Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Most New Yorkers turn on a faucet without thinking about where their water begins. About 90% of New York City’s drinking water comes from the Catskill and Delaware systems—the largest unfiltered water supply in the World.
Subscribe for more TDC: youtube.com/TheDailyConversation
The water still receives disinfection, including UV treatment, but New York avoids conventional filtration by protecting the forests, streams, wetlands, farms, and reservoir lands that keep its source water clean.
Thanks to Jeff Senterman, Executive Director of the Catskill Center, a nonprofit protecting the Catskills' land, water, and communities since 1969. The Center is an accredited land trust, advocates for the Catskills, and runs the Catskills Visitor Center in Mount Tremper - home to hiking trails, a historic fire tower, and trip-planning resources.
catskillcenter.org
Visit: catskillsvisitorcenter.org
New York City watershed protection: dos.ny.gov/new-york-city-watershed-program
Hudson River School Art Trail: hudsonriverschool.org
NYC's new UV treatment: nyc.gov/html/dep/html/press_releases/13-104pr.shtml
The Landmark 1997 Watershed Agreement (MOA): nationalacademies.org/read/9677/chapter/1
Jeff's ties to the Catskills are personal as well as professional. He grew up spending weekends in the mountains, worked as an Assistant Forest Ranger, and has spent his life exploring the Catskills. He's also a licensed hiking guide who co-owns Hike On Guides with his husband, Moe - together known online as the Hiker Trash Husbands, sharing trail stories and promoting LGBTQ+ visibility in the outdoors. From policy work to hikes, it all comes from a lifelong love of the Catskills.
YouTube - youtube.com/@HikerTrashHusbands
hikertrashhusbands.com
I spent a morning with Jeff, at Ashokan Reservoir and around the Catskill Park. We explore the land conservation that protects New York City’s water; the communities flooded to create the reservoir; the gravity-fed tunnels that carry water toward the city; the partnership with local farmers and towns; and the remarkable public landscape that these overlapping layers of protection help preserve.
We then visit Platte Clove, where Hudson River School painters such as Thomas Cole imagined a wilder Catskills than the heavily logged and quarried landscape of their time—and where, more than a century later, much of the forest has returned.
Chapters:
00:00 New York City’s unfiltered water
00:42 Protecting the Catskills watershed
01:26 The towns beneath Ashokan Reservoir
02:03 Conservation versus filtration
03:11 The Catskill Park and “forever wild”
04:04 How water reaches the city
05:00 A model built with local communities
05:50 The landscape that inspired conservation
07:07 The forest returns
TDC Places explores the infrastructure, history, people, and decisions that shape remarkable places.
#TDCPlaces #Catskills #WaterInfrastructure
YouTube Tags
TDC Places, TDC Places documentary, TDC documentary, how a place works, urban history, city history, infrastructure, architecture, engineering, civil engineering, urban planning, historic preservation, public works, hidden history, civic infrastructure, walking tour, local history, Catskills watershed, NYC water supply, New York City drinking water, Ashokan Reservoir, unfiltered water, watershed protection, Catskill Center, Jeff Senterman, Catskill Park
Most New Yorkers turn on a faucet without thinking about where their water begins. About 90% of New York City’s drinking water comes from the Catskill and Delaware systems—the largest unfiltered water supply in the World.
Subscribe for more TDC: youtube.com/TheDailyConversation
The water still receives disinfection, including UV treatment, but New York avoids conventional filtration by protecting the forests, streams, wetlands, farms, and reservoir lands that keep its source water clean.
Thanks to Jeff Senterman, Executive Director of the Catskill Center, a nonprofit protecting the Catskills' land, water, and communities since 1969. The Center is an accredited land trust, advocates for the Catskills, and runs the Catskills Visitor Center in Mount Tremper - home to hiking trails, a historic fire tower, and trip-planning resources.
catskillcenter.org
Visit: catskillsvisitorcenter.org
New York City watershed protection: dos.ny.gov/new-york-city-watershed-program
Hudson River School Art Trail: hudsonriverschool.org
NYC's new UV treatment: nyc.gov/html/dep/html/press_releases/13-104pr.shtml
The Landmark 1997 Watershed Agreement (MOA): nationalacademies.org/read/9677/chapter/1
Jeff's ties to the Catskills are personal as well as professional. He grew up spending weekends in the mountains, worked as an Assistant Forest Ranger, and has spent his life exploring the Catskills. He's also a licensed hiking guide who co-owns Hike On Guides with his husband, Moe - together known online as the Hiker Trash Husbands, sharing trail stories and promoting LGBTQ+ visibility in the outdoors. From policy work to hikes, it all comes from a lifelong love of the Catskills.
YouTube - youtube.com/@HikerTrashHusbands
hikertrashhusbands.com
I spent a morning with Jeff, at Ashokan Reservoir and around the Catskill Park. We explore the land conservation that protects New York City’s water; the communities flooded to create the reservoir; the gravity-fed tunnels that carry water toward the city; the partnership with local farmers and towns; and the remarkable public landscape that these overlapping layers of protection help preserve.
We then visit Platte Clove, where Hudson River School painters such as Thomas Cole imagined a wilder Catskills than the heavily logged and quarried landscape of their time—and where, more than a century later, much of the forest has returned.
Chapters:
00:00 New York City’s unfiltered water
00:42 Protecting the Catskills watershed
01:26 The towns beneath Ashokan Reservoir
02:03 Conservation versus filtration
03:11 The Catskill Park and “forever wild”
04:04 How water reaches the city
05:00 A model built with local communities
05:50 The landscape that inspired conservation
07:07 The forest returns
TDC Places explores the infrastructure, history, people, and decisions that shape remarkable places.
#TDCPlaces #Catskills #WaterInfrastructure
YouTube Tags
TDC Places, TDC Places documentary, TDC documentary, how a place works, urban history, city history, infrastructure, architecture, engineering, civil engineering, urban planning, historic preservation, public works, hidden history, civic infrastructure, walking tour, local history, Catskills watershed, NYC water supply, New York City drinking water, Ashokan Reservoir, unfiltered water, watershed protection, Catskill Center, Jeff Senterman, Catskill Park
![How America Changed Under Obama [A Data Analysis]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/y3uuX8Jtqxw/mqdefault.jpg "How America Changed Under Obama [A Data Analysis]
A data-driven look at how the U.S. changed under the presidency of Barack Obama.
FB for daily news: http://www.facebook.com/thedailyconversation
http://www.twitter.com/thedailyconvo
Subscribe to TDC: https://www.youtube.com/TheDailyConversation/
Data courtesy of Pew Research Center: http://pewrsr.ch/2jzFOHy
Researched, written, narrated and produced by Bryce Plank
Video edited by Robin West
Music: Particles Unfolding by Glimpse: https://soundcloud.com/glimpse_official/particles_unfolding
Electro Sketch by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/?keywords=electro+sketch&Search=Search
Artist: http://incompetech.com/
Script:
In 2008, Barack Obama was the change candidate. This is a data-driven look at how much America transformed during his eight years as our President. Pause or rewind the video if you need more time with any of the data.
After spiking during the Great Recession, the unemployment rate is below 5% today.
And the stock market has more than doubled.
Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, plunged the percentage of adults without health insurance to the lowest level in history.
While the share of income going to the top 1% has continued to increase, average Americans saw the biggest jump in their household income ever in 2015, and the biggest drop in poverty since the great society programs of the 1960’s.
The violent crime rate is down almost 20% from when Obama took office.
America’s image abroad was lifted as President Obama turned away from the policies of George W. Bush and toward a more active pursuit of diplomacy to solve problems.
Today, there are less than 15,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, compared to the 175,000 when he took office.
But this was coupled with Americans themselves becoming more wary of international engagement.
On energy, the Obama administration has reduced carbon emissions by 9.4%, greatly expanded wind and solar power, and cut America’s dependence on foreign oil by more than half.
In 2015, for the first time since at least 1980, the number of inmates in federal prisons actually declined.
8 states have now legalized marijuana and - for first time - a majority of Americans overall support legalization.
A majority of Americans also favor the Supreme Court’s ruling that essentially legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
Culturally, the biggest change came when Apple released the first iPhone during Obama’s campaign for the democratic nomination in 2007. In the decade since, smartphone use has exploded and about half of all Americans now own a tablet too.
But all that technology has led to a constant stream of stories and images of violence and victimization, especially at the hands of police, seen all over the social media feeds of many Americans, that’s led to a widespread perception that race relations have deteriorated.
Millennials are now the nation’s largest living generation and the biggest potential voting block.
For the first time in 2013, the majority of newborn babies were racial or ethnic minorities, and a record-high 12% of newlyweds married someone of a different race.
Despite some people’s perception, the past seven years has seen little change in the number of unauthorized immigrants living in the United States, there was actually a net loss of over 100,000 immigrants who went back to Mexico.
The biggest religious trend during Obama’s presidency is the rise of those claiming no religion at all a group now making up a quarter of the population, and 35% of millennials.
As you can see from President Obama’s approval ratings among democrats and republicans, modern America has never been so divided along partisan lines.
Far more democrats than republicans now say immigrants strengthen the country; and when it comes to guns, far more republicans now think we should prioritize gun rights over gun control.
For various reasons, both democrats and republicans have much less faith in government. Most Americans didn’t think the government’s actions after the financial crisis helped them.
On national security, after the horrific terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, for the first time since 9/11, the government’s job rating on terrorism turned negative.
And, driven by the campaign of Donald Trump, Republicans have suddenly become anti-free trade and globalization. As you can see, Democrats’ views have remained roughly the same.
Only one-third of Americans used social media in 2008, but by 2015 that rate was 75%.
Obama was also the first Internet video president, as this media genre came of age during his time in office. YouTube now has over a billion users.
In 2016, more American adults learned about the presidential election through social media than through print newspapers, with seven-in-ten getting their news through a mobile device.")
