The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-12-12
NEW WATER SUPPLY
State Geologist smock Tells
Where It May Be Readily
Obtained.
NEWARK NEEDS HAS
Interesting Information About the
Various Sheds-Valuable Sta
tistics as to Future Re-
quirements.
NEWARK N%EEDSALLSHE HAS
Special to The jersey c,tu Ne,os.

OIL Uue OUaUS is CnaU Oh PROFESSOR JOhn u.
Smock, the State Geologist. The report of
that department. for 1892, which has just
been made public, contains a valuable chap
ter on the water supply of the State, a sub
ject which, at the present time, interests the
people of Jersey City more perhaps than the
citizens of any other section of the State.
The data for the article was collected
by c. G. Vermeule, consulting engineer and
~topographer on the Geological Survey Staff
of the State. During the year 1892 observa-
tions of stream flow were made on the more
important streams, and some full studies of
flood flows upon the Passaic and elsewhere
were persued. Mr.. Vermeule says that the
question of domestic water supplies grows IN
Importance, and that the most serious prob
lens in connection with the question of a pure
and wholesome water supply arise in the
populous districts of the northeastern por-
ton of the State, in the vicinity of New
York.
AS Jersey City is vigorously agitating the
question of a pure supply the Survey con-
siders it advisable to set forth the sources in
northern New Jersey now available for sup
plying towns with water. The first of these
is the Hackensack he'd above New Milford,
which is about seventeen miles from Jersey
City, as the crow flies. This has an eleva-
ton of four feet at the outlet, and has a sup
ply and capacity of 1880, 900 gallons daily.
1t is now used by the Hackensack Water
Company to supply Hoboken, Hackensack
and several other towns.
HER URC OF WATER.
Another of these sources is the Saddle
River shed above Paramur. The outlet of
this, which has an elevation of ninety feet,
is about twenty miles from Jersey City in a
straight line. 1t is capable of supplying A.
100000 gallons daily, and at the present time
it is not utilized. One Of the largest sup
plies not as yet utilized is the Ramapo above
Pompton. Its elevation at the outlet, which
is also about twenty miles from Jersey City,
in a straight line, is POP feet, and it can sup
ply daily 107, 100000 gallons. Another
source of great supplying capacity is the
Wanaque, above Pompton, which, in a
straight line, is about the same distance
from Jersey. City. 1t has an elevation at it's
outlet of 200 feet, and can supply 49,
100000 gallons of pure water every day. OF
the 100 square miles of watershed which it
drains, twenty-eight square miles are tribu-
tary to Greenwood Lake, which is a storage
reservoir of the Morris Canal, the waters of
which have to flow almost the whole course
of the stream. The engineer says that the
rights of the canal company on this stream
are important.
The last of these sheds, except the Pequan-
! dOSh3 ID UAAO AlOChdnd1, dDOfS bOOnOOu. Ills
shed has an elevation at its outlet of $50 feet,
and is capable of supplying $4,000, 900 gallons
daily. All its advantages for supplying Jer-
sey City will pure water nave already been
laid before the readers of THE JERSEY City
NEWS, as it is the supply which the Hodg-
kins, Moffat & Clarke Company proposed to
sell to the city about a year ago.
These the report says are the only prac-
teal sources of supply north of the Raritan
water shed which are sufficient for towns of
over 10000 inhabitants, and of these the
Saddle River, Ramapo, Wanaque and Rock
away Rivers are alone available for new
systems of supply of any magnitude. The
aggregate supplying capacity of these
streams is 277, 600, 600 gallons daily, and they
are the sources, the report declares, to which
the large cities must go in order to acquire
ample, independent supplies.
OF DEVELOPMENT.
The Importance of a proper development
of these sources is pointed out. Taking the
counties Hudson, Essex and Union with
Passiac north to and including Paterson and
Bergen northward to Hackensack there will
be found a population all practically depend
ent upon public water supply systems.
The increase in the population of
this section during the past two decades has
been 40 per cent. The consumption of water
in the large cities is above 100 gallons per
capita daily, with a tendency to increase.
Taking his as the rate 1900, 600 gallons
would be required daily, but the actual con-
sumption may be estimated at 10000, 900 gal
Ions in 1890. Increasing at the rate of 40
per cent. this would become:-In 1900, 81
600, 900; 1910, 117,60 0 900; 1920, 1874, 400, 900;
1890, $50, 400, 600; 1910, 322, 900, 600; 1850, 451,
700,0 900 gallons daily. The total supply of
portable waters reasonably accessible to this
district is 400, 000, 600 gallons daily and by
the estimates Of Mr.. Vermeule and his as
sistants this will all be required in about
fifty years which is not a long period for a
State to look forward to.
1.-THE necessity of wise and judicious de-
%velopment of these watersheds" says the
report, for the benefit of all this populous
district, rather than their segregation to the
uses of a few powerful communities is what
these figures seem to teach. The entire
metropolitan population, including the above
and the counties of Kings, New York, Rich
mond, with Long Island City and Newtown,
in Queens County, State of New York, ag-
gregated $3.50, 038 in 1890, and the average
Increase for three decades has been 1922 per
cent.
Estimating an increase of 80 per cent.
per decade, it will reach Il, 349, 900 by 1850,
and will require at least one hundred gallons
per capita $500 square miles of watershed to
supply it. 1t can readily be seen that all
potable waters will eventually become of
great value, and that the question can only
be dealt with as a whole, comprehensively."
NEwARK's NEw SUPPLY.
As there has been a great deal OF discus
sion of the new Newark supply, which comes
from the P~equannock River, through the
plant of the New Jersey Water Company,
and as much has been said as to h e~quantity
of water available from the gathering
grounds utilized by these works, the engi-
neers gave much attention to this phase of
the question. Their Investigations of the
rainfall and stream indicate that they can
at all times depend upon collecting fourteen
inches of the rainfall of the Pequannock,
provided there is seven inches of storage for
all portions of the watershed.
"It will not do to merely provide a total
storage equal to seven inches of rainfall on
the gathering ground, y the report says, "but
storage to this amount must be furnished
for every portion of the area"
is 3d. square miles, and with storage for all
portions of the shed equal to seven inches of
rain there can be collected in the driest year
$4,000, 900 gallons daily. Atpresent 27.6 square
miles of the upper water shed is tributary to
Oak Ridge Reservoir, the capacity of which
equals 5.32 inches thereon. Clinton reser-
voir affords storage equal to 20.05 inches of
rainfall on its SO square miles of water shed,
which makes there a surplus over the needed
amount. Macopin Lake will furnish the
needed amount of storage for its own water
shed of two and one-haif miles. Forty square
miles of the 63.7 square miles are, therefore,
provided with storage and the remaining
23.7 square miles are practically destitute.
During an extremely dry period this %.
square miles viii furnish an average of only
a 60O.O00 gallons daily. and by careful man.