The Newark star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1909, 1909-05-05
SAY EAST JERSEY
] PLANS TO DIVERT
WATERS OF STATE
Claimed that Company Would
Pipe 10000 900 Gallons a
Day to Staten Island.

TRENTON, May 5.-The State Water
Supply Commission has taken steps to
block what is believed to be a daring
attempt upon the part of h East Jer-
sey Water Company to divert the
potable waters of New Jersey for the
use OF residents of Staten Island, and
by SO doing defy the Court of Errors
and Appeals. which decided in the case
of the state against the water COM
pany, tried in 1906, that such diversion
is illegal.
Secure in the belief that the Water
Supply Commission was resting upon
the decision and believed it to have
finally disposed of the matter, the East
Jersey Company has been quietly at
work in an effort to circumvent the
State, it is said.
1t has been found by the commits
sioners that plans ave been prepared
and work begun on a pipe line from the
Bayonne shore to State Island, which is
designed to carry 100, 900, 900 gallons OF
water a day, enough to supply half OF
Staten Island for some time to come.
Such a supply furnished to the resi-
dents of Staten Island at the rate
municipalities of this State are supplied
by the same corporation would yield the
East Jersey Water Company an income
of more than $4,000 a day.
Law Against IL.
Staten Island is up against the propo-
sition of an insufficient water supply,
and for years it has been seeking relief.
The East Jersey Water Company has
been trying to get the contract to sup
49, 49,. I,Io..l ~rf<h xrrnfar II hn q
been promised it, If it can deliver the
goods. In 1905 a tentative agreement
between the water company and Staten
Island was made.
Assemblyman Bachelor, OF Essex
county, since appointed State water
supply commissioner, had a bill passed
prohibiting the diversion of potable
| waters from New Jersey. The law was
tested through the courts of the State,
and a decision upholding the law was
rendered. Since then the East Jersey
! Water Company has tried to get legis-
lation giving it authority to sell water
to Staten Island. 1t has failed. Its
latest move is ingenious. 1t went be-
fore the Harbor Line Board of the
United States War Department, which
has control over the water highways in
anu dfcunu view ioih huipoi, gnu q
| few weeks ago obtained permission
from the War Department to lay pipes
from the New Jersey to the Staten
Island shore. No notice of the appli-
cation was given the State Water Sup
ply Commission. The East Jersey
Water Company represented that II
wanted the pipes to carry water from
artesian wells. The pipe line is designed
to carry 100, 900, 900 gallons of water
daily, and it is a significant fact that
| the artesian wells are to he driven al
the point where the East Jersey Water
Company turns Its supply of water
from the Pequannock and Passaic into
the pipes of the New York and Sub
urban Water Company, which supplies
Bayonne, East Newark, Harrison
Kearny and other municipalities.
work ON Wells Begun.
Work on the wells has been begun
The closest secrecy is being main
tanned, however, regarding the inter
state pipe line plans. The State watel
supply commissioners have sought in
formation as to what is being done ant
what is contemplated. but with Sigh
success.
Yesterday, at a meeting OF the com
mission held at Trenton, the commits
sioners. Former Governor Foster N
Voorhees, presiding, decided to make
formal demand upon the New York an'
Suburban Water Company, through
w. II. Beal, its president, and the Eas
Jersey Water Company, of which tn
Suburban Company is a part.