The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-10-18
WATER SUPPLY.
Board of Street and Water
Commissioners Adopt
Plans and. Speci-
fications.
THREE PROPOSALS FOR BIDDERS
Minimum Daily Supply to Be
Not Less Than Twenty
Million Gallons.
Reservoirs and Intakes to Be Lo-
Gated in the State-Financial
Requirements and Genef-
al Stipulations.

The street and Water Board at their
meeting this afternoon accepted the plans,
specifications ana proposals for new
water supply for Jersey City as prepared
by Engineers yermeule and Ferris
Briefly there are three plans respective
Is. A, B and for a gravity supply
delivered at the Bergen Reservoirs. The
first Is for supply for 5o,ooooVo gaiions
daily at head of 210 feet.
Plan provides for a 7O,oOo00O gallons.
supply IS, ,0OO 900 at a headeof 210 feet and
81. 600, 600 at 127 feet.
Plan is for daily supply OF f0,Wo'Voo
at a head of 127 feet. two pipes
These plans differ greatly from those at
first submitted and the notifications ana
changes are the result of suggestions
from the Mayor and the Commissioners,
who have given much thought to them.
AS they stand they are considered by
competent hydraulic engineers to be ex-
ceedingly fair and to ensure the city's in
terests in way not previously attained
in previous specifications. The officials in
every way tried to avoid possible Htlga-
tion and difficulties.
Entering more into the details OF the
plans. the first one, A, calls for delivery
OF not less than 50. co., 900 gallons daily into
the High Service reservoir at a pressure
equivalent to 30 feet head above mean
high tide. ThereSis to be on conduit OF
steel or masonry sufficient to deliver the
volume of water required.
In the second plan, for the delivery,
first, of g., 100000 at the Bergen reservoirs,
a steel conduit having that capacity is
required. All necessary gatehouses must
be provided and connections for two steel
pipes The head pressure of the fyst must
be 210 feet and the second at LIZ feet. Ihe
lands, water rights and easements neces-
sary for the city to use 7o0oe,000 daily un-
der this head must be secured.
The third section plan provides for
srassts supply 2T-feet head above mean
high tide. and the works must be con-
strueted with storage and intake for col
lecting and delivering 35O00,000 gallons in
a single pipe or 35, 100000 by tunnel. The
contractor in all three cases must be able
fc furnish as the minimum quantity per
day 20, ,oo0, 900 gallons. The minimum was
originally fixed at 25, 100000, but this was
changed.
A certified check of 100000 must accom-
psny each bid, and the contractor who Sc
cures the contract must furnish a bond to
the city in 100000.
Next comes the quality of the water
to be furnished, and the city insists that
1t must be pure and wholesome. To
guard against pollution, the plans say
that if the villages and towns of Port
Dram, Dover, Reckaway, Boonton, Butler,
Bloomingdale Pompton, in New Jersey,
or Suffern, Hillburn or Tuxedo, In New
York shall establish streams containing
deleterious matter near any of the works
of the city prior TO the pur-
chase of the same by Jersey CITY
the Hudson County Health Board shall
give the contractor notice to prevent sucn
pollution Should the contractor fail to
do SO within thirty days after such notice
has been given then the city shall require
him to construct trunk sewers to inter
cept such polluted streams and convey
them off the gathering grounds, or else
he must construct works for the disposal
of the sewage.
The bidders are required to state the
price the city may purchase the water
works at the expiration of five, ten or
fifteen years from the date of the con-
tract. and the city must, If it proposes to
buy the works. give at least one years
notice of its intention to do the same.
After providing for the payment of the
water, the quantity of which taken daily
by the city must be measured by the con-
tractor the plans demand that the In
takes. conduits and reservoirs must all
be within the State Of New Jersey. The
contractor is further enjoined from fur
nishing water to any consumer of Jersey
Citys water supply.
Jersey City gives the contractor two
years and six months in which to finish
the works, beginning from the date OF the
signing of the contract. For every day
beyond that the contractor must pay $500
to the city as liquidated damages The
city will exercise its right of eminent do
main and win give power to the con-
tractor to use such lands and streets for
the purpose of laying and maintaining
the conduit from the Passaic River to.
the Jersey City water works.
Now for the specifications. They re-
quire that the drainage area or catch
ment shall have an area equal to that of
the maximum quantity of water called
fos and may be obtained without exceed
ing draft of 666,000,0O0 gallons for each
square mile of catchment. The storage
capacity will be taken to be the capacity
between the level of waste weir and low
est level to which the reservoir can be
drawn through effluent pipes. For, say
the specifications, If the storage capacity
shall exceed 150,000,000 for each square
mile of drainage area tributary to the
reservoir, then the available quantity of
effective capacity of the reservoir will be
taken as eo,0Oo,oOO gallons for each square
mile of drainage area
The reservoirs, the specifications say,
must be cleared of any matter, whether
animal or vegetable, and there must be
a clear space around the water line of
the reservoir of not less than go feet As
for the depth of the reservoir it must be
feet below full water level through rs
per cent. of the entire area.
The conduit capacity rivetted steel,
must be determined by the Kutter for