Robert Conlin, a home contractor who has worked in the watershed towns for 20 years, said the regulations make doing business more expensive.

Ms. Gelber won the confidence of both the watershed towns who resented city interference and environmental groups who were pushing for the strictest possible controls.

It would also be useful if some way could be found to create more jobs in watershed towns, which are mostly poor, without compromising the streams that feed the reservoirs.

And he said that any plan to protect New York City's watershed must not harm the economies of watershed towns, criticizing city officials for "walking away from the table" during negotiations with those towns.

You report that watershed towns like Carmel are engaged in "aggressive conservationism" because they embrace New York City watershed development guidelines.

Another is a proposal by New York City to invest millions of dollars in the watershed towns to help them find ways to grow without further degrading water quality.

The city, she said, was exploring ways to accelerate a plan to provide economic assistance to Walton and other watershed towns.

A coalition of watershed towns has been formed to fight this barbaric aggression.

He says the city and the watershed towns must work together.

He said Eliot L. Spitzer, the attorney general, should have directed his office's criticism away from the city and toward state agencies that could help put pressure on watershed towns to accelerate the work.