The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-08-08
Rock.way ana Hudson Drawbacks

Rockaway and Hudson Drawbacks.
Even the Evening Journal" will con-
cede. we presume, that no bargain is
cheap which is inextricably tangled up
in lawsuits. and where the thing pur-
chased is in danger of becoming too bad
to use.
There are only two objections to the
Rockaway and Hudson water proposal
at least only two occur to US at TINS
time. One is that the company has no
water to sell us and cannot get any
without ten years Of litigation. the
other is that the water which II pre-
tends that it can sell us is liable to be-
come in a few years as bad as that of
the Passaic. If it is to be saved from
deterioration it must be at our expense
and by our effort. and that expense and
that effort are not merely liabilities of
today, but hang over US as long as we
continue to use the river, extending and
expanding in onerousness year after
year, as the population of the Rockaway
Valley and its towns and v-illages-Dover,
Rockaway.. Denville, Mount Tabor and
the like, grow and prosper with the ad-
vancing years.
Within a few years. we have been IN
volved together with Newark, in a
most expensive and burdensome law SUIT
to prevent the discharge of a great
trunk sewer for the City of Passaic into
the river of that name. In this litigation.
Newark and Jersey City were hopeiessly
beaten. We are unable to restrain Pat
1erson, Passaic, the Oranges n other
towns n cities from vomiting filth
into the stream only a few miles from
bur intake at Belleville. We are not
able even to close up the drains Of the
mills and factories which line the banks
of the river. When the Belleville works
were erected, it was never imagined
that this difficulty would arise. Not
the most far-seeing man in Jersey City
suspected that in a few years they would
avail only to Jump sewage into our
homes.
If we adopt the Rockaway River at
Boonton as a source of supply we rush
blindly into the same mistake that our
fathers made at Belleville, but with less
excuse, for we rave their example to
warn us. No man can prophesy as to
the future of that valley. Those of us
who are not very old today may live to
see it TEEN with life ana activity, and
its stream contaminated by the exuvia
of population. as is the fate of every
river draining an inhabited region. Can
we hope, when this comes to pass, to re-
strain the acts of the cities and towns of
that region. to do with them what we
cannot do with our own near neighbors
on the Passaic? Is it not certain that
anything that is lone must be at our
be appraised. and it is more than doubt
full If we will be permitted to control the
affairs of other towns. even though We
be inclined to foot the bill. This one of
the desperate dangers of the Rockaway
and Hudson scheme. No plan could be
cheap with such an element in it. 1t
would be cheap to pay two millions of
dollars now. just to eliminate this ces-
tain evil of the future.
But has the Rockaway and Hudson
Company any water to sell Jersey City?
It would seem that none can be relied
on. All Its claims are based upon the
title of the j. Copper Lord estate at
Boonton. At the public hearing afforded
the company by the Street and Water
Board on Juiy "a, all the weakness Of
its position was exposed. The Morris
Canal has, to all intents and purposes,
an indefeasible claim on the water at
this point. 1t has to be kept filed up
even though the Copper Lord concern
has to shut down its works. Another
thing was brought out and that was
that the water, even after passing
through the Copper Lord works, returns
II the canal, and when the canal is
filled to the limit required the water
is then turned into the Rockaway River
again. So little is the water supply
owned by the Copper Lord estate to
be relied upon, that he worries are pro-
vided with steam power.
Here is a second element of danger in
the Rockaway and Hudson plan, and the
danger threatens just when every gallon
of water is most precious. in seasons
of drought. No doubt in the season of
spring freshets. the could sup
ply sufficient water for Jersey City's
use. The question is. Where would it
stand in Angus. and September when
water is scafce. when the Rockaway
often degenerates to a mere BROOK,
barely sufficient to feed the Canal, which
must always be fed7