The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1909-01-12
Conservation of the States
Resources.

Since the convention of the Governors OF
the various States, held last May at lhs
a auickened interest, both in the nation
and the State has been taken in the mat
ter of conserving our natural resources
Paterson, Passaic, Bayonne, HoDoken, anu
all the towns between Jersey City and the
Passaic, and others within the t"entSr
hye-mile radius mentioned, have no Waie.
supply of their own. They are compgdieu
ever good this private company may pc
{sna Il does deserve credit for its courage
and far-sightedness in developing Its water
supply, 1t is not a pubic supply Oh the
kind that municipalities should have.
The cost of establishing a great water
plant for the supplying of all cities anu
towns in the section sng gaI1ae ,s T how can pn
very heavy. The great pfooiem 10 NJ" ~
First and foremost, nothing can be done
by the State, If the State is to DO II, untn
all the water rights of the East jersey
Water Company, and it's subsidiary ana al
lied companies, and the Morris Canal are
condemned and taken over by. the STATE, ~
would be worse than folly for me Stase
to go into the water business, so to speak,
in competition with "A number OF private
water serving companies. If the state Is
to serve its people, or any special po % iSn
of them, with water, it must 40 SO 10 'he
exclusion Of all other agencies.
The water plant of the city. or NeWark,
as it stands today. has cost about 'hirteeI
million dollars, and that of Jersey CITY
nrobably eight millions. AS to the value OIL
ne niant Of the EAST Jersey Water Com
pany and its water rights Qncludlng Snosd
Of the society for useful manufacturers anu
Of the like rights of the Morris Canal. there
are no figures that l care to accept, put
five million dollars wonld probably more
than cover them all. That would give a
present value of twenty-six million CT aoi.
lars in the plants and water rights III the
hills of Northern New Jersey. at TINS tlae'
without counting franchise values. hoso
Considering the enormous Xalue oh 70 md
riobt. IL, that caetion of tlp STATE, dllh
the tremendous cost to New 1orh or11SS' no
securing a no better supply than coniu ne
obtained in these hills, TINS h9ure 10 'f
tainly moderate. ,,s
If all the rights in the rivers and streams
above tidewater in this section OF tne 9tu.e
could be taken over under a slnsle Gona
troll, State or district, and proper storage
reservoirs constructed to hold the fooa wa
tiers for potable use, the value OF suen d
plant to our people would be beyohu en- q,
timation. If it is not done now, II VIII
have to be lone later. The people in our
cities must have pure water. Ii the pollu-
ton of our rivers and streams hao peen
would not have been SO serious as It now
is. Possibly, with the publication OF our
rivers by the prevention of pollution we
shall have some relief in the water problem
in the future. But the present demands
~action-untted action. Each city should not
be required to 90 into the hills and con-
tract for a supply; In fact, II VIII soon
take the whole matter over 1t would pt
ideal, but the bonding feature of the Con-
stitution Is the difficulty. There is no power
in the Legislature to incur the necessary
State debt. The people could vote fifty
millions of State bonds for the work, but
it is doubtful If they would do so; 1t is
questionable whether they should II they
would. After all it is not a Statewide
enterprise. 1t is to supply water to GER
tain parts of the State only. The munich
palities Of the counties of Hudson, Essex
and Passaic are chiefly interested in this
question. with probably the counties of
Union and Bergen.
If a Water Supply Commission, which
would own and control, through condemna-
ton, all the plants of the cities and private
companies now operated, were created and
clothed with full power, the territory en-
braced within the district could, through
such a commission, solve the water prob
lem. The value of the plant would many
water rental to cities taking 1t, based on
the cost of operating, interest charges aud
a reasonable percentage to meet and pay
the bonded debt as it matured, would soon
wipe out the debt and probably in fifty
years, would practically give either free
water or, by the charges for water, greatly
relieve the other burdens of taxation. The
though it may seem, would be easy. The
reservoir area could be selected farther
back In the hills than the Little Falls sug-
gestion. or even Mountain View.
Incidental t. this the commission should
purchase and control the forest land in
upper Passaic, covering about 40, coo acres
This land Is said to be now held by five
be comparatively infinitesimal now, as com
pared with twenty-five years hence, and its
value to the district owning 1t would be
many times over its cost.