§ 76. Limitation on acquisition of water rights in Westchester and
Putnam counties. Notwithstanding the provisions of any general or
special law, a municipal or other corporation not situated within the
county of Westchester or the county of Putnam shall not have power to
acquire by condemnation, for the purpose of increasing or improving the
water supply of any such corporation, or for supplying the inhabitants
thereof with water, any lands, easements, streams of water, or water
rights within the county of Westchester or the towns of Carmel and
Putnam Valley in the county of Putnam, except that this section shall
not apply to the contemplated reservoir known as the Cross river
reservoir, nor to the contemplated reservoir at or near Croton falls,
nor to the contemplated acquisition of land in the vicinity of Rye lake;
nor shall this section operate to prevent the city of New York from
acquiring real estate in said counties necessary for the purpose of
constructing, maintaining and operating aqueducts, dams, reservoirs,
culverts, sluices, canals, bridges, tunnels, pumping works, blow-offs,
shafts, filters and appurtenances for the purpose of conveying to the
city of New York and to the said counties, water from sources outside of
the said counties, or for the purpose of connecting supplies of water
already established within said counties, nor shall this section operate
to prevent the city of New York from acquiring such real estate within
the Croton watershed in the county of Westchester, contiguous to Little
Mohansic Lake and Mohansic Lake, as may be necessary for the sanitary
protection of the water supply of the city of New York, and the city of
New York is hereby authorized to acquire by purchase or by condemnation
in the manner prescribed by the provisions of title two, chapter eleven
of the Greater New York charter as amended, such real estate for such
purposes, except the lands, buildings and premises known as the Mohansic
Lake reservation in the town of Yorktown, the county of Westchester,
transferred and conveyed by the people of the state of New York to the
county of Westchester by chapter two hundred and seventy-six of the laws
of nineteen hundred and twenty-two.