In New York City, tap water is considered so good it has become a local source of pride and one of the city’s amenities. 

For many, there is something ceaselessly miraculous about the way such crystal clear, good tasting water bubbles up from the guts of such an urban landscape.  

In recent weeks, the City Council said that it would stop buying bottled water and drink tap water at its meetings instead, a step being taken to save money amid the lean economic times as well as to reduce global warming (the bottles are made of plastic and need to be delivered).

City government has followed suit and said that it will try installing water coolers that filter and use tap water. 

But last week WNYC Radio reported that the quality of the city’s water could be in jeopardy.  Governor Paterson signed a bill that simplifies the permit process for drilling in the state, while also promising to review the environmental impacts. 

There are fears that the looser regulatory framework would allow drillers to begin using a technique called hydraulic fracturing to excavate deep, hard to reach gas deposits that sit below the region in the Catskills where New York City’s system of water reservoirs are located.

Hydraulic fracturing would be necessary to tap the huge gas deposits in the Marcellus Shale, a subterranean layer 7,000 feet below ground and rich with natural gas.  Large amounts of water are pumped down the shaft to fracture the rock and free the trapped gas.  In order to be effective, the water is laced with sand and chemicals, some of them highly toxic.  The toxic water has contaminated watersheds in states where the fracturing technique has been used, despite assurances that it wouldn’t.

State officials seemed adamant that the new bill wouldn’t reduce environmental oversight.

“This new law will ensure greater efficiency in the processing of requests to permit oil and gas wells, while maintaining environmental and public health safeguards,” Governor Paterson said in a July 23 press release after the bill was signed. “Natural gas exploration has the potential to increase domestic supplies of natural gas, create jobs, expand the tax base and benefit the upstate economy. My administration is committed to working with the public and local governments to ensure that if the drilling goes forward, it takes place in the most environmentally responsible way possible.”

The state said that it would update its environmental review process for drilling to address the possible problems raised by hydraulic fracturing after previously stating that the practice could be properly reviewed by the existing regulations.