There’s a path around the Jerome Park Reservoir, just like the Central Park Reservoir. And while Manhattanites can run around theirs with a view of the water, Bronxites aren’t allowed to run and walk next to theirs and many are fed up.

Since construction on a filtration plant for the Croton Water System began in the depths of the Norwood section of Van Cortlandt Park several years ago, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has cited security as the reason why residents are kept outside of the two security fences surrounding the nearby reservoir (a wide path exists between the fences). Residents say that access and security are both possible and point to former commissioner Christopher Ward’s promise in 2004 to create a track around the reservoir similar to the one at the Central Park Reservoir.

At a June 2 hearing on the issue at Amalgamated Houses’ Vladeck Hall, residents, most of whom live on the west side of the reservoir, gave the DEP an earful.

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. convened the meeting at the urging of the Croton Filtration Monitoring Committee (FMC), which had grown weary of the DEP’s lack of responsiveness. The tipping point was the agency’s March release of a long-delayed report that offered the public a mere few days of access in 2013.

Mark Lanaghan of the DEP said his agency attended the hearing to hear from the public. “We are open to exploring public access but we don’t know what you want,” he said, as community members groaned. “The DEP has known the interests of the community for quite some time now,” Councilman Oliver Koppell responded.

“The DEP’s disdain and contempt is historic,” said Amalgamated resident Ed Yaker. “We were fenced off from the reservoir long before 9/11. And the deal [for access] was made in 2004. What has changed in our security concerns since then?”

“The DEP has spent so much money to say so little,” Father Richard Gorman, chairman of Community Board 12 and a member of the FMC said. “Their report is 13 pages with pictures! No offense, but my buddies in college used to get together after Monday night football, throw back a few beers and write term papers longer than that!”

Bob Bender of Community Board 8, also outraged with the proposal, asked why the public isn’t given access now. “What better time is there than now when there is no water in the reservoir?” he asked as audience members cheered.

One woman who just moved from Westchester said she can’t understand why Bronxites don’t have the same access to the reservoirs that people in Westchester do.

State Senator Gustavo Rivera said he felt Bronx residents were being discriminated against. “If it’s good enough for Central Park, it’s good enough for the Bronx,” Rivera said at a press conference in May.

DEP Deputy Commissioner Jim Roberts said the Central Park comparison doesn’t hold water. “Central Park is not used for drinking water,” he said. “The Jerome Park Reservoir will always be used as a potable supply of drinking ater.”

But Anne Marie Garti, also of the Jerome Park Conservancy, countered that “the Central Park Reservoir has been around since the 1860s and there have been tons of people around it and using it for years. To say that it isn’t in operation now is just missing the point.”

Roberts said access depends on repairs that need to be made. The pothole-ridden path around the reservoir would be dangerous for pedestrians, he said, and there is no money in the budget to repair it. (It should be noted, however, that DEP and security vehicles regularly patrol that road.)

Kevin McBride, the DEP’s head of security, laid out his security concerns.

“With more access, the risk profile changes and the amount of security needed changes,” McBride said. “Right now, it’s a hard target. It’s not that I’m afraid people in the Bronx would do something, it’s people outside the city or even the country that would put the reservoir on their target list.”

“We’re not saying there shouldn’t be security measures,” said Koppell, “but there can be access with security.”