The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-08-04
PASSAIC FILLING Up
Less Water Along the
Wharves Than There
Was Twelve Years
or So Ago
NEWARK's NEGLECTED RIVER
Silt and Sand From the Sewers
Allowed to Accumulate in
the River Bed.
NEWARK'S NEGLECTED RIVER

the Passaic River restored tosits old depth
They say the city has brought sand and
silt from the streets through its sewers
and deposited IT along their docks, and
they hold that the city should remove the
deposit.
A memorial was prepared last Decem-
Der and the Dock Owners Association
laid it before the Board Of works. The
Board was interested, Instructed City Sur
veyor Adam to prepare an estimate and
agreed that the work ought "a be done.
It was said that it would COST about
Ss,ea. Then an opinion was given that the
Government should be asked to DO il, and
that was the last of it.
Meanwhile the river is filing up year
by year and almost month by month. Men
on the river remember when there was
eight feet of water at the docks at low
tide twelve years ago, where there IS
only four feet now. Only the other day
men at James Sayre, Jr.'s, yard la TO
stay up ali night to keep q barge out in
the stream. Otherwise the boat would
have been on bottom at low tide and
would have been seuttled as the water
rose on the lower side before # got deep
enough to right the craft. When a Ium-
Der schooner comes in at Swain & Jones
and other yards they have to build a scat
fold out twenty feet or so and lighter the
boat until It can be brought to the dock.
All along the river vessels drawing four.
five or six feet can come to the wharf anly
at the tip Of the tide and not then, some
times; for TWO or three tides, If a wester-
" wind keeps the water back
The Government has undertaken to make
l. - --a1- SO g. L. @--4-L
street bridge. falling from that 10 six
feet at Bellevslle. That would lei in a yes
sci at high water drawing fifteen or six
teen feet.
But the dock owners cannot get the
benefit Of that when a vessel drawing
more than ten feet cannot get 70 the dock.
George E. & James CroweII. Swain &
Jones. Ayres, HIATT, Bailey & Avery and
others have all given orders not to load
over ten feet.
Even then they often have trouble.
Boats crate on sandbars, stick IN mud
banks and cannet reach the docks at all.
The dock men say it is the city's fault.
Six sewers come into this part of the
river. bringing sand and gravel after
every rain and dust and dirt all the time.
The sand makes piles at the mouth Of
every sewer. which the city dredges out
I from time 10 time, or the river would be
Ichoked. The silt settles along the docks
mel.
From Ripley's dock down to the gas
| works the cnanne IS close to shore and
scours the deposit so that vessels draw
ing fifteen feet can come to dock. The
river msn say that only proves the trouble
elsewhere should be remedied by the city.
The city does not appreciate the inn
/ p~Ortance of the river" says George W.
Tomkiuss THE Association of Dock Own
ers has real property assessed at 81. 500
GU and personal property worth S3.Ga0, COS
and policemen to watch other places. nat
only gives US less service in return for
the taxes we pay, but dumps it's rubbish
at our DOORS
1.-THE river is our street. said william
A. jones. Elsewhere the city carries the
| garbage way and carts off the street
sWeepings- The same sw~eepingz came own
70 oto our street, and the city does moth
James Highly used a like Illustration.
The City collects the street dirt into
/ windows IN front of my house." he said,
and 1t doesn't expect ne to carry them
away. Why should the city compel us 10
take care of its dirt down here on the
river front, which it has brought from
At Anderson's dock they did not wait
to have the question answered. The ice
barges cannot wait for a lucky tide. So
| the bottom has been drefged cut next ia.
the pier on private account.
Lnrabefiue1 complain that much Of the
Of former wears is lost on ac-
COUNT OF this filing of the river bed.
Newark has enjoyed the same through
rail rate as New York by virtue of the
water competition. and has long been the
DISTRIBUTING point for most of Jersey. as
far as Dover on the Lackawanna. and all
through the Morris and Essex territory.
The. lumber comes from Northern New
York and Canada by canal and the Hud-
son, from Toaawanda, from Maine and
New Brunswick in coast schooners. from
the South by rail or vessel as far as
North Carolina, from Florida ertireIy BIZ
water The long stuff could be handled
a-dNantageously by rail for any distance.
The ana boats and barges get along
well enough-thOugb the big brick barges
carrying 200 or 300 tons often nave trouble
but the schooners do not care to make
q trip from Maine or Florida at such q
light draft and the larger vessels cannot
load that light. Sometimes an order sent
to Savannah or Florida cannot be filed
because there are no vessels that will
take a charter for a ten-foot load. Or az
load has to be made up to deliver part
in New York OF down the pay. which
means extra towns charges Yesterday
with Belgian blocks for the city wharf
and stuck on q shoai almost at high tide,
though her draft was only eleven feet
Now it is a common rule Of Transporter
tfon that water freights govern rail
frefghts. And the rate on coarse goods
n~lsdifies the rate ON the higher classes.
Newark and Essex county therefore owe
a great deal more to navigation on the
Passaic than anybody would suppose who
merely counted the shops any yards
along tho river. Because lumber can come
by water it IS possible to bring lumber
prpfitably by rail. Because there are
competition rates on heavy commodities.
there arc moderate rates on lighter man
u~factures.
"The whole country round Newark
said one O fine lock owners, SIS more
Interested than people think In having
our stream Kept clean
A. H Woodward, who has been on the
river eighteen years. says that there Is
SONG improvement. Since the city is do
I ing 50 much paving in the north end there
Is less sand coming down from the streets.
And he believes the Newark Dredging
ECompany whose sand was recently ruled
on. has dofe the upper river more good
than all the Government work. But he
does not think dredging will do perrnan-
eat good. The dock should be extended
to the 2g8-foot channel and made into
~jetties all the way TO Passaie. he SAYS.
That would confare the river so It would
scour the channel and wou1d shut ia the
Offensive matter that new spreads over
the meadows tn the upy,er river. aIt IS 81
natural sewer he SD sand Why nat
Il should u uuder4tsox mat tic aeptn