I can’t help but wish I could return to an age when North America was new to the European settlers, and they could observe this continent in its fully evolved state, with flora and fauna living nearly undisturbed by Homo sapiens.

In general, the more species that live in an area, the healthier that ecosystem is—and the better off we humans are.

It has become so easy for us here in NYC to turn on the tap without realizing the hardship, unimaginable sacrifices and money that have allowed us this incredible resource at the mere flick of a finger. We returned to the downstream end of the aqueducts with a newfound appreciation of the hard work we saw first-hand and an understanding of how special our water really is.