's enough right there right and. then also scammed a bunch of people out. of their their um water investment. that's right cuz I mean if you want to. invest in a bank you want to invest in a. bank if you want to invest in a water. outfit you want to invest in a water. outf you want people to be above the.

boards with stuff like that that's right. above the hollows that's my tiate so you. mentioned the croon dam and the croon. reservoir I want to say croone as well. yeah uh that became and that Aqueduct. became operational and things were okay. but then a tragedy struck with the Great. Fire of 1835 yes which actually I guess. that the great fire took place right. before the reservoir was opened which is. why the great fire was so bad so in.

1835 uh in on a night in December a. warehouse caught fire and it just. leveled Lower Manhattan like just. destroyed something like um 17 city. blocks 50 acres of the most densely. populated part of New York at the time. and um luckily only two people died two. is two too many but considering that it. was 17 city blocks that got reduced to. Ash that's not bad actually especially.

considering that the way that they ended. up fighting this fire was by setting. buildings on the perimeter on fire. because they didn't have the amount of. water that they needed yeah that the. reason for that was just sort of really. bad luck there were two smaller fires. mhm that drained our uh our like I'm a. New Yorker listen to me you're an. honorary New Yorker I would guess it. drained the sisters the reserve ssts. that they had and because of those two. smaller fires they didn't have enough to. fight the great fire mhm and the long. and short of all this is New York said.

we got to really speed up this croen. Reservoir work yep and they did and so. the Coten Reservoir was um brought. online in the middle of the 19th century. and they had a big old parade and. everything um and it it delivered. something like 90 million gallons of. delicious pure water to New York um in. the in the middle of the 19th century it. was a really big deal and it worked. really well for a very long time but um. there was also they built the Murray.

Hill Reservoir so the the the croon. reservoir would be where the water. collected Upstate and then they build an. aqueduct system which is still around in. parts today an elevated Aqueduct to. What's called the Murray Hill Reservoir. which is a 4 acre above ground swimming. pool basically it's pretty cool if you. look at pictures yeah yeah it's it it. was like a real um spot in the city. while it was around I think something. till uh what8 1842 to 1900 it was around.

and people used to take strolls around. it and make paintings of it and that. kind of thing and it is where the New. York Public Library is now today where. the Ghostbusters did some of their early. work that's right right but the the it. worked really well for for you know the. time but then as New York grew and grew. and grew it became very painfully. obvious yet again that New York had. outgrown its water supply yeah they. needed more water 90 million gallons a. day wasn't enough uh and then what made.

matters worse was uh in 1898 New York. City officially made it a declaration. that we are now not just lower Manhattan. of course they didn't call Lower. Manhattan at the time right that was. just sort of where the city ended they. called it manah yeah manah I saw that. episode by the way it was one of the. better ones ever uh which one of uh. thing of what we do in the dark oh. that's right where they go to party in. Manhattan manah had yeah um what we. doing the Shadows yeah yeah yeah yeah um.

I'm so stupid that's all right the five. burrows were included in 1898 officially. so New York um and the water needed to. get to the people was officially uh. grown to More Than 3 million people by. the time the 20th 20th century turned. right which is just precious today 3. million New Yorkers oh my gosh they do. so they started to look Upstate again. because they had Hit Upon like a pretty. good idea the city is is a Cess poool um.

we need our water from outside of the. cess pool and they started looking up. state so this time they looked up to the. cat skills and they found two watersheds. which we did an episode on watersheds. that I would love to forget but it it. came up just now oh I thought it was. good no oh man it was horrendous was it. yes I thought it was terrible and boring. January. 2017 I don't remember when it came out. like I said I tried to forget that it. ever happened I thought it was pretty. good but anyway so a watershed is. basically a a specific topographical a.

area where rain snow whatever. precipitation falls down into this area. and is delivered to a specific Creek. river stream something like that that. eventually empties into like a lake or a. reservoir or something like that so. there's two Weds the Delaware and the. Catskill Watershed that put together. create something like um 2,000 square. miles of water catching goodness and it. delivers it to a number of different.

reservoirs and that is now today where. New York gets like 90% of its water yeah. so you know obviously they had to Dam up. Rivers uh to create these reservoirs and. this all happened you know in the early. 1900s and then finally they were like. great we've got all these reservoirs and. the cat skills MH but let me remind you. we're on the lower e side of Manhattan. surrounded by horse urine and a lot of. it and poop we need our fresh water how. do we get it here so in.

1917 uh the engineers of New York City. completed the 92m Catskill Aqueduct Y. which is amazing uh it's basically a big. concrete tunnel that sends water uh 92. mi from the Catskills down to New York. it's as wide as 30 ft in some places uh. it is not a a tunnel the entire length. as we will see here in a minute not a. continuous Tunnel right I'm not sure. what that means what is it just like. open at some no there's there's parts of.

it that aren't technically a tunnel in. that it's a covered trench they cut a. trench and then they covered it back up. which I don't know how you do that but. it's not technically a tunnel like a a. circle or tube interesting and here is. to me one of the facts of the show mhm. you get this water down there in the. aqueduct and you get to the Hudson River. and what are you going to do you got to. go under it right to me it' just be like. just pump it in the Hudson and hope it. comes out the other side but then I.

would have gotten fired immediately when. I raised that idea he's no engineer no. he's a sham he's a rap. scallion so it it gets to the Hudson. River and then it goes way down into the. ground about 1100 ft below sea level and. then climbs back up the other side yep. and it does all this via gravity yes and. it it they did that not just to show off. but because they decided I read this. awesome you know how I'm always like. read the Contemporary articles I read.

one from 1907 where they were talking. about the construction of the aqueduct. and they said that the reason why they. were going down that far is because they. wanted to hit Bedrock because it would. be Fisher free meaning there would be no. leakage and they could just pump the. water through the hole that they bored. in the Bedrock well they thought the. Bedrock was going to be about 500 ft. down and by 1907 when they wrote the. Scientific American article they'd. reached like 700 ft still hadn't hit it. it ended up being like 1100 ft below sea.

level where they finally hit bedrock and. that's why they had to drill so far down. and they drilled a tunnel a vertical. shaft from the uh from the Hudson down. to that tunnel and they built like a a. tube to pressurize it so the water 1100. ft under the Hudson is at like 15 Tons. per square foot of pressure which also. helps but the fact that there's no pumps. or anything it's all gravity and. pressure driven yes and sadly though uh.

that story has a sad ending because it. took so long that their ferfree and 03. t-shirts were all rendered. useless. what no I don't know that was a great. joke I I'm gonna go back and listen to. it and I'll probably think it's. hilarious so compliments on it in. advance oh man that was a quality joke. three Fisher oh got you okay sure sure.

yeah yeah yeah I got you all right I got. you we're all together now okay that was. a pretty good joke uh geez should we. take a break after that yeah all right. let's take a break we'll talk a little. bit more about this socalled Aqueduct. right after. [Music]. this. [Music].

stuff you should know J and. [Music]. Sh stuff you should. [Music]. know okay Chuck so we've got the. catscale aqueduct delivering water. um there's another one too called the um.

the Delaware Aqueduct and this one. actually is like a genuine tunnel yes. it's 85 miles uh completed in 44 MH I'm. not going to make a t-shirt joke about. that and it it is still the longest. continuous tunnel in the. world uh at 85 miles and they did this. all you know just this digging process. is amazing in and of itself digging. these tunnels and these trenches with. steam shovels and pouring the the.

concrete tunnel which I I was like how. do you do that even yeah you do the. bottom half let it sit and then you do. the top half and let that sit so they. were like Charles Bronson in the Great. Escape they were digging tunnels yeah I. mean we're talking like dynamite and. stuff like that like they really did it. the old school way to build these aquad. dos and they're still in use today so. much so that there's there's three. tunnels tunnel number one and tunnel. number two have been in operation since. 19 197 and 1936 MH they've never stopped.

operating they've never been stopped up. and drained and inspected in over a. hundred years for tunnel number one yeah. I think the current memo going around is. I'm sure it's fine well so they're. building tunnel number three and they. decided to start building tunnel number. three in 1954 they actually started in. 1970 they are still not done with tunnel. number three amazing parts of it are. online and when it does fully come. online tunnel number three will have a.

capacity enough so that they can. individually stop and drain and inspect. and repair tunnel number one and then. eventually tunnel number two so tunnel. number three yeah tunnel tunnel number. three will will save the other two and. it's good that they're doing it now but. I saw that it's going to be fully. operational in 2021 they think oh wow so. we're almost there almost man yeah it's. the New York's longest running Municipal. project uh $5 billion price tag so far. and Counting I guess mhm and then those.

three tunnels or two and however many. parts of three are working deliver uh. 1.3 gallons of water a day through a. network of. mains and then individual pipes leading. to apartments and homes and businesses. and skyscrapers and all of those pipes. if you total them up uh would lay out. about 7 ,000 miles that's pretty.

impressive I would also like to point. out that I think you meant 1.3 billion. gallons what I say 1.3 gallons did I. really which would be hilarious that. they went to all this trouble spent all. this money and they're like we can crank. out 1.3 gallons a day New York gather. around and get your water I was still. thinking about my t-shirt. joke it was a good joke man and here's. the the kicker too another great fact of. the show only 5 % of all of the city's. water relies on pumps to get to its.

final destination which means your TAP. it's pretty awesome yeah so that means. that it can't break down or if something. does happen they still have things like. gravity to to help things along it's. great so um the reason why the EPA gave. New York a um a waiver and said you. don't have to filter the water coming. from the cat skill in the Delaware. watersheds is because jul joh greased. the palms of the EPA right exactly it.

started well it started out as so pure. and pristine and just great um water to. begin with but they have taken steps. along the way to ensure that it stayed. that way because one of the things that. happened with the croin reservoir is. development was allowed to grow up. around it um agriculture was allowed to. pollute it um it just got it turned and. after that the EPA I think in the '90s. the late 90s said yeah you guys have to. start filtering that water it's no.

longer unfilter um it's or it's it's not. drinkable as is so they had to start. filtering it used to be 100% of of New. York's water was unfiltered that croin. Reservoir now is 10% that is filtered. right but but so they learned a valuable. lesson from that and now they're very. proactive in keeping the Delaware and. Cat skill Reservoir or um Watershed. water from becoming corrupt Ed by things. like development in agriculture yeah and.

by you know the lesson they learned is. is money because you might be thinking. like what's a big deal why don't they. just filter all of it it's a lot cheaper. to take care of the land and make sure. you never have to filter it than to. install a filtering plant yeah because. they estimate that a filtering plant. would cost something like10 billion UPF. front and then a100 million a year to. operate New York is spending something. like $1 billion every several years to. protect the um the Delaware and the.

Catskill Weds so it is an enormous. investment but also it's great because. it's natural water that's unfiltered. yeah and you know they do this in a. number of ways aside from buying up 40%. of the land which was a good move and. making sure nothing happens to it yep so. so New York City owns a lot of land. Upstate oh yeah just FYI yeah 40% yeah. that's a lot of land it is um not 40% of. New York state but 40% of the property. around the Catskill and Delaware Weds uh.

they also did things like hey let's look. at all the wastewater treatment. facilities uh upstream and let's invest. a lot of money in upgrading those um hey. all you people that have septic tanks. that are falling apart that matters so. we're going to reimburse you uh 5200. homeowners yeah that's impressive yeah. install a new septic tank and we're. going to pay for it yep um they remove. dead trees they uh replace those with. little sapling trees who apparently have. roots that are young and can absorb a.

lot of harmful nutrients from that rain. water mhm and here's another good fact. of the show some of the water from those. reservoirs or from that that Watershed. can take up to a full year to make its. way down to the tap that you're drinking. out of that's a good one I like that one. it's almost like the how long it takes. sunlight to reach us I you were going to. say that it's the same thing it's the. same thing they also did you talk about. um Farmers the only difference between. those stats is you don't have to explain. what a photon is right you can just say.

water it's a tiny packet of light it's. the uh the carrier of electromagnetic. energy right uh what did you ask right. before that did you talk about the. farmers how they train Farmers up. Upstate too I did not so they say Hey. you Hicks you're going to learn these. techniques man to uh I'm just kidding I. love Farmers I would actually as a. matter of fact Chuck when I um when I. retire I I really really want like a. small working farm oh yeah very small. like what do you want like a tenth of an.

acre small no no no what kind of stuff. do you want to farm what do you want on. it oh I don't care an yeah oh yeah some. animals but just you know having pigs. around not to eat or milk but to um. basically but to like um to churn up. like a a field okay so that I can plan. it the next year and move the pigs to. the next part of the the land that kind. of stuff for chickens to just walk. around and eat eggs and things like that. all right so you want some chickens some. pigs you want some probably a couple.

goats a couple of goats you want some. planting you want to farm some plants. and vegetables sure yeah but mainly just. to have something to do like with the. the Earth so I was 100 million per. teasing when I when I said that New York. was calling the farmers Hicks New York. probably did call the farmers Hicks but. I wasn't condoning that I was just. making a joke right you're the guy who. wants a tenth of an acre one day to do. something on that you're not sure those. pigs are going to be like this some. pretty tight quarters around here oh you.

know what else I would do what and I. would need more of a tenth more than a. tenth of an acre for this raise bees. that is where I will eventually raise. bees it's on Josh's Farm well brother. you better get some land soon because. it's it's it's leaving at a rapid Pace. land is leaving yeah I mean it's people. are buying land it's there's I remember. my parents looking at land when I was. like 10 years old mhm and they didn't. buy it they say it's leaving and uh it's. a different deal now it's a lot harder. to find the land that you want mhm you.

know people bought it all up I know and. you can still get it but you got to pay. through the nose for it yeah or it's up. to them if they want to sell it or not. you know sure we're getting second rate. we're getting sloppy seconds oh. god oh man that's going to be one of. those things that like our younger. listeners is going to be in college. smoking pot in a dorm room and it'll. just hit them what you just said like 15. years on oh goodness mhm so you you. mentioned the Coten Watershed needs the. filtering um and they're trying to avoid.

that at all cost with the other. watersheds but uh the Coten water. supply when they built this filtering. system it cost $3.2 billion and it's. under a golf course in New Jersey which. is so appropriate that's where the. tainted water is under a golf course in. Jersey in Bedminster perhaps sure I. don't know what that is but it sounds. right oh some people will get that. one. New York's like hey you Hicks build a. golf course over.

this New York just calls everybody else. Hicks in my opin they do when we fly in. say welcome Hicks right so um have we. taken our second break yet no we. probably should though this is a good. time okay we're going to take another. break and we're going to come back and. explain what New York does do to its. water and whether or not it is a secret. ingredient in bagels and. pizza.

[Music]. stuff you should. know Jos and. [Music]. Sh stuff you should. [Music]. know.

all right Chuck so one thing that that. you're going to want to say if you're a. New Yorker and you're boasting about. your tap water there are some things you. should know number one it's chlorinated. number two it's been run through a UV. filter even if it hasn't been filtered. filtered there's still things that are. done to it it's not like it's coming. straight out of the cat skills into your. TAP yeah they take it very seriously. obviously uh here's a good stat in one. year uh there are more than 15 ,000. water samples taken and analyzed at the.

source mhm so this is Upstream um they. have uh AI well not AI or is it AI. there's AI involved somehow there always. is I always ask if it's AI when it I. always ask you because you know sure I. know thanks to the end of the world with. Josh Clark oh thanks for the plug still. available on iTunes the iHeart podcast. app or wherever you find your podcast. wow that wasn't just a plug that was an. ad so they have these robotic buoys uh.

that monitor The Kino reservoir uh one. of the reservoirs that feeds down into. New York and uh these things take 1.9. million. measurements a year and wirelessly. transmit that back uh to the Department. of Environmental Protection in New York. yeah which is pretty awesome and they. had a buoy before but they had to remove. it in winter because ice would mess with. it and this new one um apparent. apparently is ice loving oh yeah yeah.

they also if you walk down the street um. there's something like. 1300 no. 965 965 Little gray boxes that if you. could open up you would find a little. sink and a faucet it's adorable maybe a. a little sample size of loxitane soap. and that's a water sampling station it. says nyde P Department of Environmental. Protection and scientists walk up to.

these things unlock them and take. samples and test for all sorts of. different things to make sure that the. uh the Water getting to New York is is. good yeah it says more than that um it. says New York City drinking water. sampling station on the front of it oh. wow they really they really spell it out. yeah it said Fisher free and'. 03 Dam on. there uh so they you know they're. testing uh they take 1300 water samp a. month I'm not sure if you said that but. they were from these particular stations.

and they do all kinds of tests they're. testing obviously for uh turbidity which. is cloudiness pH. chlorine bacteria does it stink like all. kinds of tests that they're doing right. um and usually the New York City water. is going to pass all these tests like. it's there's not going to be a problem. this is just a extra little quality. assurance that they're doing because by. the time it reaches these testing. stations that's where it's going to the. Taps anyway it's tapping into the tap. water basically so um that 10% of water.

goes through a couple extra steps that. is um that that the other 90% doesn't go. through one of the first things it does. in a treatment plan is it's mixed with. alum which is a component of aluminum. right and Alum attracts organic. compounds and basically says rise to the. surface with me and creates flock which. is a white frothy sludge and all that is. just skimmed off the top that's step one.

yeah this sounds so gross and it is yeah. but like in the end you get your good. water uh the next thing that happens is. it flows through these giant water. filters um Dave put it as like these. giant brda filters it's essentially sort. of the same thing uh and this is just. going to further purify the water. passing through layers and layers of. stuff like sand uh an anthracite yeah. and then comes the ultraviolet light. that you referenced earlier right yes. and 100% of New York's water is sent.

through a UV filter because UV filters. are really good at disrupting. reproduction of bacteria um and so all. water is Zapped but that 90% of water. that's not filtered that goes through a. separate UV filtering plant that's built. just for those that's right and that. that's where like a billion gallons of. water a day are zapped with UV lights. but um so all of that gets combined. together eventually and and comes out. your tap and New Yorkers drink it.

straight from the tap literally it is. very bizarre because I don't know if. it's a placebo effect or what but I feel. like it does taste pretty good for tap. water it does but at the same time I. typically don't drink just straight tap. water so my frame of reference isn't. necessarily right there you want to hear. something funny yeah you know what my. brother's favorite water is and what. it's probably just a bit but he he. claims it's true what hose. oh I know what he's talking about yeah.

like when you're watering the car mhm or. watering the car when you're washing the. car here right grow car when you're. Watering your mini so it grows into an. SUV right so um I think the reason why. Scott is on to something is because when. you're drinking from a hose it's. summertime and it's hot out yeah and. you're probably working hard mhm maybe. definitely it definitely does taste. different for sure so when it comes to. New York water um everyone says it's the. best in the country there are rankings.

actually and it is 13 uh out of 100. metro areas in the US so it's not the. best literally by definition not the. best water in the country no you got to. move to Arlington Texas if you want uh. and this was this was from 10 years ago. but I'm not sure what the current status. is I imagine Arlington's still up there. though sure but you're going to have to. have a lot more reasons than that to. move to Arlington Texas. ouch and I'm not taking back what are. some of the problems though with New. York water well there's two big problems.

turbidity which you mentioned earlier. which is um uh sediment suspension in. the water which gives it kind of a. cloudy or dark or gritty kind of look. which is it's not just that it looks bad. it's pathogens can cling to that. sediment so it's not something you want. suspended plus it also makes it much. more difficult to filter that stuff out. it's like extra work that has to be done. to get rid of that sediment and if. you're not filtering your water to begin. with that's kind of a problem um and.

then secondly the other one is uh. nutrients over it's over nutrient. meaning it's just packed with ribbo. flaven well what it actually is is. fertilizer runoff uh you know those. farmers are doing their best but there. is fertilizer that goes Downstream and. runs into the watersheds and phosphorus. is one of the biggest problem s because. farmers do fertilize with phosphorus and.

if it runs off the phosphorus alone is. not great because it can cause algae. blooms and stuff like that right and it. can taste bad and stink yeah cuz when. the algae dies it decays and it does not. smell good no it does not smell good but. um a bigger problem though is when you. combine that with the chlorine because. like we said New York water is. chlorinated and fluoridated mhm we have. the t-shirts to prove it right I don't. think we said it was fluoridated but. yeah everybody knows yeah it's. floridated right and uh when you.

combine uh that chlorine with the. phosphorus it can create byproducts. called uh disinfection byproducts and. that is no good at all no those are. nasty they're called. dbps and they are basically like um. chemicals that are accidentally made. from from sanitizing water and not just. with chlorine but chlorine chloramine. there's a bunch of different stuff that. they use to to disinfect water and all. of them can can combine with organic.

compounds to create really just nasty. stuff like um carcinog or yeah. carcinogens um some can produce. miscarriages it's just really really bad. stuff that can be produced in the. drinking water chloroform is one of. those byproducts yeah which is why New. Yorkers frequently faint when they're. drinking tap water but uh this all. sounds super scary uh New York City um. they are they have I think there are.

eight known contaminants mhm um but they. are still apparently well under the. legal limit uh depending on what you. think about how the legal limits are set. of course right exactly it's a good. caveat but New York City drinking water. is 30.9 parts per billion chloroform and. the national average is 11 so they're. way higher on chloroform but as far as. all of those uh dbps total they're far. below the legal limit and just a little. bit above average nationally right and. then the total number of dbps that they.

have is actually less than those in. Arlington so oh interesting chew on that. Arlington that's right chew on that bad. Pizza speaking of chewing Chuck and. pizza let's just answer this question is. New York City's water the key ingredient. to New York City Bagels and pizza uh I. think I mean you can't def definitively. say but I think it does have something. to do with it for sure it's got to. because science is involved so here's. the thing the water from the cat skills.

and from the Delaware is naturally soft. meaning that it's low in calcium and. magnesium where do you fall on loving. sof or hard water I'm a hard water guy. same here ma'am when I lived in Arizona. uh they had soft water where I lived and. uh my sister's house that I lived in and. most of the houses had water soften or I. guess hardening units or whatever in the. house. yeah because you can't feel clean like. you never feel like you got the shampoo.

or the soap off it's awful it's just. awful I don't does anyone like soft. water I don't know weirdos probably I. mean hard water sorry no I had it all. backwards okay so so you like soft water. yeah that's why that's why I actually. that's why I misspoke they had water. softeners right in Arizona because the. water was hard New York water is soft I. like soft okay I like hard water water. typically cuz I feel like I'm clean. afterward but soft water like just the.

New York water is fine with me but a. softened like a chemically softened. water I can't stand oh really yes. interesting but New York's is naturally. soft so it doesn't have calcium and. magnesium or it's very low in those. things comparatively and that actually. has an effect on taste like calcium and. magnesium can provide like a bitter. taste to water so there's one thing that. they're saying like Okay the dough isn't. going to taste naturally bitter because. of the calcium magnesium that's.

something that is something and it also. interacts with the the flour if you're. going to make a bagel or a biali or. pizza crust sure you're going to be or. you know a lot of things when you're. baking but those are the big three in. New York yeah you're going to be uh. using flour and water as your base for. your dough and hard water the minerals. uh in those tap water are going to. fortify the gluten and they're going to. make it tough and less flexible you. don't you want it too soft though. because it'll have the opposite effect. and it'll be gooey and you won't be able. to work it as well right and apparently.

the American Chemical Society says New. York City tap water is the Goldilocks of. bagel water it is just right yep not too. hard not too soft just perfect for a. begel and for a pizza and that that. American Chemical Society quote came. from a Smithsonian article and they went. on to say probably though it's actually. the techniques that New Yorkers use to. make bagels like they poach the bagel. though first like they boil it that. that's the only way to do a bagel sure.

if it's not boil it's not a bagel no. it's not that's like a baked donut and. it's not a donut basically and then they. also um will uh they'll let the yeast. sit for a little while to make it. ferment which creates volatile flavor. compounds so um it just tastes better. they're saying probably those are the. reasons why New Yorkers make better. bagels or pizza and it's not really the. water the water just contri contributes. a very small amount I think it's all. those things why not no one can say for.

certain so let's just say yes it is all. those things well if you want to know. more about New York City's tap water go. on to New York City and try their tap. water and since I said that it's time. for listener mail. everybody I'm going to call this uh. house rolling remember we talked about. tping houses yep love the podcast guys. just finish up trick-or-treating and uh. you were talking about rolling houses I. grew up in Franklin. Tennessee uh where we used to roll.

houses all the time mhm and Franklin. Tennessee for people don't know is where. a lot of big shot Nashville Big Wigs. live cuz you can buy a huge house with. lots of. land that was Chuck speaking right funny. thing though guys I'm back to being. Brandon okay funny thing though guys my. neighbor was Brad Paisley This was a. couple of years before his first Grammy. Award and once we found this out we knew. that we had to get him. so my sister and I gathered all of our. friends dressed in black and snuck out.

to roll this country music Star's house. we were halfway through the job when his. freaking tour bus rolled up on us at. first we all ran away frightened but we. were pretty much caught in the act. nowhere to go he got off the bus and was. super nice about the whole thing. actually he gave us a quick tour of the. tour bus uh chatted us up for a little. while we even cleaned up the little bit. of mess we had made and left Star Struck. I highly doubt he remembers that night. at all but my friends and I I will. certainly never forget anyway that's all. I got guys have a spooky Halloween uh.

that is from Brandon. Saunders that is very nice Brandon. thanks a lot for that email and hats off. to Brad Paisley for being so cool he. doesn't take his hat off but all right. exactly but also how about just a hat. tip then yeah or actually I was thinking. Kenny chesing cuz he's bald none none of. those guys take their hats off dude so. but also he hangs out with pton Manning. which means that he must be a good guy. right oh yeah isn't pton a good dude. sure I'm just tired of seeing him on my. TV oh that's not going to happen anytime.

soon pretty soon you'll see him in. augmented reality in everywhere you go. like it or not Charles okay well if you. want to get in touch with us like Brad. Paisley did you can go on to stuff you. should know.com and check out our Social. Links and you can also send us a good. oldfashioned email wrap it up spank it. on the bottom with it some good old. country goodness and send it off to. stuff podcast at iheartradio.com. stuff you should know is a production of.

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