The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-10-15
COSMOS ::DELUGED.
Engineer Vermeule Tells
Jersey City savants
Something About
Watersheds.
RoCKAW SOURCE THE BEST
obAs ga-s
Best Evidence That the City Did
Right in the Award of the
Permanent Water Sup.
ply Contract.

Washington.
He was there primarily as their guest
and ~econdarily to tell the members anu
their friends something about Inc
Water Question in New Jersey" n ne
wac addressing the right kin OF people
There were present representatives OF IL
val water corporations, city officials pr
vate citizens of the genus Goo GOO, NH
listers of the Gospel, and last OF all, the
chief magistrate himself, Mayor Wahser'
President John A. Walker, whose
SAVIOR fare makes him a charming most,
had Mr.. Vermeule on his right haho anu
the Mayor on his left. Then there caihe
Rev. DR.. Cornelius Brett of Bergen REFORM
ed Church, Rev. Robert Wick, OF Wayne
Street Reformed Church and Kew. f. y
butcher, of Grace Reformed Chulcn'
Messrs. c.. L. Corbin, w. II. Corplh, 6h-
bert Collins, Isaac S.. Taylor, Louis V.boor-
aem, Finance Commissioners John NJ
Jones Warren fH~ardenburgh, Capt. W. n
Hooker, Street and Water commissioner
H. V. Condit, John W. Heck A. CreNei-
ing. Major z. K. Pangborn, c. Harts-
horne. DR.. Noble, F. o. Cole, G. Blau,
II. Holt, L.. H. Ames and Messrs. Heicke
and Secretary Brown.
After a delicious menu, prepared by the
i VI AHA
President Walker rushed through certain
business details and dived headlong into
the water question by introducing Mr.
Vermeule.
That gentleman began with the popula-
tion of the State, showing the increase
within a given time and the NUMBER OF
gallons of water required and used per
capita.
REVIEWING THE WATERSHEDS.
From this. array of figures, useful but
not of thrilling interest, he proceeded to
review the sources from which New der
sev,s supply may be obtained. Briefly,
these sources are the Hackensack, Pas
sale. Raritan, and Delaware Rivers and
the several small coast streams of South
ern New Jersey. The State has practical
control of all these sources, excepting the
Delaware. Mr. Vermetle dealt first with
the most remote gIsources, leaving
the most interesting, the Passaic. the
piece de resistance, until the last.
Asra sort of theorem Mr.. Vermeuie
ELEVATED SOURCES PREFERABLE.
Misunderstanding up the several sources
let me explain briefly that the value OF
a source of water supply depends not only
upon its purity, but upon its elevation. II
it is high enough TO deliver to a city by
gravity there is a large saving by doing
away with the cost of continual pumping,
which ranges through the State generally
from $40 owe $50 for each mlflon gal
Ions IF, besides this cost of pumping, a
nearby source of supply is so polluted or
muddy as to need filtration or other
treatment, it will usually be found
to obtain a pure source of supply which
will deliver by gravity than to pump ana
purify a polluted source near at land
For instance, estimates made by me in
Philadelphia showed that it would in that
case be cheaper to pr IRE a supply from
pumped, than it wo, be to attempt to
purify, the pollutedGse of the Sehuyl-
kill. In general ho5. ! If a source of
supply is at a distance and has also to be
pumpedsthe cost is almost prohibitive,
hence the higher value which I a
placed upon elevated sources in consider
FINEST III THE STATE.
Rapidly ~sketdhtng THE advantages and
Disadvantages of a of the sources
Passaic shed, and of this source he
said
This brings US down to what is by all
tershed of Interstate. h Passaic, in
which you are directly interested. as
you draw from it your present supply
and from its headwaters you propose to
procure a supply which you are war
ranted in expecting to be a very great
improvement. Exclusive of the Rari-
tan the PasSaic has THE largest water
shed of the State, embracing 949 square
miles. Its head waters drain much
more than half of the highland region OF
the State where we find our purest and
most desirable sources of supply avail
able for gravity service. and by a for
tunat coincidence this watershed Us
also the nearest ito THE points of large
demand, namely, Jersey City, Newark
and Paterson. and adjacent towns en-
bracing a population OF 726 Thousand N
called the Metropolitan District of the
State, but perhaps YOU viii prefer une
uTTERIY UNFIT FOR USE.
B%elleville, the point from which
you draw your present Supply, rne las
MIS-, a dry season supply of about 100
million gallons daily, a comfortable
amount # it could be used lse put at any
You probably already know by expert
ence, utterly unfit to be source of supply
for any city. ! have - 90 s,s otssne caile go
the condition of this portion of 1.-THE river
that / shall not dwell further upon it.
specially ssPsn gte slnce wuD EShr e Wiil result s'f It Is
ENTERS 4 PROTEST
However. in favor of the continued use
Of lfhis supply AGAINST which ! must en-
ter "a nrotest. Tt is THAT because There
a,eais been no epideqnic or no serious IN
crease Of typhoid fever and either ~
motto diseases in the past, Therefore, the
1,se of this water is not proven TO be
dangerous. The burden of proof in so
smuortant a matter as this should al
WAYS me the other way When a sup
nIy is known to be 50 seriously polluted
Hhe question should be rather, Has lit
qbeen proven ito be safe? The fact that
more Serious trouble has not been caused
nv the use of this water in the past
does not give us n assurance that the
next twenty-four ho1rrs viii not cause
an epidemic TO develop. especially dur
ing the hot weather. and ! cannot TAIL
to congratulate you that you are soon
Traversing the different branches of
the hig shed, the RamaDo. Wanaque
and Peuuannock. Rivers: Mr.. Vermeule
reached the Rockaway River. from which
the Jersey City Water Company. whose
Nv disappointed rivals IN bidding for the
award, proposes to draw it's supply. he
said
LARGEST GATHERING GROUNDS.
"The next branch southwark is the
Rockaway. This. stream drains above
Boonton Falls rs square miles, and the
elevation at that point is $50 feet, con-
sequentiy st presents by far the largest
gathering ground at SO high an elevation
of any of thegPassa1c ehead waters. The
fact that it is also only twenty-one miles
from tRfsII Hify. is naturally as desirable
as any of the gathering grounds, and is
in no greater danger from pollution,
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