watershould, 1999

Planning for the future of a great metropolis, NYC eyed the Catskills for a water source as early as the 1920s. It took until the early 1950s to condemn villages situated low in the valleys of Delaware and Ulster to a fate of watery obscurity. The nature of mountain farming is unpredictability, instability, lots of rocky wet soil, and weather extremes. Land at the bottom of the valley is well irrigated, well drained and very fertile, profoundly important in the vertical landscape. Therefore when the great metropolis claimed the valley land as its own, an economic downward spiral set in, pulling the area away from sustainable agriculture, and the physical community of farm towns.

New York City has transformed the chief export of the region from milk into water. It reminded me of how we traded blood for oil in the Persian Gulf. Now the city is placing more restrictions on the area, many of which benefit both upstate and city dwellers, but many of which are draconian and ridiculous. Instead of putting ever tightening screws on individuals and towns, the city needs to develop and enhance natural filtration through the use of blue belt waterways acting as bio filters. 

Water cleaning technology in this country relies on magic bullet/overkill strategy, not sustainability. The technology we actually use is generations behind what we know about green systems, so I altered these antique milk bottles, to create my own dairies from the past. The bottles are pictured here with their new cargo, tap water from a city faucet.