Water Withdrawal Reporting
New Law Requires Submittal of Water Use Data to DEC
Annual water use reports are due by February 1, 2010
New law requires reporting water withdrawals for any individual or industry using more than 100,000 gallons per day.
Water Withdrawal Reporting Form (pdf, 260kb) (may be submitted via email)
A notch weir measures flow
New York's plentiful water resources are under pressure by heavy demands from increasing commercial, industrial, and public uses as well as the need to maintain river and stream flows for fisheries, wetlands, and other environmental needs. Water users are already required to report significant water withdrawals in some portions of the state such as the Great Lakes Basin. The recently passed legislation Title 33 will expand this requirement statewide and ensure that water use is adequately documented.
The highlights of this new law are:
- Any person or entity having the capability to withdraw more than 100,000 gallons per day of surface or groundwater must file an annual report with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC)
- Each annual report shall be submitted to NYSDEC by February 1st of the following year.
- The first annual report, which is due in 2010, will need to include data only from May 2009 through December 2009. However, if data on additional monthly water withdrawals are available, please include it. Subsequent annual reports must include twelve months of data
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Industrial Water Supply - A reporting fee of $50.00 payable to NYSDEC must be submitted with each annual report
- No fee is required for withdrawals for agricultural and public water supply purposes
- Each report shall include:
- the water source, its location, and capacity
- the amount of water withdrawn, including the daily average for each month and the peak (maximum) day amount for each month
- a description of the use for which the water is withdrawn
- estimated amounts of water to be returned to the environment or wastewater system, and the location and methods of return -
- Withdrawals which are exempt from reporting are:
- those for fire suppression or other emergencies - those for non-extractive geothermal heating/cooling systems ("closed loop")
- reclaimed wastewater withdrawn for reuse
Locating Your Drainage Basin
New York State has 17 major drainage basins. The transfer of water between basins, otherwise known as "diversions", can be an area of concern for local water resources and is an activity that NYSDEC tracks. The Water Withdrawal Reporting Form requires that any diversion amounts be reported. In order to determine if you have an inter-basin diversion, please refer to the basin map to the left
NYS major drainage basins. Click on the map to view a large version.
For a location that is too close to a boundary to accurately determine its associated basin, please contact us at the telephone number or email address listed in the right hand margin of this webpage.
Information and assessment reports about watersheds are available elsewhere on DEC's webpage.
More about Water Withdrawal Reporting:
- Major Drainage Basins - Large Image - This map of major drainage basins allows users to zoom into an area of interest in order to determine in which basin their site is located.
