Watershed conservation is one of the least expensive solutions to ensure greater water quantity, quality and security, cheaper than building new infrastructure and certainly more cost effective than the initially estimated $1.3 billion price tag to raise Shasta Dam. Unlike large dam infrastructure projects, which consistently have cost and time overruns, natural infrastructure projects have been accomplished under budget and on time. New York City, for example, used watershed conservation policies in the 1990s to clean city water more cheaply than by building a new water treatment plant.