The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-10-18
WANT NO SEWAGE
State Pilotage Board Will
Protest Against the Pol
ution Of Staten Is
land Sound.
PRESIDENT CHASE'S VIEWS
He Speaks of the Injurious Eff
feet a Sewer Outlet Will
Have on Adjacent
Industries.
PRESIDENT CHASE'S VIEWS

Pilotage have taken up the proposal Q
the New Jersey State Sewerage Commits
sion to place an outlet in the Arthur XII
near Elizabethport. The sewer will con
meet the sewerage system of several cen
trail and northern cities. In Jersey Cit,
a few days ago the Pilotage Commits
sioners met and having inspected tn
locality where it is proposed to make tn
outlet, discussed the project thorough,
and unanimously agreed that cremation
of the sewage matter was preferable Il
the pollution of the waite of the Arthur
Kill. They therefore passed these reso
lutions:-
Whereas. 1t is mooted that the New
Jersey State Sewerage Commission is
preparing plans with view of placing
the outlet of a large trunk sewer (con-
| meeting with the sewerage system of
several central and northern cities) in
the Arthur Kill, near Elizabsthport.
and
Whereas, In the opinion of this
Board the discharge Of solid matter
from such sewer would be detrimental
to the navigation, commercial inter-
ests. oyster interests, fisheries, ETC., OF
the water of Arthur Kill or Staten Is
land Sound; be it
Resolved, That the president of this
board be and is hereby requested to
$3.50
Sewerage Commission, at it's office,
Fuller Building, Jersey City, N. j.,
with view of opposing the discharge of
n solid matter into the waters afore-
said.
The raison d'etre of the Commissioners
action was admirably summed up in ar
interview with ex-senator D. c. Chase.
President of the Commission. The Sena-
tor has made a careful study of the sub
ject and speaks ex cathedra. To a News
representative who asked his opinion he
said:-
1.-The subject is not a new one, and has
been rightfully strongly opposed by the
navigation, oyster and fisheries interests.
as well as by shore owners and people re-
siding In proximity to the shore. The WA
Department is on record as opposing
plans for a trunk sewer draining the Pas
sale Valley and the cities of central New
Jersey. and emptying into the ~navigable
waters near Elizabethport.
1.-The commission in existence in 1897
made plans for such a sewer to discharge
into Newark Bay near the Central Rail-
road of New Jersey bridge. They invited
the War Department to express an opin-
ion as to the probable attitude of the De-
partment toward their plan.
1.-THE matter was referred to Major
Adams, who reported that in his opinion
the plan involved serious injury to the in
terests of navigation. I understand that
the subject was the referred to a Board
of Engineers which Endorsed the views of
Major Adams.
81 am of the opinion that the Joint Wa
terways Committee should now appeal to
the War Department and request that the
former views of that Department be re-
stated to this new Sewerage Commission
The channel in which 1t is proposed to
place the outlet of this large trunk sew
er, and emptying Including the solid mat
ter) into, is a part of the great inland
n~avigable water route parallel with the
sea coast, connecting the bays, likes and
rivers of the north and west with the can
ais, rivers, bays and tributaries of the
waters as far south as Pamlico Sound.
And Staten Island Sound, where 1T is pro-
posed to empty the sewer is of the great
est commercial Importance of any part of
this vast inland n~avigable waterway.
1.-THE United States Government has ex-
pended many millions of dollars to i'm
prove these channels, and has now large
appropriations for its further improve
ment, and a survey is being made at a
very considerable outlay with a view Of
further improving this Sound to a depth
of twenty-one feet from New York Bay
to Raritan Bay.
1.-THE oyster business in the immediate
vicinity of the proposed mouth of the
sewer, employs hundreds of men, and
that product is of very great Importance,
the fisheries of the vicinity are also an
important feature. It is asserted by some
of the physicians, members of the Sew
erage Commission, that the effect of bac-
terium that escapes from the mouth of
the sewer would be destroyed by coming
in contact with the salt water of the
Sound. and we agree that this might be
the case if the water at that place were
salt, like that of the ocean,; but the fresh
water streams that flow into the Sound
at and in the vicinity of the mouth of the
proposed sewer, would, in our opinion,
carry a great part of the bacteria to the
oysters, CLAIMS and fish, as well as to
deposit it on the shores between low n
high water mark and above high water
mark on spring tides, and thus not only
cause a serious nuisance, but cause dis
ease to the residents along the shores,
particularly the thickly populated por-
ton, as we'll as to the users of the oy-
ster n fish products; also by ~clinging
to the bottoms of the thousands of ves-