The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-09-29
LARGE RESERVOIR
East Jersey Company's
Big Work at Great
Notch.
WHERE WATER IS PUMPED
Comes From Little Falls
For Distribution.

| ter C0pany at Little Fails, says Ane sun
day Call The reservoir at Great Notch
which is a part Of the plant. is now about
half done. The expectation Is that TINS
part of the plant will be completed py
Christmas. and early next year the Whole
plant will actually be in use.
The Little Falls pumping station has
| practically been ready for use for two
months past, though no use has been
made. of it. Employees of the company
say that water could rave been pumped
into the various mains leading to Newark
and Jersey City at any time during that
| period on short notice. One of the pumps
has been in use a portion of the time,
but only for the purpose Of smoothing
down its parts. Only a small quantity OF
water has been pumped. and this has
been turned into the river again below
the pump house.
The capacity of his pump is ten million
gallons daily. The painters are now az
work painting the iron parts, but II Il
should be necessary to put the pump INTO
| actual service, the painting could be post
poned. Work on two other pumps IS far
| advanced. One has a capacity OF ten
million and the other twenty million gall
Ions daily. These pumps will be ready Tor
use by November, or, in emergency,
sooner. There is still a fourth pump to
be erected. It viii have a capacity OF
twenty million gallons daily. In the boiler
house the five big $50 horse power Heine
safety water tube boilers are in place and
all ready for use. The workmen are put
ting the finishing touches to the interior
arrangements. The gate houses and the
raceways have all been completed several
months. There is a small force of men
at work outside, cleaning up the grounds
and finishing the slopes 50 as to have
everything shipshape.
The active work is now being done at
the storage reservoir at Great Notcn-
This is located not more than 300 yards
north of the main road leading through
the Notch, and exactly in the highest
point in the mountain.
The reservoir is to be in a natural basin
in the top Of the mountain. The eastern
retaining wall to the reservoir. II such It
can be called, is the eastern spur of the
mountain toward Upper Montclair, and
the western retaining wall, a spur to-
ward Little Falls.
A natural crevice is thus formed; near
the southern end of the proposed reservoir
the bare rocks rise on both sides to a
height of 100 feet. The space between the
rocks is about 800 feet. 1t is here that the
dam is being erected. Back from the dam
toward the north the ground Will De
flooded for a distance Of 100 yards. The
reservoir win vary in width from 100 yards
to 400 or 500. The ground shelves gradu-
aily from the site of the dam down to the
head Of the reservoir. At the dam and for
200 or 900 yards back, the depth of water
in the reservoir will be seventy feet.
There is an Old road running directly
through the centre of the reservoir site
that connects with a road on top OF the
mountain to Paterson. The road was sell
dom used, and it will now pc apan-
doned.
The r. A. Gillespie Company, OF Pitts
burg, have charge of the work on me
reservoir for the East Jersey Water COM
pany, and they are pushing 1t in their
customary style. From the high ground
on either side of the reservoir the place
looks like a veritable bee hive. There are
half a dozen stationery engines Whlcn
furnish power for the big steam cranes
travelling shovels and drilling tools. me
exhaust from these engines and the
hoarse cries of the men in charge OF the
teams makes a perfect bedlam.
There are six hundred men at work, the
laborers being mostly Italians, and sixty
teams. The dam is about half completed
The masonry core is being constructed.
1t was put forty feet under ground to
bedrock. AT the eastern end the core was
extended to the side of the bluff two
hundred feet to bedrock, and there the
anchor is being built. On the west end Of
the dam, the rock is all exposed. AS rap
idly as the core is erected the dirt IS
filled in on either side and pounded down
so as to make the filing water tight.
There are several men with hose moisten-
ing the earth as it is DUMPED on the dam.
Half a dozen heavy two-horse rollers are
passing constantly back and forth over
the surface to pack it down solid, and the
teams are going and coming with the
loads of earth. The scene is a busy one
The dam, when completed, will be nearly
three hundred feet long, seventy feet high,
and at tn base two hundred and sixty
feet broad. The face on both sides is be-
ing covered with rip-rap.
The gate house will be located or the
eastern side of the dam. The foundations
for the gate house are now being laid.
Men are at work blasting out the rock.
There will be two big gates, one with Q
capacity sufficient TO feed a forty-eight
inch main. and the other a thirty-six inch
main. The big steel pipes for the gate
connections are now on the ground ready
to be put in place.
Over the area to be flooded there IS a
large force of men at work. All the trees
and s~hrubbery have been removed, and
men with plows and teams are at work
leveling off the slopes, and making the
surface ready for the storage Of the water.
IT is a fact worthy of comment that the
East Jersey Water Company will clear
the reservoir site completely. Not q yes
tige of vegetation will remain, and all
the roots of trees will be removed. There
will be no shallow fowage as there Is In
the big storage reservoirs erected by the
company for Newark. The company
claims, however, that the conditions are
not the same. The Great Notch reservoir
is for storage only; the water from the
reservoir will be turned directly into the
pipe lire from the reservoir, and there will
be no chance for publication. In the New
ark works the water from the Pequan-
nock storage reservoirs has an oppor-
tunfty to he purified before It enters the
Macopin intake.
The ompan Is pushing work on the
nine lfua from Little Fails. The nine IS