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

l NO REASON TO GET EACIIED.
 While it is undoubtedly prudent for
 the representatives of the HouSatonic
 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 Housatonie,
 interests of New Milford; more than
 likely it will help it's growth. We do
 not believe Representative Staub
 would push measure that boded ill
 for town where he had so large tinan- cial interests. It is almost too absurd | 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 ther C is some prospect of it is evident, whe n a great daily like the Tribune edito- rially considers the matter. In it's Friday issue it said: "A bill now be- suspected to be a scheme for making the water of the upper Housatonic 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 o1ionotn6 and xHhothnr fhic city wants to get it's supply in that way and from that source. The idea 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 a point little below Gaylords- ville-the site of one of the three dams proposed in the pending measure. Thence the water was to he 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, OOO,- GOO gallons throughout the dryest seasons, which great flood, added to the present supply from the Croton and Bronx systems, would give us total of 1000, GOO, ,O0O gallons a day, a supply ample for all conceivable uses for a century to come. The cost of this magnificent Housatonic supply would be less than slO 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 proConf 0n17o1nofC hoinr onfiro1v sufficient. That could be done so as to deliver the water in this city under a head equivalent to an elevation of 300 feet above the sea level, high pressure service without pumping probably not unsurpassed, if indeed rivaled, in the world. The;realiZatio of so splendid 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- diversion of an important part of her water supply. It is true the Housa- tonic is at present a comparatively little used river. It has no important city on it's whole course, and the places that are dependent upon it for water 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 Litchtield 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.'