The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-05-18

VIII pass through a tunnel one mile long
with capacify of So million gallons
From the eastern portal of tunnel the
line will run through As inch pipe to High
Service reservoir, connecting with reser-
take the water will be carried to the
Beach Glen connection. To deliver so
million gallons daily another pipe will
City. All dams are to be erected in most
approved manner
Proposition No. is the condemned
scheme of collecting the water at Boon
ton. For plant capable of delivering
thirty-hve million gallons daily $6,2 900
is asked. With facilities for delivering
fifty million gallons daily Sc, $4,000 is
asked 1t is only few months ago that
this same company offered the city a
plant equal to delivering fifty million
gallons of water daily taken from this
same source for s., ,9000 900, or about 81, ,000,-
GOO less than it asks now This is thought
peculiar, as the specifications are admit.
ted to be easier for a contractor than the
old ones were. Accompanying this heavy
increase in the purchase price is a raise in
the price per million gallons. For twenty
millions daily $36 is asked; for thirty
$Ss; for forty, $50; for fifty, $27. The com
pany's outline of this plant was as fol-
lows
Under this plan the water is to be
taken from the Rockaway River and the
head of the water power of the J, Couper
Lord estate, at Boonton, erecting a ma
sOnry dam at an elevation above tide of
something over ASS feet. Rockaway Val
ley has a yield of 7S,0000 900 gallons per
day, with draft of II inches on water
shed. Possible sewage from Dover and
RockaWay. the only two points of pos
sible danger from pollution, where the
intake IS to be guarded against by an
n 70TAfi
rified pipe and which is to land the
sewage at a point below the intake Iso-
lated cases of nuisances are to be remov-
| ed outside the limit of possible contanli-
nation or connected with the sewer.
| From the intake the company proposes
| to carry pipe lime to a combined stor-
| age and distributing reservoir, to be To-
| Gated near the ravine or gorge about a
mile north of Monteville station and
| three miles northeast of intake at Boon
| ton Surface elevation of water in the
| reservoir at Monteviiie to be about 455
! feet, or 80 feet below the head of the dam
| at intake. Depth of water in reservoir
| to average so feet, and at the dam to
| exceed so feet. Dam TO have a length
of about 1,500 feet storage capacity of
reservoir upwards of 1900 million gallons,
and win furnish a supply above the level
| OF the draught of over 40 days. This
reservoir will have a local drainage area
| of about 7-10 square miles of rough
mountain land. Thirteen miles of this
| local water shed will furnish in itself Gil
million gallons, and the reservoir as sit
| gated IS capable of receiving the surplus
| flow Of the whole Rockaway Valley wa
| tefshed of us square miles, which will
fill it in a very few days in the rainy
season. The company also proposes to
provide storage reservoirs in the upper
valley of the Rockaway in ordnr to Sc
| cure ample storage capacity to maintain
the contract flow of 35 or so million gall
Ions per day in the dryest period. The
sites for these reservoirs are at .Rocka-
way Valley, two miles northwest Of Boom
toni capacity, 1900 million gallons; Dix
on's Pond, capacity, 500 million gallons;
Beach Glen, capacity, 1000 million gall
lons; Longwood Valley, 5000 million gall
Ions.
The advantages of this plan are
l. Point of intake is nearest point to
Jersey City, where d gravity supply
which can be delivered at head of 2l0
feet at High SerVice, can be found in.
New Jersey.
2. The riparian rights of Couper-Lord
estate, which it is proposed to vest in
Jersey City, control by their position the
entire flow of the Rockaway River above
Boonton. These rights are prior to those
held by the Morris Canal and Lehigh
Valley Railroad and have been acknowl-
edged by them so to be.
g. The storage and distributing reser-
voirs at Monteville are of such capacity
and SO located that the draught from the
main river into it can be used at most
advantageous periods for securing pure
and wholesome water and avoid drawing
upon the river during the spring freshets
or after storms following protracted
drought.
A. By additional pipe lines the supply
can be increased to at least rs, 600, 900 gal
Ions per day.
Upon the motion of Commissioner
Kaiser the proposals were referred-to the
Committee of the Whole, Commissioners
Heintze voting against such course
being pursued. Commissioner Kaiser
said that the reference was made that
the law officers might examine the docu-
ments and report as to their formality
At this juneture Clerk Bouton was
directed to read the communications
from the East Jersey and Jersey City
Water Companies. The East Jerseys
letter read
To the Hon, Beard of Street and Water
Commissioners of Jersey City
The East Jersey Water Company has
on four different occasions presented bids
to Jersey City for a permanent water sup
ply, and desired and expected once more
to present several alternate bids under
the specifications recently adopted by the
city; put after mature consideration is
compelled to refrain from doing so.
The specifications are in several par
ticuiars so needlessly onerous and involv-
ing risks so unnecessarily great that we
cannot sign a contract based upon them.
AS we were invited to examine the
specifications before their adoption and
offer suggestions, and did So We assume
that the City expected US to bid, and we
therefore, think it proper that we should
state the reasons for our declination at
this time, which are the following:
F1rst-The specifications provide that
storage reservoirs must be cleared of
vegetation.
A large reservoir properly and thor
oughly constructed in the ordinary man-
ner, without removing the sod, roots, etc,
being the method followed by New York
City and other cities, would cost in the
Passaic Valley 500 to 5000 per million gall
voirs of 5000 million gallons would cost,
say 900 to 81, 100000. But if It is in
tended to strictly enforce the above spec
ification, and require the vegetation to be
entirely removed, aus has been done in
exceptional cases, the entire surface of
the ground must be removed to the depth
OF foot or more, which would raise the
cost to about $500 per million gallons.
or IS, COO, for the above single item of
storage reservoirs. Some reservoirs thus
built have cost from $500 to $3.50 per mill
ion. gallons.
Your specifications strictly interpreted
involve all vegetation, and might be s.
enforced to the ruin of any contractor
Second-7It is specified that the con-
tractor must agree to prevent during the
ling with the water OF vegetable on
chemical wastes, decaying animal or veg
etable matter. sewage, the teachings Of
manure heaps, or artificial impurities az