A River and Its Water: Reclaiming the Commons - Parts 21 and 22

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21st and 22nd of a series

“New York City’s water is treated like gold, and for all the right reasons.”

- Marissa Morton, Sydney High School, age 17

“I can still here Jeriel saying, ‘I’m going to tell my mom to stop buying bottled water.”

- Christina Medved#

Today’s post is a link to Kent Garrett and d.b. Roderick’s film, “Mountaintop to Tap”, which also features local musicians Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, composers of the tenderly relevant “Ashokan Farewell”.*

Because Kent and d.b. had only a couple of days lead time, they were unable to film the entire trek. One of the days they missed included the trekkers’ visit with an elderly woman named Margaret Smith Dolan, whose family had been evicted when New York City took their home by eminent domain. Its site now sits at the bottom of the Ashokan Reservoir. Margaret was not – or at least is no longer – bitter about what she called “the price of progress.” But the kids were deeply moved by her story, and it was at that point that they began to understand the larger story of New York’s water in a wholly new light.

In my mind, the film is enchanting, warm spirited, and, both poignant and filled with hope . . . documenting one of the most positive stories I know about bringing diverse people together to understand and protect their collective sources of fresh water, even in the shadow of a history of removal and displacement. Because the film is 37 minutes long, it will be both posts this week.

* Built between 1907 and 1915, the Ashokan Reservoir submerged thousands of acres of farmland, destroyed 12 communities, and displaced 2,000 people.  

# So many people worked really hard to make the trek happen, but no one worked harder, longer, or more warmheartedly than Christina Medved, Education Programs Manager at the Stroud Center, a special person.

To see all of this and earlier series, please go to https://jamesgblaine.com