The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-03-08
MIXED DRINKS.
Pequannnck and Kerosene
an Unpopular Beverage
With Consumers.
THE AUST OF THE TROUBLE
Leakage at the Standard Oil
Company's Pumping
Station.

Through the alleged stupidity or care
lessness Of an employee of the Standard
Oil Compan ali that corporations pump
ing station at Newfoundland, a large
number of Newarkers had to take their
drinking water mixed with Kerosene oil
Saturday night. The pollution was also
noticeable in this city and in Harrison
and Kearny, these places being supplied
from the Pequannock Valley also.
Engineer Sherrerd. of the water depart
ment, was at Newfoundland, having gone
there on one of his usual tours of inspec-
ton of the watershed. and about II O'Clock
| at night he was notified by telephone Of
the trouble here. 1t was bright moon
light, and the engineer donned a pair Of
| rubber boats and started out to hunt for
| the cause of the complaints. There were
no traces of oil on the intake reservoir,
/ and no taste of it either. Going along
| the river the engineer tasted the water at
different points, but the tests failed to re-
| veal anything. The search was proseeu-
ed to the pumping station of the oil conf
| pany, which lies near the river, about
three miles above the intakes. There
everything seemed to be in good order.
The result of the trip led Mr.. Sherrerd
to believe that whatever oil had been in
/ the water had either gone through the
| pipes or flowed over the intake dam. 1t
takes the water about twelve hours to
| reach Newark from the watershed, 50
| that it was possible that all traces from
| the reservoir could have disappeared from
! the reservoir before its effect was mont
| tested in Newark. BY telephone the en-
| gineer gave orders to have the water at
| the Belleyille and South Orange avenue
| reservoirs tested. This was done before
| midnight, and no traces of Oil We're then
| to be found at either place.
Sunday the Investigation was continued
in the watershed and it was learned that
oil had been allowed to leak from the
| Standard Company's pumping station
| The c~orapany's pipe line. through Wnich
! oil is pumped from the wells in Pennsyl-
| vania to the seaboard, traverses the
| P~eQuannock Valley. Every thirty miles
| or so the company has a pumping station,
and one of these is at Newfoundland, as
| above stated. The station is arranged SO
thai the pipe line empties into one huge
tank, which is connected with a second
tank from which it is forced on its way
through the conduits.
| From what Mr.. Sherrerd says he learn
| ed. the regular man in charge of The sta
ton was not on duty Friday night and an
inexperienced man was at work IN mas
| place. There is said to be certain amount
| of leakage from the pumps, but the com
pany has the plant so arrang that this
leakage can be turned into one or the
tanks and pumped over again. The man
in charge Friday night. in manipulating
| the machinery, is said to have opened a
wrong valve so that the leakage escaped
into the P-equannock River instead of go
ing into the tank.
Under ordinary circumstances oil Will
/ float ON the surface of water, but the Pc
quannock River has a fall of about 200
! feet between the oil station and the IN
| take. and it is supposed that the churning
that the oil received caused it to become
so mixed with the water that some of the
substances stayed down and passed into
the pipe line. AS near as could be esti-
ma0ed about twelve barrels of oil were
| allowed to leak into the river.
The first traces of the oil at this end
were discovered in the vicinity of the
| South Orange avenue reservoir, between
| five and six O'clock Saturday afternoon.
In a short time the tainted water spread
over the entire high service district,
which is supplied from that reservoir,
and the noxious od0r and disagreeable
taste were prevalent throughout the
upper section of Newark, from the south
ern border line to Forest Hill. Toward
midnight the polluted water found its
way into some of the pipes fed from the
BeIleville reservoir, but in the lower levels
of the city's distributing system the pollu-
| ton was scarcely noticeable.
- 49, >-1 n1.&-@
Hill sections the water was so foul that it
could not be used. Clerk Greathead of the
Board of Works, who lives on Milford
avenue, says the pollution was very no.
ticeable in that end of Newark also. 1t
was brought to Mr.. Greathead's attention
| by the tea which had been served with
his evening meal. The beverage had a pc
euliar taste. he said, ana. a second lot was
brewed with the same result before it was
discovered that the water was to blame.
A neigabor of Mr.. .Greathead's called his
attention later to a glass of water which
had been drawn on which traces of oil
were clearly visible.
Many other families experienced similar
difficulties. and in numerous instances
-hodsekeepers boiled the water before u.s.
ing it for potable or culinary purposes.
In some sections yesterday traces of pol
luton was still discernible. but in a less
| marked degree than the night before, and
even this morning complaints were made
to the Water Department of oily water in
some parts OF the high service district.
This was attributed to the fact that some
of the water might have laid in the mains
in places where the consumption was ex-
tremely light Saturday night and Sunday.
Men were sent yesterday to the IocaIi-
ties where the pollution had been most
noticeable, to flush the fire hydrants, in
the nope that all traces of oil might be
driven from the mains.
The attention of the East Jersey Water
| Company has been called to the leakage
of oil, and an effort Will be made to have
the oil pumping station removed from the
watershed. The local authorities contend
that the station comes under the head
of a ..-prcventable source of pollution
and the claim is made that under the
7 contract the company must remove all
such places from the watershed.
Professor George c. Som, of the High
School, who lives at No. 2So Belleville
avenue, Newark, says that he noticed a