The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-05-29

INDEPENDENT WORKS ADVOCATED

Mayor Hoos has taken up the subject
OF acquiring new, bountiful, cheap sup
ply of pure water. When the Street and
Water Commissioners meet on Tuesday
they will receive from His Honor the fol-
lowing interesting communication on the
subject
May 20, 1897.
To the Honorable the Board of Street
and Water Commissioners
Conference.-The question of obtaining a
permanent supply of good water for this
city is not only of Importance, but that i'm
portance is vital There cannot be any
advance of the city's interests until this
matter is disposed of. The present con-
tract is makeshift, under which the
water rents are unjustifiably oppressive.
The notifications of the contract, made
last April, viii not prove for the best in
terestS of the city, and are, / am advised.
Illegal The objections to those modifica-
uons may be partly stated as follows:-
l. The City agrees to take from the
East Jersey Company water greatly in
ferior to the Pequannock water, at prac
.tiealy the same price.
q. The East Jersey Company must OBJ
tain a supply for Paterson and Passaic,
Montclair, Bloomfield Kearny, Harrison
and Bayonne before September, 1900. This
contract seems to be solely for their
benefit to enable them to obtain supply
for these towns by virtue of the>condem-
nation powers conferred by Jersey City
3 ffjersey City furnishes the Company
the means through this contract of
monopolizing the whole Passaic River in
such way that it can prevent Jersey
City from ever acquiring and owning in
dependent water works.
4. After few years the Company will
control the river, and may increase the
price of water to this City as they see fit
5. In return for all this the City gets
almost nothing. We will have to pump
at Belleville next summer and to take
water from Paterson in 1898. No sub
stantial Improvement in our supply will
be mad for two years.
s. A new and Independent supply free
from the above objections may be OBJ
tanned as quickly as we will obtain Little
Falls water by this contract.
q. Less dangerous and less expensive
temporary measures of relief may be
adopted. and the City. should Immediately
works which 0 may aeesantus be- eventualy wIoer par
chased by the City. No other course is
so Inexpensive and SO safe as this. To
elaborate these objections, the modifica-
with witt the & East east jersey apS'a water r0Hsfaa- com
pany allows that Company to fur
nish supply from the Falls at Pater-
be changed to Little Falls by November
l. 1898. It allows the Company to use the
condemnation powers of Jersey City to
obtain the right to draw this water, and
>.
The great danger of the contract lies in
the fact that in September, 1900, the
Pequannock supply is taken possession of
been installed at Little Falls through the
instrumentality of this contract, and will
be in use not only for the supply of Jer-
Sey City, but "a also to ,a supply Paterson,
Harrison and Bayonne. The aggregate
quantity of water needed by that time by
these places will be 55 million gallons
1af1
crease in ten years from that time or by
1870 these places will need the whole dry
season flow of the Passaic River. The
courts held in the case of Newark, at a
gallons daily that she was entitled to
condemn so million gallons daily, on the
ground that it was reasonable provision
for the future. On the same grounds,
the courts win hold, if this contract goes
into effect, that by virtue of its large use
of water a reasonable provision for the
to the whole flow of the river, and the
result will undoubtedly be that it will
be practically impossible for Jersey City
ever to go to the Passaic, or any of its
branches, and obtain an independent sup
ply of water. This will be true because
it is impossible under the laws of the
State to condemn any municipal water
supply and any small town supplied from
these works, If disposed could prevent
the condemnation of any quantity of
water from the Passaic above. The
seventh section is claimed to cover this
point and secure the City. It does not
do So because the rights of the City will
not be abridged in this case by reason of
this contract, but by reason of the laws
of the State. The almost inevitable re-
suit of this contract, If continued until
1900. or indeed if it ever is allowed to go
in force at ALL will be that the City must
continue to purchase water from the East
Jersey Water Company forever and mas
much as this contract can be terminated
L -. <1J< rf<
soon as they have put themselves in a
position to control the Passaic River, they
will also be in position to charge the City
swhateyer they see fit. What does the
city get in return for incurring this great
risk First, the deduction of s10,43 from
the Con1pany's bills, or an amount which
been contested by the City. Second, it is
true that there is some concession In
price but it is not so great as it first
might appear. The original contract
price was on a sliding scale, and for 2S
million gallons daily it was S37.70,, for
% million gallons daily $780,. for 80 mil
lion gallons daily $685. Under the modified
contract the prices are: For the first year
s37. for the next two years SIG, and for
1900 s35. With our rapidly increasing con-
sumption the price would have. soon be-
come as low under the original contract
as the price in this modified contract. but
It must be remembered that the water is
of greatly inferior quality to that of the
PseiuannoclS stipulated for in the original
contract. Next, the contract does not
give us any relief during the coming sum-
lner as the Company does not agree to
furnish a supply even from Paterson until
November l. 1t is well known that the
water at Belleville is not very objection
able through the winter, and we would be
practically as well off without This con-
tfaet as we will be with it up to the first
lof Jllfy 1895 During the summer of 1898
we will obtain water from the Falls at
Paterson It is well known that the
Paterson Board of Health traced a ty-
.1,laoif1 fever outbreak to this source in the
Summer of 1896 and It is serious ques-
tion whether the relief obtained by pump
ing from the Falls at Paterson is worth
rnxIeh to this city. The water from
Little Falls viii not be available until
November T. 1898. and 1T Is seen, therefore,
that the ultimate relief intended will not