The city has spent about $100 million to shore up security around its vast upstate reservoirs to prevent terrorists from poisoning New Yorkers’ drinking water, a senior Bloomberg administration official disclosed yesterday.
Christopher Ward, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, told lawmakers the water system is well protected.
“We have added significant hardening of the infrastructure around our reservoirs,” Ward said.
“We have trained our police officers in anti-terrorism and interdiction strategies [and] we’ve built six new state-of-the-art police precincts around the reservoirs.”
The funds were used to surround reservoirs with non-climbable chain-link fencing; install infrared sensors and cameras; acquire water-testing technology; and to double the ranks of the DEP police force. DEP cops now number 210.
The city also spends about $792,000 a year leasing a helicopter to patrol the reservoirs.
The DEP recently purchased high-speed boats for surveillance by a new scuba unit. New vehicles and computers were purchased, and a canine unit was formed.
“Do you believe that 210 officers is enough to keep our watersheds safe?” asked Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Queens).
Ward said it was more than enough.
“DEP has a well-funded, well-staffed, excellent police force and I think the work they are doing is adequate,” he said.
“Technology is in many cases far more responsive to potential threats to water supply. State-of-the-art water-quality testing on a real-time basis is something that we’re moving to so we can monitor whether there is something wrong with the water.”
“Those types of technology solutions we’re finding is what’s best to augment the security, not necessarily more police officers,” he added.
The city’s water reservoirs supply serves approximately 9 million people, including Yonkers and New Rochelle.
Ward said the recent 5.5 percent water rate hike paid for all of the new security improvements.
Meanwhile, the case of an immigrant pizza deliveryman, who was detained after taking pictures of an upstate reservoir, received additional support yesterday from five senators.
Ansar Mahmood was working in the Catskill Mountains town of Hudson about a month after 9/11 when he was questioned for taking pictures at the Hudson reservoir. Mahmood, 26, said he was taking scenic photographs for his family in Pakistan.
No terror-related charges were ever filed against him, but investigators found he co-signed an apartment lease for a Pakistani couple with expired visas.
He was convicted in 2002 of illegally harboring aliens and ordered deported, but is seeking supervised release in this country.
Sen. Charles Schumer took up his cause, and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has written to immigration officials on his behalf. Five Democratic senators yesterday asked the feds to let Mahmood stay. With Post Wire Services
RESERVOIR FACTS
* THE CITY HAS 19 UPSTATE RESERVIORS AND THREE CONTROLLED LAKES.
* THE TOTAL CPACITY IS 587 BILLION GALLONS AND THEY ARE CURRENTLY 99 PERCENT FULL.
* CITY RESIDENTS CONSUME AN AVERAGE OF 1.3 BILLION GALLONS A DAY