Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1912-11-15
BIG CROWD HEARS
DEBATE ON SEWER
Delegations from Six Towns
Listen to Arguments on
ImhOff Scheme.
SENTIMENT OF AUDIENCE
SEEMS AGAINST PROJECT
Four Speakers on Each Side
Present Their
Views.


Montclair, last night, to hear a de-
bate on the sewage disposal prob
lem of the first three towns. The
sentiment of the audience after hear
ing the eight speakers was apparent
ly against locating the Imhon plant
in Belleville.
The speakers in favor of locating
the plant at Belleville were Engi-
neers Rudolph Herring and John A.
Gregory, of Montclair, who prepared
the plans for the plant; Mayor Ernest
c. Hinck and Town Attorney Robert
M. Boyd, jr.
The opposing speakers were Henry
w. Goodrich, of Nutley; Harrison
Van Duyne, of Newark; DIR. Martin
j. Synnott, of Montclair, and former
Mayor William P. Sutphen, of
Bloomfield. The applause given those
against the plant plainly indicated
that 1t is not favored.
DR.. Martin J. Synnott prefaced his
remarks by saying hat he was
speaking as a layman and not as an
engineer, but hat he had given the
sewerage question considerable study
and had spent Ave months in Europe
This year. during which time he had
visited the several Imhoff plants in
Germany and felt thai he was conf
dent to speak on the matter.
The question of disposing of the
sewage in Germany was quite differ
ent from the present case. The in
tention in Germany was to use the
x.fxroro IA 9 oman mo q nd naralX ra-
move by the sewage plants as much
of the decomposed matter as possible,
while the intention in this case under
| discussionNw was to purify the waters
OF the Passaic river, he said.
He declared thai every plant that
he had visited In Germany threw out
foul odors, which were obnoxious at
a distance of from 200 yards to a half
mile.
None of the plans that he had vis-
tied were located in a neighborhood
as valuable as that in Belleville,
where it is proposed to erect the
plant in question. Regarding the Ian
tern slides which Mr.. Herring a
shown on the screen, showing several
plants in Germany surrounded by
dwellings,, DR.. Synnott said those pic
lures are familiar to him, and are
taken from advertising cards. issued
by DR.. Carl Imhoff. The fact, how
ever, is, he said. that the buildings
are not dwellings, but are factories
and iron foundries.
He then paid his respects to the
Chatham Madison plant, located on
lie Passaic river twenty miles above
he source of Montciair's water sup
ely. This plant, he said, had been
inspected by DIR. Imhoff himself and
declared perfect, while the fact Is
that sewage from it is passing into
the Passaic river in as bad condi-
ton as before treatment. and ii
would be only a short time before the
State Board of Health would be com
PEELED to stop the nuisance.
He warned the citizens of Mont
clair that although the State Board
of Health had given permission to in
stall the plant at Belleville, the
Passaic Valley Sewerage Commits
sion would succeed the State Board
of Health after December 81, 1914,
and would be the arbiters of what
constituted a nuisance and a pollu-
ton of the waters of the Passaic
river. Therefore all the money
pended on the plant by Montclair
might be wasted.
The county. he said, would fight to
the last ditch before it would allow
a sewage disposal plant TO be in
stalled within a stones throw Of the
isolation hospital, which contained
from sixty to n hundred patients
who needed the purest of fresh air.
Mr.. Goodrich summed UP Mont
clair's opposition TO entering the Pas
sale Valley trunk sewer and that of
the other two municipalities, as a
natter of dollars and declared
lat every dollar saved by in
liieting a nuisance upon a neighoor
was a dirty dollar. He also declared
hat the engineers, in order to keep
down the cost of the plant and at
the same time to comply with the
State Board of Health rules, to dis
charge the eTluent through pipes
from the plant to the Passaic river,
had changed vital parts of the plan
for the treatment of sewage, and as
a sewage not properly
treated would enter the river
Engineers Herring and Gregory,
who prepared the plans for the plant
at Belleville, explained the Imhon
system by lantern slides and showed
where the plant would be located.
Mr.. Herring declared that the Imhoff
system of sewage disposal was the
best manne of treating sewage, and
that the effluent can be delivered
without offense. He claimed that l35
plants in Europe and several in this
country were doing so.
Mayor Hinck's remarks were dis
appointing to his hearers, as 1t was
merely an arraignment of the unfair
terms imposed upon Montclair by the
Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission
He ridiculed the idea that the plant
would be a nuisance at the proposed
LOCATION, and claimed that the prop
erty surrounding the plant when laid
out in flower beds would be a ben-
eft to the locality. which was bound
cd on one side by a hospital and on
the other by a cemetery.
MIR. Boyd confined his remarks TO
The causes which led Montclair to
~dopt the Inho fsystem. which were
merely a matter of saving money.
Former Mayor william P. Sutphen
told of the sop thrown out to Bloom
field by. moving the site of the pro-
posed plant from Bloomfield territory
into Belleville. but Bloomfield re-
garded the welfare of its n~eighbor
and would fight the erection of the
plant. He concluded by saying that
in order to save a few dollars the