The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-01-24

I city is extremely low in comparison wgtf
that OF New York, Brooklyn and other
new City Hall. You will remember thai
when, l entered Office half of the present
about to begin when your Board began
! the agitation which resulted in the pur-
chase Of the whole block upon which
the building now stands. When ! was
confronted with the situation of having
| TO supervise the construction of the most
! important municipal building on site
already. selected. i had hoped to see the
accomplishment of two results-no scan
dal and the. erection of the building
result will soon be an assured fact; the
| first was beyond my control In the light
Of what has happened, 1T would seem
that the misrepresentation made con-
construction had SO disturbed the public
mind that confidence could not have been
verdict of the criminal tribunal But ]
can assure your Board and the public
| for, what it has expended in a public
building than our city has. and that be-
fore being finally accepted and entirely
paid for, any minor defects will be era
| dicated by those responsible for them or
| by the city at their expense The great
| savings accomplished in the water de-
| partments must be source of as much
qualification to our people as the. fact
that it is now on a self-sustaining bas s.
The pumping stations have the appear
ance of a business house and the officials
| have been as much surprised as the pub
| lie at the fact lately made known that
dition, to the magnificent showing made
! in reduced expenses up to a year ago,
and aoars has sapg Been of & thirty fKng h9R the
year just ended; the most noteworthy
part Of which was that upwards Of
had been saved over that Of any pre-
vious, year, Nearly all of the supplies
for the, water department are now pur-
chased by contract, pipe laying has been
done in the same manner with most
and q half miles of water pipe was laid,
five miles,. The developments of the
last few, weeks have fully demonstrated
ply. That result result is to to me matter Of
deep regret for the loss that sour city
has sustained. NY, p2sitio9af has been
tion to the end, and desire to say that
disappointed than. myself if the result
confronted with a grave responsibility
in. the settlement of the city's policy in
whether the small amount Of water that
ter Company shall be taken or rejected.
of discriminating between sections Of
the city made separate from the rest by
accidents, of pipeage. They will have to
most should be afforded partial relief
and whether at their own or at the
Se natuss result has Ia this 5 ssysg
those those who who have 0a advocated e- filtra- hs1
to counsel it's adoption. The advocates Of
filtration of Passaic water at Belleville
lose sight of many items that make its
merely the cost of cleaning and renewing
filter beds that is to be considered. but. it
Is well known that our present mains
across the meadows are insufficient to sup
ply our needs to the extent of the con-
sumption, and that if we are to continue
pumping. at Belleeville another forty-eight
lecting and distributing reservoirs. Our
pumping plant there is over-taxed. and
fully, more extensive repairs would be nee
essary and the addition of a new pump of
at least ten million gallons daily capacity.
Recent studies of filtration show clearly
that this water can best be purified by
sand and gravel filtration, such as would
be capable of filtering about two and
acre of filter bed. Provision must be made
for. beds enough to filter the thirty million
gallons daily which we sometimes use
leave one bed out OF five to be cleaned
while the others are in operation. a.1. will Ire re-
Not less than thirty acres of ground
should be provided for these. beds and fu-
ture growth. and they should be level and
acres Of land now owned by the city will
not answer the purpose. but We will as
sumo that it can be exchanged for other
land suitable for the purpose and we
will not estimate the cost of land. The
only way that the water can be put into
pumnng aT oel plant up then II etting it iow through
the filters and so into the wells of the
present pumps to be again pumped into
careful consideration and from the figures
we have obtained have made our esti-
mates. which I am sure. will 7prove, too
been average figures and also on account
of the unusual bad condt ton of the water
of the Passaic. Our estimates have been
New main across meadows. $500 600
Additions to pumping plant ...... 5000
Special pumps to raise water on
is acre acres 0es Of covered beds at $4,000 80
per acre .......... .......... = ,Oo0,0 ,0Oo
Now. in estimating the expense Of operat-
ing. we will allow four per cent. interest
on this cost, and since We cannot expect
the plant to remain valuable for more
per cent. of deprec ation. making eight
per cent. on the cost in all which will
T'lih fy million N gallons Of water va used daily, or
seventy-three hundred million gallons for
the year. the cost per million gallons on would
ing filter beds. at a low estimate will
be per. m lion ssllons $3.50. The
cost = of pumping the the nl,e water infn mt,
he $780, We still have to operate our
present pumping plant, both at Belleville |
and High Service, costing at the pres
ant rate per million gallons upwards of
$40, making the total cost of fltering the |
Passaic water and delivering it to the
nty SSH per moh 10 be ad9ad from
time to time this cost of $4s per million
gallons will continue no matter how
much water the city uses. Extraordinary |
care must be exercised to see that the |
filter beds are operated every hour and |
the filters to do their work Berlin, Al
tona and other cities have had out
breaks of typhoid fever, and we will be |
omen to the same danger. am satis- /
fed that no saving that we can make at |
Belleville will make filtration as cheap |
ply. It is true that there are several /
filters in the market which,
under certain conditions. do good work. /
but we feel satisfied that none will sat |
isfaetorily purify the Passaic water. My |
position on the matter is the same as
wnen | approved. in the early part of
last year, specifications for the purifica
tion and filtration of the present supply.
The risk must be the company's and I
not the city's. Although there are many |
filter companies in existence not one of /
them came forward in response to the |
invitation of the. city to make "a bid to
purify this water at their own risk. They
are anxious. and some of citizens seem
to be willing that the city should take
the risk and assume the expense of the /
experiment. although they have not suffi-
rient confidence in their plan to take 1t
themselves. This we will never consent
70
We have learned today that the per-
supply contract has been set
aside by the Supreme Court Without