The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1901-06-05
TOTAL IMMERSION
! Board Of Trade and Army
Of Engineers and officials
Up to Their Ears at
Boonton.
QUESTIONS THE ORDER OF TIE DAY
Visitors Resolve Themselves
Into An Examining Board
and Keep Experts on
the Jump.
PROGRESS OF WORK APPROVED
Unanimous Verdict That Il
Difficulties Are Adjusted
Flynn Can Fulfill Con-
tract.

tract.
Many hours were spent yesterday by
members of the Board of Trade looking
over the construction work at the new
water supply at Boonton. They climbed
up hill and down dale over stocks and
stones, crossed purling streams and
babbling brooks. walked into damp tun-
nels, peered down huge pipes, asked as
many questions in five minutes as would
keep water sharps busy for five years to
answer, and when it was all over unani-
mously agreed that great deal of work
had been done and if only the financial
difficuity between the city and the con-
tracing company were removed Mr.
Flynn's plant and equipment were more
than sufficient to enable him to fulfill his
contract within the specified time.
In the D. L. & w. r. r. depot at Ho-
boken for the $40 A. M. train were:-
Mayor Hoos, Mr.. Joseph A. Dear, chair
man of the Board Of Trade Committee;
Messrs ]. J. voorhees,. B. L. Stowe, M.
]. Furst, ]. P. Landrine, w. J. TAFT.
President S. c. Mount Of the Board, r.
Anderson, P. Gaddis, T. Rowlands, Street
and Water Commissioner F. Heintze, Gar
wood Ferris, j. P. Hall and H. H. Bowly,
wood Ferris, ]. P. Hall, H. H.
Bowiy and Charles Van Keuren,
engineers for the city; M. ]. Kennedy,
Ed,ew ". Harrison, w. D. Edwards and
Henry Belden, representing the Jersey
City Water Supply Company, and DR..
Mclaughlin, z. C. Sproues, H. Belden,
Jr., Harold Beuton and p. Frank keenan,
afterwards Joined the party. Arriving at
Bconten carriages conveyed the visitors
to the site of the DAM The huge trestle
work and the excavation through the
peculiar formation of rock in the bed of
the diverted Rockaway River attracted
much attention and surprise. With tie
exception of one or two of the members
of the Board of Trade this was the first
visit to the ground soon to be flooded for
a reservoir. President Mount brought
with him a portentous roll of maps of
the surrounding county, but evidently
these drawings were inaccurate for the
only time they were unrolled and con-
suited their owner lost himself.
why don't you put the reservoir on the
top of the hill?' asked one visitor. Mr..
Harrison put ons his thinking cap.
.sOn which side of the dam will the
water be impounded?" inquired another,
and Mr.. Kennedy retired to figure that
out.
.eWill the pressure at the Bergen Hill
standpipe be sufficient to carry water to
the highest steeple of a Jersey City down
town church?'' asked Mr. R. Anderson,
chairman of the Committee on the Nj
caragua Canal.
Mr. Kennedy thought it would, and Mr..
Anderson, with an eye to business, looked
happy. Some one, asking about the ca
pacity of the new reservoir and the ca
pacity of the watershed, Mr.. Harrison
gave these interesting fgures:-
1.-THE supply is to be for 70 million gall
Ions per day, but the first works are to
be capable of delivering SO million gal
ions per day, with sites for storage reser-
voirs and rights of diversion sufficient to
deliver 70 million gallons per day, when
required.
Seventy million gallons per day is 25,-
$50 million gallons per year.
s.The minimum daily flow off from the
watershed above the intake is about II
million gallons in dry season, while
the maximum daily flow off in the same
season will exceed 300 million gallons;
such a period does not occur except at in
teryals of many years.
"In order to provide for a regular daily
flow it is necessary to build storage reser-
voirs to hold a portion Of the wet sea-
son flow to draw upon during the dry
season. This reservoir is provided for by
the specifications and is being construct
ed as therein planned.
.sThe total fiow-off in the driest year Of
the decade, 1891-1900, calculated upon the
basis of the flaw of the Pequannock, a
stream with adjacent watershed for that
year, was 1888 million gallons. OF this
flow-off of 40,333 million gallons, Jersey
City will acquire, by the contract, the
right to divert into it's pipes, when using
the full quantity of 20 million gallons per
day 25,35o million gallons, and not one
drop more. The remaining 1883 million
gallons of a dry season flow must be all
lowed to run off over the dam. Jersey
City has no right to divert it, ana never
contemplated, in the advertisement for
proposals or in the contract or specihca-
tiens, TO divert any part of this excess.
4sIt is important to bear this in mind,
because the proposed modification does
not affect, in the slightest degree, the res
ervoir, dam, pipes conduits, or the
amount of water the city has con-
tra5ted for; it only affects, and has to do
with, the disposition Of a small proportion
ofsthis surplus flow, or wastage inewhicn
the city has no more right, and less IN
terest than other owners Between Boon
ton and tide water Of the 2assatc aeiow
Dundee
Mr. John ]. Voorhees, wishing 10 pc
enlightened On the slight cfal sc made
in the relative position of taeS intake and
the condult leading TO the pipe line, ard
whether4 ora not such would caass q SOFT
Of pocksE ~ il sse .IRa(er would lodge.