NEW YORK, N.Y. — If New Yorkers want clean drinking water, they should ante up and pay for it.

That's the word from Putnam County Executive Robert Bondi, who has suggested New York City residents chip in $2 a year each to keep oil, pesticides and septic waste out of their upstate water supply.

Putnam and Westchester County residents also would be hit with the tax, which would be used to comply with new provisions of the Clean Water Act.

"What is needed is an annual revenue stream, one that would not present an onerous burden to the taxpayer," Bondi wrote in a letter to mayors and county leaders, the Westchester Journal News reported yesterday.

The money would be used to install high-tech storm drains, map storm water discharge points and safely store risky items, including pesticides and road salt.

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Source: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News