The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1909-01-04
New Jersey Files Answer
TO Charges Sister
State Makes.
HEAL TIL MENACE TO
NEW YORK DENIED
Governor Signs Document
Handed to Supreme Court.
Quick Hearing Is Asked.

Denying that the health of New York
city would be irreparably impaired. that
the fish and oysters of New York Bay
would be poisoned and unfit for food,
and that the atmosphere of New York
harbor would reek with foul odors.
| should the giant Passaic valley trunk
! sewer be constructed as charged in the
bill filed by the plaintiff, answer was
today filed in the Supreme Court of the
United States in Washington in the suit
looking to.an Injunction against the un-
dertaking instituted by the State of
New York
! Two of New Jerseys ablest lawyers,
Chandler w. Riker and former Attor-
ney General Robert H. McCarter, bore
the document to Washington and placed
! it on file. AT the same time they re-
quested the court that a speedy hearing
be given the motion Of the United States
attorney general that the Federal gov
ernment become a party complainant to
the suit.
The answer is filed by the State of
| New Jersey and Passaic Valley Sewer
age Commission, of which latter former
Mayor Julius A. Lebkuecher, of New
ark, is president Besides entering
sweeping denials of all the principal
iniquities charged in the bill, and ad-
mitting such points as are immaterial
and whose denial would serve only to-
delay the trial of the cause, the answer
charges that New York comes into
court with unclean hands and attempts
! to enjoin the very custom It has hon
ored with 200 years practise.
| Bit of Sarcasm in Answer.
| In a spirit of fine legal sarcasm, the
opening paragraph admits the gentle
| impeachment that New York and
| New Jersey are States of the United
| States Of America" The fixing of the
boundary and the line itself, as de-
| scribed, are also admitted, although
it is set forth that a portion of the
upper bay belongs to New Jersey and
a portion to New York.
! 1t is pointed out that New Jersey
has the rights which may be expected
from a shore line of twenty-five miles
along the bay and Hudson river. A de-
scription of the conditions along the
banks of the Passaic river, familiar to
all residents of this section, Is given,
and the charge is made that the pres
ent system of sewage disposal is an "in-
tolerable nuisance"
Admitting that the capacity of the
big sewer, as planned, would be 357, $780,
220 gallons. it is also charged that the
total output of sewage in 1910 would
not exceed $50 900, 900 gallons daily, with
an average rate of growth and an esti-
mated population of approximately t.
e50,000 persons in the sewage area. The
charge is also made that the waters of
New York bay could harmlessly dissi-
pate the sewage of 25.0O00Oo persons.
Denial is also made that crude sew
age would be dumped into the bay
through q pipe twelve feet In diameter,
and the statement rs made that only
the liquid effiuent would pass into the
bay the floating and heavy matter be-
ing removed by screens and filters.
The effluent, the answer sets forth, |
would be discharged through a series
of small vent pipes, each forty feet be-
low the low-water mark. into the bay.
Inconsistency shown.
II fs set forth az counter charge. !
that for over zoo years the factories |
and sewers of BROOKLYN and New York
have poured their contents into the bay
unopposed; that the big nronx sewer
Is now dumping the sewage of hum
dreds of thousands of persons and
thousands of factories into the harbor
"a short distance below the pier line, /
and that the amount of sewage now /
going into the harbor is seven and one
half times great as the maximum I
amount that would be discharged from
the New Jersey trunk sewer.
r.
of the municipalities now discharged +
into the Passaic river float back and I
forth with the tides and eventually find /
their way into New York bay
The lands under the waters of the {
bay, it is pointed out, belong to New
Jersey UP to the dividing line.
Emphatic denial is made of the charge
set forth by New York that it pos
sesses the sovereignty of the river and
bay to the New Jersey Shore although
admission is made that such sovereignty
does exist, but for police powers only.
This supervision, it declares, cannot be
used against the State of New Jersey
The defense scouts as ridiculous the
charge that it was attempting to sneak
through the construction of the big
sewer without the permission of the
United States government, and cites, in
denial its application to Secretary of
War Luke E. Wright for permission to
build the sewer.
The document, Which is in pamphlet
form, and covers "a pages of printed
matter is signed by Governor Fort,
Assistant Secretary of state ]. b. K.
Smith. julius Aebkuecher. John 5. Glib
son, Edmund Wilson. Attorney Gen 3
pol, Mo ,fo 1f 81