The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-08-08
would afford an equable flow the year

would afford an equable flow the year
rounds
While the water is practically pure to-
day, the committee had grave appre-
hensions for the future. How the Di-
rectors proposed to keep the sewerage
of Dover and other towns from running
into the river the committee did not
know. The towns of Rockaway. Denville
and Boonton also drained into the Rock
away Valley, and would form problems
for engineers. $ SIS
DR.. L. J. Gordon made a brief report
as member of the committee.
The river passes Denville and Boonton,
which are large towns. and minor places
like Port Dram. Mount Tabor, Denville,
Rockaway and Mount Hope where the
summer residents largely increase the
population at time when the water is
lowest
In 1876 this question of water supply
based on the Roclzaway river was
mooted, and at that time the water
west of Boonton deteriorated to a condi-
ton almost as bad as the present con-
ditfon of our water at the Belleville in
take
"Dover is now emptying eleven pub
lie and private sewers into the river,
and thirty-two outhouses are planted on
the shore $ If a reservoir is
placed at Boonton we will get the sewer
age of Dover and store it at the in
take drain 1t will not even be dis
seminated''
In the course of the meeting a re-
port was read by Secretary TAFT of which
Expert Lebbeus B. Ward was the author
In this document Mr. Ward said
"In making an exchange, if Jersey City
is obliged to obtain its present source of
supply-which in point of volume and
accessibility has an undoubted advantage
over all others-the sanitary quality of
the water supply must be the considera-
ton of first Importance. In this respect
the Rockaway River is an unsafe source
of supply. being tapped at many points
below the town of Dover.
'It is true that at present Dover does
not possess a system of sewerage. Its
population is. however, between three
thousand and four thousand. 1t is pro-
vided with public water supply and it
is inevitable that in the future, at some
not distant date, a system of sewers will
be constructed
1t is argued by the friends and pro-
motors of the present scheme that either
the sewerage will be insufficient to ma
terially contaminate the stream, or that
some means will be provided or some
method be put into operation, such as
intercepting sewers. delivering at a point
in the valley below the intake. or in lieu
thereof some method of sewerage puriff-
cation, whereby the injury to the water
would be prevented or minimized.
The answer to this is that, if Jersey
City, which located its water works
by the express direction of the Legis-
lature upon the Passaic at Belleville in
| 1852. (when that river was as free of
sewer contamination as the Rockaway
is now) has found itself unable to pre-
vent the direct pollution of that stream
by the recent discharge into it of the
sewage~of the city of Passaic or to
control the action of that city by any
10
riparian proprietor or as the tenant of a
riparian proprietor upon the Roc1away,
will not enable it to restrain or coeree
the town of Dover in a similar case
1.-THE danger of sewer contamination
is not confined to Dover only. The argu-
ment will apply equally to the towns of
lie upon the Rockaway River above the
point OF intake"
President Dear suggested a vote of
thanks to Mr.. Ward and the motion was
made and carried. {,
=
| President Dear called Mr. Carscallen
to order and a debate followed as to
the relevancy of the question. At its
close Captain White, the Seligman's en-
gineer, said, in part the firm he repre-
sented was here ready to spend five
million dollars.
Mr. Corkran:-"will you put in sewers
at Dover and Boonton?v
white:-"Yes. We will catch the sew
erage and destroy it by evaporation
and burning"
Flemming:-''w What would it cost to
make an intercepting sewer all the way
! along the river?"
white:-"About million dollars
President Dear:-"What will you do
with the Hibernia sewerage?"
White:-"We will evaporate it. But we