The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-06-28
HOME OF MALARIA
Geological Board Discusses
Drainage of the Upper
PasSaic.
THOUSANDS OF ACRES UNDER WATER.
The Inundated Tracts a Menace
to the Health and Prosperity
of That County.
THOUSANDS OF ACRES UNDER WATER
Special to the Jsrseu ctu Ns,rs.

Special to the jersey CUy wears.
TRENTON, June 90, 1S94-The new Board
Of Managers of the Geological Survey held
an important meeting in the Governors
room Tuesday afternoon. This was the first
meeting Of the managers under the law
passed by the last Legislature reorganizing
| the board. The board was originally COM
| posed of two members from each Congress
! sional district, and several vacancies had
| occurred. These have been all filled and all
! the managers were present at Tuesdays
meeting
The first business considered was the act of
the last Legislature directing the examina'
ton of the forestry of the State with a view
of establishing a policy of forestry manage
ment. The object of that act was to put
New Jersey IN line with New York and
Pennsylvania in the matter of scientific
methods in forestry management, as it
affects the water, agricultural and timber
supply of the State.
The board authorized the State Geologist
to employ competent assistants to make a
detailed survey of the existing forestry of
the State as a preliminary step in the inves
tigation.
DRAINAGE OF II E SWAMP.
1IOtu6I lulUUI udAUi llhbbol COlo4uC on vas
the possible notifications of the plans for
the drainage Of the wet lands in the Passaic
Valley between Little Falls and the source
of the Passaic River in the great Morris
county swamps, west of Morristown. This
matter is of the utmost importance to the
people of the northern tier of counties, as
the State Board of Health was inclined to
the theory that in this swampy region is
bred the malaria with which some localities
in that part of the State are afflicted. A
year ago a committee was appointed to in
auire into the question and submitted to
Tuesdays meeting a long report. The
paper aroused much interest and 1t is be-
lieved will lead to a reconsideration of the
whole question of the sanitary improvement
of the valley.
The report says that by the conditions OF
the present legal plan an agreement entered
into July 2, 1883. between the owners of the
dam at Little Falls and the commissioners
appointed to execute said plan, the owners
Of the dam were required to provide a food
gate for the discharge without passing 1t
over the DAM, of a large volume of water.
The committee recommends that three
gates. each ten feet wide and sixteen feet
deep, be substituted in the plan.
Touching the general question of the scope
and sufficiency of the present plan of drain
age to produce the important results aimed
1t in the original plan of 1871, the committee
guardedly expresses the opinion that disap-
pointinent will probably ensue unless a more
comprehensive and liberal treatment of the
scheme of improvement is adopted. The
problem to be solved is the effective unwat-
ering and reclaiming of 29,609 acres or 46
square miles of land which may be made
valuable for agricultural purposes.
OF these wet lands SOB acres are at Two
Bridges, 4,0S9 at Pine Brook, 3,1l7 at Chat
am, 4,354 at Wilmington and 1854 at the
head of the Great Swamp, making 22. 523
acres in the Passaic Valley. Then tEere are
LAO acres in the Wy Meadows at Pompton
Plains, 5,267 acres at Whippany and in the
Rockaway Bottoms at Troy, Black Meadow
and Lee Meadows, and 378 acres in the
Deepavaat Meadows.
TO LITTLE FALLS DAM.
The committee says it notes that the orig
inal plans had no reference to the drainage
of the wet land of the Passaic Valley above
Chatam, 1,475 acres in extent, and including
the Great Swamp; that in the initiation of
that plan it was deemed necessary to do
away with the dam and water power at Lit
tie Falls, so that the food water might pass
that point without encountering any art1-
fetal barrier, and that the retention of the
dam with proper food gates was part of a
compromise.
Then the report goes on to say that the
committee is satisfied hat for the preserva-
ton of the water power at Little Falls, a
dam of proper dimensions at that point,
with proper and sufficient food gates at
tached thereto affords the best practical
means for passing off flood waters with the
least delay, while retaining such control of
them as will prevent destructive ~inundation
at points down stream where valuable prop