Waterbury Democrat., 1902-12-24
Time Expires on Courts Order /
 in About Five Months, -<~
CITY IS soRELY PERPLExED.

Will Not Be Able to Comply With Pre-
 visions of Injunction-The Attorneys
 for the City Therefore Will Seek Re
 lief from the Legislature-It Vii!
 Ask Power to Condemn Land Ina
 May Be Needed for Such Purposes.
 The city is getting scared of the in- junction which the Platt Brcs had served upon it some years ago rc- straining it frcn using the NaugatUc.z river as a sewage exit after June 1. 1903. City Attorney Kellogg and Col onel Burpee, who is engaged with him in this case, are EeN aware taat it will be impossible for the city to comply with the requirements of that i1junc- l, ton and therefore will be liable to very great damages to the Platt Bros ! in that event TRe order of the court given some years ago in the case men toned, was that the city should cease to damage the plaintiffs and devise some other means of disposing of it's sewage other than the Naugatuck riV- CT before June l. 1903, or pay to them certain damages: In fact the city will be prohibited from using the river for that purpose after the date named by the provisions of the. injunction and it is therefore confronted with a problem that it has so far been unable to solve.
 To the attorneys for the city only one avenue of escape has presented it. self. That is to petition the incoming legislature for power to condemn any part, or whole. of any property which it may deem necessary i'll the interests of public policy. A petition to that effect has been draw1s up by Colonel .Burpee and copy Of it appears in tie Democrats advertising columns to- day.
 Some lawyers are of the opinion that the city has that power now and that consequently it would be a waste Of time to obtain further legislation {n that particular, but there are others who contend no such power exists. To remove all doubt the petition will be presented to the legislature on-k6a first "Wednesday after the first Monday in January The situation is very seri- ous for the city. To devise another means of sewage disposal is utterly i'm possible for the simple reason that all of the ideas that have been experi- mented upon in that line do not seem to have realized the expectations of the parties Interested. These ideas run into the hundreds. The markets are crowded with them, and it has been found that no one of them is feasible in every locality, while many of them are adaptable to certain conditions. But one that meets with the require ments here does not seem to have been discovered yet. Another great diff culty is the expense. That would be enormous. The ely is already carry ing all the bonded indebtedness it can possibly bear and further burdens it is thought would lead to great trouble in directions that have not yet struck the average taxpayer.
 I In the Platt Bros case the city has maintained a fair stand. It claims to be willing to pay for the actual damage it has done them and not another pen nv. but the Platt Bros claim that the city has always damaged them and will always damage them as long as fhe Naugatuck river is used as an exit of the sewage system Therefore they hold that the city has not the power to condemn any portion of their all leged damaged property unless it con- demns all of it. The city does not want all of the property, in fact 1t does not need any of it, but the only way to escape continual annoyance on this point and by which it can dis charge its sewage into the river IS TO 1dispose of this claim, as well as any other claims that might arise from lime to time out of this question, is to have the matter cleared up by an amendment to the charter as proposed in the petition.
 Taking the question away from the noint in issue. it is this: Supposlng fine city desires to build a street through any private property and the owner objects unless the city buys all fhe property The city, of course does not need all of it for it's purpose; if needs only a certain strip and it de- sires to have the power to confscate that certain strip if it deems it abso- lutely necessary to carry out and de- sired public improvement Now, the PIatt Bros claim the city should con, demn all of their very large plant at PIatts' Mills, while the city only de sires to condemn a very small portion of it