{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Radio Chatskill","title":"New York City to Stop Most Land Purchases in Catskill Watershed","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":985,"description":"Residents and local officials in the Catskills are celebrating an agreement that puts an end to part of a decades-long land acquisition program by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection to protect the watershed of the city’s reservoirs in upstate New York. For more details, we spoke to Meg McGuire, the founder and publisher of Delaware Currents, the news project dedicated to telling the story of the Delaware River from its headwaters in the Catskill Mountains of New York to the Delaware Bay, where it meets the ocean.Ric Coombe, chairman of the Coalition of Watershed Towns, which was formed in 1991 to bargain with the DEP, confirmed that the parties had reached an agreement for the city to stop purchasing land in the majority of the Catskills watershed.“This will be a turning point in reducing” land purchases, Coombe said. “It will take away that pressure to upstate communities that the city’s purchasing land has applied.”The DEP also confirmed the decision to Delaware Currents.“There will be no more priority three and four acquisitions, which is most of the Greene County land area in the watershed, but additional focus on priority areas one and two,” John Milgrim, a DEP spokesman, said in an email. “Through a collaborative process and guided by science, DEP intends to focus resources on programs and acquisitions most beneficial to water quality protection while continuing investments to enhance the socio-economic vitality of our community neighbors.”Priorities are shiftingPriority areas three and four make up the majority of the Catskills, including Greene and Schoharie Counties.The majority of Delaware County is also part of these areas, as well as smaller chunks of Sullivan and Ulster Counties. Priority areas one and two are smaller in size and include parts of Ulster and Sullivan Counties near the Roundout Reservoir and in Delaware County near the Cannonsville Reservoir.Read more: How the town of Cannonsville became the Cannonsville...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/q7XXsnSXT_u4mZLCn3chUorwDmUD_kWiB272D6emB18/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS80N2Uy/OGY5MWUwZThkYTEw/NDVkZGM2ZGZkZDIw/ZjliOS5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}