The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-01-03
THE CHOKHD UP SEWERS
This Mornings Conference
in Mr.. Edwards Office.
TWO COURSES OF PROCEDURE.
Discussion Between Railraod and
City officials and Third
District Citizens.


ohclais of the Pennsylvania Railroad and
representatives of the city authorities
met this morning in Corporation Counsel
towards Office to confer upon some
method OF abating the nuisance caused
by the obstruction of the Second, Third
and Fourth street sewers.
mayor cleveland, Corporation Cuonsel
nls;s.waros, lss.' PRESIDENT John Edelstein of tine
FINANCE Board, and Commissioners Van
heuren and Somers and CHIEF Engineer
ftuggles OF the Street and Water Board
represented the city authorities DIR.
e9uimby, Henry Wild, John ]. Lynch and
Jonn OpConnor were present for the
cltlzens and Superintendent jackson.
Engineer Brooks and Counsellor yretien-
+ pergh represented the railroad company.
MT. Edelstein called the meeting to orr
DER and said that it had been summoned
TOT the purpose of listening to the reports
VI lne engineers who had been engaged to
examine the sewer.
RUGGLAs AND QUIMBY AT IT.
he called upon Chief Engineer Rug
| giles, who said that he had no report 70
make. He had gone over the ground
thoroughly and had not changed his opin-
ION that pumping station was the best
means for relieving the trouble
He said that if pipes were laid there as
has been proposed, the difficulty would
| not be obviated and at every rain storm
the situation wonld be as bad as it is
now. He also said that the top Of the
Second street sewer at Henderson street
is below high water mark
| DIR. Qulmby asked Mr.. Ruggles If that
| was not the case with all the sewers. and
the Engineer replied that it was with al
most all of them
/ A little scrimmage then ensued be-
| tween the Doctor and the Engineer The
| Doctor asked If the sewers In oJher parts
| of the city did not work under the same
conditions.
| Mr.. Kuggles replied that the ones re-
ferred to by the doctor did not have the
| same level as the Second streetisewer
We'll, you have the same level in the
Sixth street sewer, and you said that
! worked all right at the last meeting, said
| the doctor.
| Yes. but that has force of water
! flowing through 1t from the hill, which
causes it to work. replied the engineer
| well, SO has the Second street sewer"
| rejo1ned the doctor
THE SEWER EXPLORED.
Gustav Blau. one of the engineers en-
ployed by the citizens, reported that he
thoroughly examined the Second and
Third street sewers.
| At the junction Of Second and Hender-
son streets the bottom of the sewer cor.
! responds with the low water mark, and
while the water was low in the river
there were four feet of water in the
4
| where there ought TO be a free and min
terrupted flow and no water, he found
| four feet of mud and water.
The same conditions existed in the
i Third and Fourth streets sewers at Hem
! derson street. His examination showed
! the obstruction to be between Warren
street and the bulkhead at the river.
| The box which the railroad company
| built from the outlet OF the sewer to the
river, where it filled in Harsimus Cove.
| Mr.. Blau said, was found to be entirely
| submerged at the bulkhead.
| He also stated that Engineer Ward was
with him when he made his examination,
| and that they both concluded that relief
could be obtained by extending the sewer
on dead level to the river
! IL this was done there would be about
/ one foot of water in the sewer at low tide
MR.. BLAU'S PLANS.
In conclusion Mr.. Blau recommended
! that large five foot iron pipe be laid from
the end of the sewer to the river, through
| the PENNSYLVANIA property, in which there
should be frequent manholes so that it
/ could be easily entered and cleaned when
necessary.
In answer to questions by those present
Mr.. Blau said that the sewer built by the
Pennsylvania Railroad was too low, hav-
ing drop of one foot four inches The
plans for the. sewer adopted by the city
did not call for so low level
The sewer had either sunk since its
construction or the City Engineer had
| given the company the wrong level. The
Fourth street was well built and COM
paratively clean.
Lii the box should be reconstructed it
would undoubtedly afford some relief.
The cost of remedying the evil would be
less than $25, ,000. Mr.. Ruggles did
not think that Mr.. Blau's plan
would furnish more than temporary
relief, and in the course of his remarks he
1rt,-n
street was a foot below the low water
mark. Mr.. Blau contradicted this and
said that it was on level
The Second street sewer MIR. Blau said,
between Henderson and Warren streets,
could be reconstructed for 5000.
Mr.. Brooks, being called upon for an
opinion, said that he agreed with Mr..
| Ruggles that Mr. Blau's plan was not
practical The trouble, he said, was that
at Henderson street the sewer was too
low.
Finally Mr. Van Keuren said that the
whole matter settled down TO two ques-
tions, whether to have pumping station
or pipe sewer, and he thought it could
be settled without any further talk.
MIR. EDWARDS SUGGESTIONS.
Mr.. Edwards said that there were three
| ways in which the matter was presented
The Pennsylvania Railroad to enter
into contract with the city for 81 to
carry the sewer across their land:
to have the Street and Water Com
missioners and the Pennsylvania Railroad
Company indicted for maintaining q
| nuisance. In that case the indicted ones
would be compelled to go ahead and con-
struct the sewer.
/ "A third method would be to have fifty
citizens along the route of the sewer
petition for its construction. in which
case it would be built and all benefited
assessed.
i The latter proposition gave rise to con-
siderable discussion as to who would be
assessed for the improvement. The drift
of the argument seemed to be that every
piece of property drained by the sewer
would have to stand portion of the ex-
pense.
Corporation Counsel Edwards said that
if the matter should be taken to the
courts it might be decided that the Penn
svlvania would have to pay a portion or
all of the expense.
Mr.. Vreedenburg said that the land OF
the Pennsylvania Company through
which the sewer is to go is at the disposal
of the city
The sewer would have to be under con-
troll of the city, and if the railroad COM
| pany should build it Jersey City Will
have to suipulate to take care of it.
When the conference adjourned the
citizens were divided between having the
officials and company indicted for petition
| ing to have the sewer built.