New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-06-01
NUISANCE THAT DEFIES LAW
THE PUTREsCENT MOUNDS ON THE HACK
ENSACK MEADOWS.
TWO LARGE CITIES AND THE TRAVELLERS ON
SEVERAL LINES OF RAILWAY OFFENDED
AND MENACED By MANURE HEAPS,
OVER WHICH THE AUTHORITIES
SEEM TO HAVE No CONTROL

OVER WHICH THE AUTHORITIES
SEEM TO HAVE NO CONTROL.
The cleaning OF the Augean stables was
slight task compared with that which confronts
the people Of Hudson County. and more espe-
c.ay the residents Of Keafny Township where
are the manure mountains along the Pennsyl-
vania Railroad between Jersey City and Newark
Passengers on the Pennsylvania, Delaware,
Lackawana and Western and Erie railroads
catch brief gances of the nauseatng peaks as
they glide past the Pennsylvania roundhouse,
just west of the Hackensack River. The odor
that accompanies the passage precedes the view
and remains with the passengers long after
either of the two cities has been entered.
There two of the manure heaps each of
item about 1000 feet long and from fifty to one
hundred feet wide. In some places the piles are
thirty feet high. From these great masses Of
rotting and putrid matter-a thick. black and
oily nud-drans off and runs to open trenches
that flow into the Hackensack River near the
turnpike road a1ing from Newark to Jersey
City. The foul and offensive odor that arises
from this fluid is almost suffocating. and yet Dr.
James a. EXton health officer Of kearny Town
ship says that the State Board Of Health be-
lieves the owners OF the manure are not main
tanning a nuisance within the meaning OF the
law In IN interview recently with a reporter
for The Tribune, Dr. Exton said that he had
been fighting the Offensive piles ever since the
Kearnv Board Of Health was organized, four
years ago. ordinances had been passed. but APP
parently. he said nothing could be done to make
the owners move the heaps TO some more iso-
lated place
The farmers throughout Jersey and NeT-
York all say that the odor of manure heap Is
- n. ,,Ia hair
source Of supply IS these heaps. they are not
anxious To see II removed to a place where
transportation charges would be greater
The State Board OF HEALTH continued the
doctor Il take it. would be glad 10 abate the
nuisance but apparently they find trouble in
LEGAL definition Of what constitutes nuisance
Il they lived here in Kearny and were subjected,
az we are day and night. to the offensive door
am sure their dictionaries would be cast aside
and they would trust 10 their own sense OF suf-
ferng t. interpret the meaning Of the word.
Or Charles Rattle. deputy County Registrar,
whose oiIic. IL In Harrison said That the con-
t!nucl mail tenance OF the manure mountains
deprecated property values in Harrison to an
incaculablc extent.
the owners are made to see that 1t will interfere
with the profits Of their traction lines, the same
poopl. owning both"
peter J. Goodman, secretary Of the Harrison
Board Of Health. said that the mug piles re
= great nuisance ana datrimcnt - the welfare
- his town. He said that the Harrison Board
hal no Jurisdiction in the matter as the terri
tCrv on which the nuisance IS maintained was
entirely IN Kearny.
Recently the Hudson Comfy Board OF Free
holders had the matter called 10 their attention
IN. Josnnh A Rlordan one Of their members who
lives In Harrison. As a result Of the invesuga-
ton which followed. the ordinances OF the
Kearny Health Board were submitted 70 legal
orlrt1n and the case is now In the courts. The
hudson County Board Of Health has become
Interested. and the president w. W Narick. is
said 70 nave made a personal investigation The
manure heaps, however. still remain. detri-
mont 10 the good comfort and a menace TO the
health Of many thousands Of people.