The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-17

City. The Hackensack, which furnishes
a large quantity Of water Of very poor
quality, runs through a low country in
which the construction Of great storage
reservoirs is impossible. The same on
ditions prevail along the upper reaches
of the Passaio. Yet both Of these rivers
supply a number Of towns and cities
with water, the most considerable being
Hoboken, which draws from the Hacken-
sack.
When the resources of these streams
and OF a few minor ones, all Of them
already contributing to the supply Of
n village or another, are drained to
the limit, the next available field is the
billy region Of Sussex county with sew
eral fair sized creeks, some flowing north
into New York and some into the Della
ware, but affording in total no very
encouraging prospect Of supplying the
needs Of the State. Turning southwark,
there is no more water probably than the
local towns and cities will need for their
W use. The outlook seems to be,
therefore, that long before the end Of
the century New Jersey will be appeal
ing to New York for some hundreds Of
millions Of gallons daily Of the water
that we have TO spare.
1t was this prospect Of exhaustion OF
the internal supply that led to the enact
ment recently Of q statute ~forbidding
the sale Of water supply from New Jersey
sources outside the State. The oonsti-
nationality Of that statute is now in
litigation, but 1t has been upheld in the
lower court, and there Is NJ eason to
doubt that the Appellate Courts will
confirm the judgment. Indeed 1t would
seem as if the State wa compelled for
the protection of its own inhabitants in
the future to insist upon the principle
Of the measure. But the establishment
Of the principle is a very different matter
from compliance with the demand which
Staten Island is now making on a basis
Of Interstate comfy, and upon which
the welfare and development of that
section of New York city so cogently
depends.
Staten Island, in fact, comedies the
principle Of New Jerseys right to her
own waters and her prospective need
for them in limiting her demand to
legislation which would authorize a
contract for a supply for the next fifteen
years. Before the expiration of that
period, her representatives who went
to Trenton on Monday pointed out, New
York city will have completed her own
final system for the supply of all her
boroughs with water for all time.
Staten Island will no longer need TO
draw upon New Jersey. But in the
existing crisis there is no other direction
in which she can look for immediate
relief. She has no water herself I'M
tainted by seepage from the surrounding
inlets; New Jersey shuts her in on three
sides, and the construction Of works by
which she could be supplied from Man
haitian or Brooklyn-assuming that there
was at present water to spare from either
would involve a delay Of years.
On the other hand, the link from
Bayonne to Port Richmond already
exists. The mains are inadequate to
carry the supply Of 10000, 900 gallons
daily which Staten Island desires, but
the laying of larger ones under the
narrow neck OF the Kill van Kull is an
engineering bagatelle. Speedy relief ear
assuredly be given the thirsty island
from that direction.
1t Is quite certain, too, that New Jersey
has the water to spare. The proposal is
to draw the supply from Little Falls, q
point on the Passaio River some miles
above the city Of Passaio. The location
is many miles down stream from any
intake for New Jersey use, and many
times ten million gallons of water flow
past it every day in the year, including
the greater part of the fowage of the
Ramapo River, which, as Mr.. CROMWELL
has pointed out, carries $50, 900, 900 gal
Ions Of water daily out Of New York
State into New Jersey.
The attitude Of some Of the New
Jersey authorities, virtually that they
would rather see the water go to waste
than sell it to a neighboring community
in sore need of it, is unworthy Of the
State. 1t may, besides, prove a costly
blunder in the long run. If the time
aver comes when northern New Jersey
cities seek permission to impound the
Of the Ramapo within the limits
of this State for their use, a refusal to
grant relief to Staten Island at this time
may come up against them and render
it virtually impossible for them 10 gain
the privilege, however vital 1t may be to