NYC-WTC_000152373

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

MCHat HASKElime Rtcord en Hood In QrahamsvIUe, which runs alone Ntversink Reservoir, has several pull-off areas for access hi fishins and boaUns. tn. the ike of the Sept 11 attacks, reservoirs like the Nevarsink and the Rondout have suspended fishing and boating, though, as one reporter und put, security remains light

resting the waters A reporter’s ability to get too close magnifies the vulnerability of NYC reservoirs. lySWnlsnBf Die Umas HKBM-ReeonJ slOTBt&tli-reoonJ

0 a gray afternoon exactly two weeks after America was attacked, I parked my car by a reser­ voir for New York City and threw stones in the water. So did a col­ league. For IS minutes, we stood within a few feet of the Rondout Reservoir in Sullivan County, tossing rocks Into the lifeblood of millions. No one stopped us. No onc; questioned us. The only security- we saw driving around the Ron­ dout and Neversink reservoirs . near Grahamsville was this: A few blocks of stone to prevent us from driving down to the water; knee-high guardrails, a few waist-high chain link fences and -MKHBJE HASKEtUDn Recom --------------------- a little pink sign that said, ‘‘All Jan Elllam watches one ot her tour children. Will, 10, play outside her home, Gillam, who lives between fishing and boating suspended the Nevarsink and Rondout reservoirs, has many concerns and questions on safety. until further notice.’ We did not see any security. than a couple of reporters and a reservoirs several times a week, about the vulnerability of the A spokesman for the agency white Subaru. “But a terrorist attack is highly system that spans some 2,000 that protects the reservoirs was The bottom line, say those unlikely. But it could happen, square miles. dumbfounded. experts, is that our reservoirs And if it did, it would be serious.” Ke stressed that security has '“I,don’t know how that hap- are vulnerable. Security needs Hinchey wants to see snore been beefed up-from tO cops to pen^’ said Geoffrey Ryan of to be beefed up. But, most security - more than the extra 140, with -an additional SOO the Department of Environmen- experts add, the odds of a terror- cops he’s seen patrolling the inspectors. The cops are work- tai ProtectiDn.'It is a concern.” ist attack on them are small, forested roads around the water, ing 12-hour shifts. Planes and Ryan said that after stressing They say this even though the So does Robert F. Kennedy Jn, hetlcopters patrol the skies over the “heightened security” at Ashokan Reservoir in Ulster lead attorney for the environ- the water. reservoirs, including coordina- County was No. 2 on a list of tet^ mental group Riverkeeper, But perhaps the greatest pro-, i tion on federal, state and local roiists'targets the FBI obtained which blasted reservoir security tection against pollution of the t levels, after the World Trade Center in a 1899 report reservoirs is the sheer amount Then be added something was bombed in 1893, ‘There are serious vulnerabil- of chemical or biological agents ; that would be echoed by law Rep. Maurice Hinchey, a Ities In tire system, which is necessary to do damage. .'f enforcement experts, govern- longtime critic of reservoir extraordinarily open," said "It would take truckloads and c ment officials and scientists; A security, agrees with the Kennedy, who stresses “the dis- truckloads, sol don’t think thaff it biologieal or chemical attack on experts. His district includes solution factor” could stop toxr where the threat would com* ;t the three reservoirs in Ulster three New York City reservoirs: ins from reaching the city. from,” says Diane Vande Hei and Sullivan counties Is unlikely, the Neversink, the Rondout and Even the chief of staff of the executive director of the-Assod Truckloads of chemicals the Ashokan. D£P says more security is need- ation of Metropolitan Wate ly would be needed to pollute hun- “I've always felt an enormous ed. Agencies, which coordinate 1 dreds of bOlions of gallons of amount of vulnerabUlty about “There are parts that are efforts against attacks on th 3 water. Presumably, the trucks the system,” said Hinchey, who more critical than others,” said nation’s water systems. would tra easier to spot and stop says he drives around the three Charies SturcMn, when asked See HBEVDIRS Fags 29

NYC-WTC_000152374