The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-10-09
The passaic Water supply.

LLLTO0AV. there OiN Z
about the water question. The town OF
Kearny demands to be liberated from It's
contract with Jersey City. Its officials
saw the Passaic water is mot fit to
commit suicide in" They declare that
the cattle refuse to drink it, and they
assert that it has killed the grass where
it was used for sprinkling. The people
of. Kearny live on the banks of the Pas
sale, and they ought to know something
of the condition of the river.
But 7the Kearny people make one still
more important assertion. They say that
the water has not improved since the
RANT
This assertion. is at on:e true and false
It is false SO far as the smell and flavor
of the water are concerned. When we
had that eight weeks drought in July
and August, the water in the Passaic
shrank to a mere fraction of its usual
volume. No water came over the falls,
and only a slender, inky stream flowed
GOWN the runway II v
river at low water was several feet be-
low it's average. and mud banks, usual
" covered, purified in the sun
and when the tide rose again
helped to poison the water. The
water as it went into our reservoirs
was a solution of city and factory sew
49, - L:-LJx, concentrated form
Since the rain, the solution is diluted.
Five hundred million gallons of water
q day flow down to the sea, and even
If the same sewers keep on pouring their
vileness into the river, the percentage of
contamination in each gallon which
reaches our reservoirs and our homes
is enormously reduced. Thus it happens
that the water now is very fair to the
taste and inoffensive to the sense of
smell
But from a medical point of view,
Kearny is right. The water is as bad as
ever. Whatever disease germs have ex-
listed in it are there still, and for pur-
poses of infection it does not much mat
ter whether bacteria run one million or
ten millions to the gallon. The result is
about the same for the people who drink
the water unboiled. And that the water
is terribly disease breeding is steadily
becoming a proven fact, not a theory.
Yesterday, for the first time, the in
formation leaked out that typhoidal dis
ease has been almost epidemic in this
city all summer. In view of the allega-
tions of conspiracy that are so eckless-
ly scattered, it is strange that the highly
sensational facts of the situation ave
lain dormant. At st. Francis Hospital,
the sisters say the disease is decreasing
now. 1t is natural it should in this cool,
clear weather; but even yet there are an
unusually large number of typhoidal
cases in the Hospital. The disease, hap
PLY, does not assume a virulent form
as a rule; but it's character is unmis-
taxable. There have been times in the
last three months when there were
twenty-five typhoid patients at one time
in the hospital. AT Christ Hospital, there
are today twelve typhoid cases. One
patient is likely to die. There have been
admitted to the hospital since July 1,
fifty typhoid patients, of whom three
have died. A rough estimate iof the
present state ofsthe citybindicates that
HE -- fG[ EF tIi- ~ 81 8AlL L ZtttlN VT
there are at leastof fifty leases of typhoid
now under treatment b, the doctors Of
this city in the homes of lthe patients y
This is a9fearfnl9 showing. 1t throws
a serious responsibiitysupon the shoul-
ders of those gentlemen who have as
sumed the role. of obstructive towards
the enterprise of procuring a new sup
ply. 1t is true that we may not in years
have again such a drought as that of
this summer but the quantity of sewage
poured into the Passaic increases daily
as. population flows upon it's banks, and
an outbreak of virulent zymotic
disease may occur any summer
The water supply is a detriment
to the city in every way. 1t
impedes its growth by preventing people
from coming to live here and keeps
down the value of real estate by scar
ing population away. 1t is time some
a. ox,n ,botYf ~ -