The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1901-03-29
A TRuNK LINE SEWER NOT
FEASIBLE.

The Newark trunk sewer scheme
was fortunately defeated during the
closing days of the legislature.
The sewerage question is a
matter of vital interest not only to
Newark and Paterson, but to Morris
town, Madison, Morris Plains, Dover
and other towns in this section of the
State.
We quote the following sensible
article on the subject from the we'll
informed Paterson Press:
Paterson s position as to the Newark
Trunk Sewer scheme is simply this,
and it appeals to the common sense OF
every candid person: Newark S
scheme for the publication of the
river. let it be evaded, disguised, or
denied as it may, is we'll understood to
be trunk sewer. Now Paterson dis
putes, and with perfect honesty, and
with the claim'of as much intelligence
per capita as resides in Newark, that
the trunk sewer plan is either kgood
or even a possible solvent of the
difficulty. Leaving out of discussion
the enormous cost of such an under
taking-Paterson's assertion is that
the trunk sewer scheme is utterly vi
sionary and impractlcable if for no
other reason than that such sewer
could find no place to empty. Does
Newark deny this? Does any member
of the State sewerage commission
maintain it? IF so Paterson has right
to demand that the place of outlet
shall be named. Where is it? No
answer has yet been given to this
fundamental question. Everybody
knows that there is no point along
the waters of New Jersey which
would not resist, to the last extremi-
ty, being defiled by this concentrated
discharge of the sewage of half a mil
lion of people now and perhaps mil
lion before the sewer was completed.
They would resist it with as much
earnestness and Indignation and
dread, as Newark now protests against
the defilement of her own waters.
And does anyone who is in possession
of his senses believe for a moment
that the people of New York or Staten
Island, or those living or owning
property along the New Jersey sea-
board, or the United States govern
ment, which has title to valuable
properties in the New York bays and
at.Sandy Hook. would permit the DIS
charging within their jurisdiction
of this deluge of filth which the
people of the Passaic valley and
around Newark bay will not allow to
empty into their own waters? The
question answers itself. The PROPOSE
Sc 30 oh ri for dnro
Those who cling to it simply keep
their eyes shut. The position of
Paterson in this matter is, we insist,
not only reasonable but the only rea-
sonable one when it is considered that
that trunk sewer project is the one
that at least a majority of the State
sewerage commission has solely in it's
mind. If it be aske "'Why, then.
does not Paterson propose some other
plan?" the fair answer is that Pater-
son has waited, and still waits, for
the State sewerage commission to pro-
pose some feasible plan. Our people
have been waiting for the past six
years for the state sewerage commits
sion to do what that body was created
for, namely, to present, with the rea-
sons therefor sand proof that it could
be carried out, an agreement upon
some definite plan of sewage disposal.
In it's public declarations that board
has over and over again practically
admitted that this problem puzzles
and eludes it. 1t cannot reasonably
be expected that Paterson, without at
least as much study as the state COM
mission with all the experts at it's
command has given to this important
question, can do what the state COM
mission has failed to accomplish.
That commission, which abundant
collateral evidence shows has no other
scheme in view except the trunk
sewer, is quite as manifestly uncer-
tain whether the plan is the best.
There are many other cogent objec-
lions to be urged against trunk
sewer scheme. If. after mature and
enlightened consideration of the river
pollution problem the agreement of
the communities interested should be
that an intercepting sewer is the only
possible solution-which we do not
believe to be the case-there is q
modification of that scheme which
would be far cheaper, more efficient
and perhaps not certainly subject to
veto from people at the business end.
1t is an open sewer, always better than
closed one, with arrangements for
agitation, oxidation and self-purifica
tion as it's contents flow along. This
was the plan suggested many years
ago by the late Andrew Clerk, of Jer-
sey City, member of the first state
sewer commission that we ever had,
and than which no wiser nor more
promising scheme has yet been sub
mitted 1t is not at all improbable
that despite all the study that has
been given to this problem in later
and presumably better instructed
years, we may yet find it best to re-
turn to first principles and to avail
ourselves of the wisdom of twenty
years ago. Paterson says take time.
Consider we'll. Decide as soon as prac-
ticable, and if possibl reach con-
sensus of Judgment. Then act with
unitel energy. Paterson challenges
the good sense of the state ON the
soundness of it's position, and no
amount of abuse or misrepresentation
is likely to shake it, even if its own
MAYOR f1inches from il.