The three key aspects of the Hudson Valley economy ”“ tourism, agriculture and manufacturing ”“ have an abundant water supply as a common element for success.
The water riches of the Hudson Valley could auger well for the regional economy say experts who note protection of those riches is not guaranteed. But environmental protection and economic development are linked here, for protection of the water resource is itself a powerful economic engine which will require billions of dollars in coming years and potentially foster the smart growth paradigm regional officials tout as a key aspect to economic well being in this area.
Economics of water wealth was examined Dec. 13 at a conference titled Water Resources and the Regional Economy at SUNY New Paltz. The conference followed a report released earlier this fall by the Center for Research Regional Education and Outreach (CRREO) that called the Hudson Valley “the Saudi Arabia of water.”
But unlike that kingdom, there is no autocratic authority controlling the resource, which sprawls across a 2,000-square-mile watershed with huge reservoirs that provides drinking water to 9 million New Yorkers, winds from the port of New York up the Hudson River to the port of Albany and also snakes through the various trout streams, lakes and ponds in the region.
“Water has always been a key to the New York economy,” said Fran Dunwell, coordinator of the Hudson River Estuary Management program for the Department of Environmental Conservation. She cited a key but oft-overlooked economic driver, the port of New York, which accounts for $20 billion in annual activity and 230,000 jobs.
Lance Matteson, president of the Ulster County Development Corp. cited agriculture and tourism as key economic arenas that depend on the region”™s water resources. But he noted that average pay for a worker in a tourism- related job is about $21,000 annually while agribusiness workers average about $27,000 annually. He said by contrast manufacturing jobs average about $78,000 annually, figures he said were skewed upward by highly paid IBM executives, but said the point remains manufacturing jobs provide better pay.
The region must use its abundant water resources as part of the strategy for attracting manufacturing here, he said. “If we are going to do smart growth we need the growth as well as the smart.”
Manufacturing and other types of production need abundant water supplies, said James Tierney, the assistant commissioner for water resources for the DEC. He said 700 gallons of water is necessary for making a single pair of Levi”™s blue jeans. The Hudson Valley has enough water to meet the needs of manufacturing, but it must be carefully utilized to avoid the fate of some western states that are pumping their aquifers dry. “Of course we have to have economic development but we have to do it sustainably,” he said.
Protecting the environment to protect the water supply is in itself a form of economic development. Cas Holloway, commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection told the conference that his agency  makes “direct contribution” to economic development through the roughly 1,000 employees working in the watershed and the $130 million in taxes the city annually pays to watershed municipalities.
“A fundamental economic point,” he said, is abundant water supply provides about 1 billion gallons a day that makes life in New York City and other populated areas possible. And protecting that supply means New York City will invest billions of dollars in coming years, including $2 billion in Croton for the largest ultra-violet disinfectant system in the world, an additional $2.1 billion to repair leaks in the Delaware aqueduct and more in other projects.
Dunwell said in the counties north of New York City, the water piping and sewage treatment infrastructure is so old it conservatively would require about $2.3 billion in upgrades.
New York City storm water treatment infrastructure is estimated to need $7 billion in holding tanks and conveyance piping, but Holloway said city engineers are loathe to recommend such measures, since they simply sit unused most of the time. Instead, he said, the city is examining green solutions such as engineered wetlands as bio-filters and holding ponds and other measures which could provide open space in the city and other benefits, like cleaner air, higher property values and reduced energy usage.
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