The New York herald., 1876-11-15

drought that the attention or the then Commissioner
OF Public Works and Of the Chief Engineer was called
day possible the reservoir Boyds Corners, which
was In progress. but also OF constructing another
The then Com missioner IN his annual report dated
April H. 1872, made tho following statement
"A careful nvesticasop OF the subject has resulted
In the conviction that sufficient be collected
In the Croon River district TO supply double the
present population Of New York The real difficulty
Is that the collected at different seasons Of
the year are very uneven and that in extremely dry
seasons tho daly supply is less than onetnird OF the
quantity consumed therefore. In order TO secure an
essary TO have storage capacity ior sufficient guam
tiy 10 carry through the protracted Of
drought which may possibly occur"
And again, in the report, The following Atsts
mcnt Is made:"ln addition to tho storage rcscr
voir At Boyds Corners above referred preparations
are being made for one still larger with a capacity OF
5. 200 0o0 600 gaons. The increase the daily
sumption Of Croton water has been rapid that the
subject Of building such additional reservoirs tho
future necessities Of the city, based upon careful cst
mates may require Is receiving the earnest a-ption
OF this department" In comm unlcaton Of the lato
MT Tracy the Chief Engineer OF tho Croton Aqueduc
TO the then Commissioner OF Public Works. dated March
ls. 1872, the following language was used
% s % 70 ,.: e BSys M ::
during the Rressns year Although !hs rss.rsoiI vixen
vos win be necessary to meet The growing wsp,s of ,hs
city is NOS desirable 50 draw reservoirs
In the same letter Mr. Tracy states:--
During tho last twelve months hay. had and
a he sSns
expect .1on to ay before you maps plans and spseea
rsssryor which u. Be wanted By shs city
NJ Tracy, j, j. n, ..nu. report 20 tho c9mmi.slonsr
therefore ssasa. The r.as we're rsaasa
evenly distributed the there would
TO long drouxhs during she there arc
Is 70 supply the Ssy needs q shs city and se
only insure constant supply Is BY Of storage
drawn during the II enough storage
s ss sy' sas s';s, sp e. no tho a
should occur for six successive months"
From the foregoing statement and extracts It is ev
dent that the importance and necessity Of timely
construction OF another storage reservoir In addition
TO that at Boyds Corners, iorcby brought the
early as March, 1872.
In August 1872 the surveys and plans for the add
tional reservoir to DO located the middle branch Of
tho Cro,on River completed and submitted tho
then Commissioner Of Public Works In September
OF that year map OF The land appropriated and pro-
posed TO be taken for the reservoir signed by the
Commissioner and Chief Engineer, and led In the
o1lco Of tho Clerk Of Putnam county Al tho
time agent sent TO each OF the parties whose
lands proposed to be TAKEN but purchases were
made. During the winter the Commissioner author
tied Mr. Tracy to purchase the land Tor the site Of the
proposed dam, which purchases were made March,
1878. These purchases were madc at Mr. Tracy's re
quest In order that the work OF constructing the dam
could be imme edately commenced. Nothing, however
done toward placing this work under contract
until November, 1874, moro than two years after the
surveys were made ana tue plans prepared, and
more than eighteen months after tho land which
to construct the dam had been acquired by the city,
l am at a loss to conceive why this long delay In
matter ofsuch vital importance should have occurred
Tho Chief Engineer tho professional adviser OF the
department., had in his official reports, and, as am
inormcd verbal communications, earnestly pressed
the early commencement OF the work. and the Com
missioner IN his annual report admitted it's necessity
The results OF this delay will be fully understood and
appreciated when state that had the construction OF
the reservoir been commenced early In 1873 instead
Of late In 1874 the Inconvenience and dscomforts Of
the present scarcity could not possibly have occurred
The reservoir would have been completed before tic
end Of 1876 and would have been TILED with nearly
1000 000 900 OF gallons Of water which OF ITSELF
conjunction with the natural ow OF tho river would
have kept up the fullest supply for period OF sixty
days, and with further aid from the Boyd's Corner
throughout the extraordinary drought OF the sum
and autumn OF the present year would have been
assured beyond all contingency.
The question: whether recurrence OF the present
scarcity possible, mas been mainly answered by the
preceding statement, but answer IL more directly by
ervoirs are provided In ample tme the city grows
population, there will bc an OF water in
ths Croton Valley for city OF more than double tho
present population.
To accomplish this great dcsideratum It Is only
necessary 10 the simple rule well expressed
In the report OF the Comm above quoted, and
which IL IS well here TO repeat, namely
In abundant and uninterrupted supply
water necessary TO have storage capacity for sum
cient quantity through the most protaced
son Of drought which may possibly occur
The assurance OF m abundant supply OF water from
the Croton River district is based upon the following
1 facts:>-
TIC area drained is about $40 square miles, The an
nuai amount Of rainfall upon this region, estab
shcd by careful daily observation for the past clever
years, IL shown In the following tablet