The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-01-30
the new reservoir is not part Of New


the new reservoir is not part of New
ark's prospective plant?
Even though the water company should
be right in Its contentious as to the own
ership of the Canistear reservoir, the
Newark authorities claim that the new
work will become the property of this
city when the plant shall finally come un-
der municipal control and ownership. The
eighteenth section of the contract, which
local officials say covers this point, reads
as follows.-
IN case the entire water supply con
tracted for herein, both for the high and
the low service, shall be taken from the
Pequannock watershed alone, then and in
that case it is understood and agreed by
all the parties to this contract that if the
party of the third part (Newark) shall
exercise the option to purchase provided
for in the ninth section thereof, that
neither the party of the first part the
party of the second part, nor the Morris
Canal and Banking Company will after
| the expiration of the period of eleven
years named in section eleven hereof,
| divert or take any water from the said
watershed above the point of intake es-
tablished for the said city of Newark,
for the use of any other municipality or
city, nor authorize any other person or
persons or corporations SO to do"
AS every drop Of water in the Canis-
| tear reservoir comes from the natural
yield of the Pequannock Valley, it is ar
| gued that the East Jersey Water Com
pany would have no right, under the
| expressed terms of the contract, to draw
from this stored supply after the plant
belongs out and out to Newark On the
of the City Engineer official statements
compiled by the engineers of the East
Jersey Water Company, that go to show
| that before the Canistear reservoir was
| constructed the storage capacity of the
city's plant was inadequate.
Because of this lack of storage facili-
ties, computation designed to show
what the condition of the Oak Ridge and
Clinton reservoirs would have been had
| 50,0o0,O00 gallons day been drawn instead
of the average daily draught of about
| 22,0oO,oO0 gallons, proved by the water
companys own figures, it is contended,
that there would have been deficit and
that this city would have run short of
ed drought.
When the latest phases of the contro-
versy were being presented to the COM
missioners yesterday afternoon by Mr..
Sherrerd, President Stainsby asked the
engineer if any papers had been passed
between the water company and the city
respecting the reservoir work and new
pipe line construction of 1896. Mr.. Sher-
rerd replied that the only document that
had been received was a deed for the
new pipe line on the acceptance of which
the city is to pay $4,000. The engineer
went on to say that as the new conduit
had not been connected with the origi-
nal pipe the work was not considered
finished by him. Then Mr.. Stainsby ex-
planned that the negotiations had been
conducted quietly until they had reached
a point where the commissioners believ-
ed the public should be made acquainted
with just what was going on.
When Judge Blair's attention was
called to the above this morning he said
the only interest Jersey City had in the
matter was in the probable suit to re-
strain the East Jersey Company from de-
livering to Jersey City under the tenn
porary supply contract more than %, 500 600
gallons per day. Jersey City would not
be made a party to the suit, but should
the injunction be granted against the
East Jersey Company the city would have
to pump from the Passaic the difference
between what she needed and $22 SOC, 900
gallons per day.
Mayor Wanser said that he received
Colonel Prices communication some days
ago, but as the matter was row be-
tween the city of Newark and the East
Jersey Water Company he did not see
what interest Jersey City had in the
premises which would warrant her inter-