The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1906-06-16
POTABLE WATER
OF new JERSEY
Commission Appointed to
Investigate It's Condition
Makes It's First Report
PROGRAMME OF WORK
IT IS MAPPED OUT IN HARMONY
WITH THE STATE FORESTRY
COMMISSION. IL

<AlluOuSn LII eAlStS4NC polCl5 sAiSS
months the commission appointed to in
vestigate the subject of the potable
water supply of the State has hone much
work. It was authorized by joint re-
solution introduced by eSnaton Wood
Mckee, of Passaic, and was one of
the results of the agitation for the rescue
of New Jerseys sources of potable
water from the grasp of the corpora
tions which sought to divert the water
out of the State.
The resolution provided that the ri
parian commissioners with State Geolo-
gist Henry B. Kummel be appointed a
commission to investigate the character
and extent of the potable water and
water supplies, of the State, their owner
ship and value and the probable cost of
their acquisition and ownership by the
| State as wellSas the methods that could
be adopted by the State to obtain the title
thereto or to such parts thereof as to the
commission Shall seem judcious for the
State to own. The members of the Ri
parian Board are William Cloke, Of Mer-
Ger; Robert Williams. of Passaic; Mich
ael F. Mclaughlin, of Essex, and John
r. Reynolds, of Mercer.
The potable Water Commission or
! ganization on March s by electing Com
missioner Cloke president and John G.
| Payne secretary and on the next day at
the State house, Trenton, discussed the
general scope of it's work with the Gov
ernor and the attorney general. Accord
ing to the plan of procedure then adopted
the secretary communicated with every
municipality in the State with view Of
ascertaining the source of its portable
water supply, whether it was municipal
or corporate. the nature of the works,
average unmber of gallons used daily
and the population of the municipality.
| OF the 470 inquiries Of this nature sent
264 replied and some of the answers
were amusing as we'll as instructive.
One replied that its system was 'mu-
nicipal every man owns his own well"
| The replies received to these inquiries
are being tabulated as to the quantity of
potable water used and the sources of
| supply.
In addition to these the commission
sent inquiries to every State and Terri
tory in the Union as to their laws gov
| erning the potable water supplies within
their borders and received replies from
In most of them the question Of State
supervision of potable water appears to
be a new one. Thirty three of the State
and territories replied that they had no
State supervision over water supplies
and no law ON the subject. The Western
States, generally have laws on the sub
/ ject of irrigation, which seems to be the
principal water subject with them, and
in some of them these laws relate parti-
ally to potable waters as well as ts the
question of irrigation.
| New York has gone into the custom Of
portable water thoroughly and has a
State water supply commission. So has
Pennsylvania. Idaho and New Mexico
have no potable water commissions, but
each has an interesting system of irriga-
tion supervision.
In Connecticut they have complete
system of laws for the supervision of
streams, and in Massachusetts the State
Board of Health has complete supervi-
! sion over bodies of potable water, mainly
in the matter Of pollution. BY the laws
of Wyoming the State exercises supervi-
| sion over water used for stock and do
mestic purposes, and so well thought of
4 - ItS SySlSAl, WulcH WIS iHd uSufuteu
about sixteen years ago that in various
forms it is now in operation in more
than one-half of the Western States, the
Dominion of Canada and South Africa
The authorizes of the District of Colum-
bia have jurisdiction over the waters of
the Potomac River.
Another branch Of the work which the
Potable Water Commission has mapped
out for itself is the investigation of the
lakes of the State with view of the
possibility Of acquiring certain of these
bodies of fresh water in connection with
the acquisition Of forest areas.
In this matter the work of the Pota-
Bile Water Commission is in harmony
with that Of the State Forest Commis-
sion because Of the close relation be-.
tween the forests and the sources Of po-
table water, as the more trees there are