The Newtown bee., 1903-03-06
Eight Pages.
LITCHFIELD COUNTY.
 NEW MILFORD.

l NO REASON TO GET EXCITED.
 While it is undoubtedly prudent fol
 the representatives of the HouSatOni(
 Valley towns to know what they are
 voting away Tn charters for water power companies as connected with
 Connecticnt's second greatest river, we
 believe there is no reason to get ex.
 cited. We do not believe that any
 dam will be erected on the HousatoniG,
 that will seriously affect the business
 interests of New Milford; more than likely it will help it's growth. We dc
 not believe Representative Stauh would push measure that bOded ill | for town where he had so large tinan-
 cial interests. It is almost too absurd 1 to contemplate. At the same time the
 prospect that Now York City may
 reach out for the water coming down
 this river is not pleasing. That there is some prospect of it is evident, whe n great daily like the Tribune edito- rially considers the matter. In it's Friday issue it said: "A bill now be- fore the Connecticut Legislature is suspected to be scheme for making the water of the upper Housat9nic river available for the supply of New
 York City. The plan is to erect dams at several points on the river for the
 impounding of the vast volume of water which is not now utilized. This water will be used first for the devel- Opment of electric power in nearby towns and cities, and then. after it has driven the machinery, will be sent across the state line and poured into the Croton system. The plan is doubt less quite practicable. The chief questions are whether the state of Connecticut is willing thus to have the water alienated, and whether this city wants to get it's supply in that of getting water from the Housatonic is not new. The engineers of the New York Water Department long ago con- sidered it and carefully surveyed the ground. Their plan was to build dam at point little below Gaylords- ville-the site of one of the three dams proposed in the pending measure. Thence the water was to be run through an open canal to Pawling, in Duchess county, N. Y., and poured into the east branch of the Croton river. This Housatonic dam, an easy one to build, by the way, would inn daily delivery of not less than 75O, ,00O,- 900 gallons throughout the dryest seasons, which great flood, added to OAAS PASoSho OuPPAJ AAotI OIS O4oOOh and Bronx systems, would give us a total of 1000, 900, ,OOO gallons day, supply ample for all conceivable uses for a century to come. The cost of this magnificent Housat tonic supply would be less than sl0 a million gal Ions. It would, of course, be necessary to provide additional conduits from some point on the Croton, probably above Brewster, to this city, the present aqueducts being entirely in- sufficient. That could be done so as to deliver the water~in this city under a head equivalent to an elevation of pressure service without pumping probably not unsurpassed, if indeed rivaled, in the world. The,realizati tion of so splendid a scheme would all depend, of course, upon the State of Connecti- cut. The Housatonic dam would be in that state, and the greater part of the water would be drawn from it. It has always been regarded as exceeding ly doubtful whether the assent of Con- necticut could be obtained to such diversion of an important part of her water supply. It is true the Housa- tonic is at present comparatively little used river. It has no important city on it's whole course, and the places that are QepenuenU upon lC TOT WdUer would probably still have plenty left after New York had taken all it want ed. But there is no telling what cities may some time be built in Litchfeld county, and what demand there may be for the water which flows down from the Berkshire Hills, and we are inclined to think the lawmakers of Connecticut would do good deal of hard thinking before they alienated so valuable and, potentially, so indispen- sable pOSseSSiOn.'