Muscoot Reservoir

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The Muscoot Reservoir is a small reservoir in northern Westchester County, New York. It is located directly north of the village of Katonah, New York, and is over 25 miles (40 kilometres) north of New York City, which the reservoir eventually supplies with tapwater. It was constructed around the turn of the last century by impounding the Muscoot River, which is a tributary of the Croton River, which in turn is a tributary of the Hudson River. The reservoir itself was once much smaller, but the other side of the original dam was intentionally flooded to make the reservoir bigger, and a new dam was built. The original dam is still standing, and divides the reservoir in two.

The reservoir was finally completed in 1905. The resulting body of water is the main collecting point for all of the reservoirs in the Croton Watershed, except for the New Croton Reservoir. It is almost 8 miles (almost 13 km) long, can hold up to 4.9 billion gallons (18.5 million m³) of water at full capacity, and has a drainage basin that covers 76 square miles (121.6 km²) of land. A drainage basin is an area of land around a reservoir where there lie minor bodies of water that feed the reservoir.

The drinking water from the reservoir flows down the rest of the Muscoot River, and then enters the Croton River to flow into the New Croton Reservoir, and enters the New Croton Aqueduct. It then flows south towards New York City, and flows through the Jerome Park Reservoir in The Bronx. It continues through Manhattan, where it mixes with water from the Catskill Aqueduct, and finally flows through Brooklyn and Staten Island, where the water from the aqueduct finally comes to a stop.

[edit] See also

• List of reservoirs and dams in New York