Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-04-10
TOWNS AID WATER
COMP ANY AGAINST
INJUNCTION SUIT
municipalities Supplied by East
Jersey Concerns Subsidiaries
Oppose State.
SAY PASSAIC RIVER is
ONLY SOURCE THEY HAVE
East Newark Alone, With Eye
to Thrift, Makes No
Fight.

Suit begun by the State Two years
ago to restrain the East Jersey Water
Company from using the waters of
the Passaic river at Little Falls to
supply East Newark, Harrison,
Kearny, Bayonne. Nutley and Little
Falls is up before Vice Chancellor
Stevens again today. this time with
the various towns made defendants
to the action. They have all filed an
swers with the exception Of East
Newark.
With the one exception of East
Newark. whose corporate body did
not want to go to the expense of de-
tending the suit apparently believ-
ing the court would not cut off their
water supply the towns protest
against the restraining order, es
pecially Nutley. where, unlike the
other places, there is no available
means for getting other water.
Nutley is supplied now by the Mont
clair Water Company. under con
tract with the East Jersey Company,
which was subsequently assigned by
the latter to the Montcair corpora
tion. In its answer. filed by Town
Attorney William IL. Parry. it is set
forth that the town will suffer ir-
reparable damage and loss" IL the
East Jersey Water Company is re-
strained, because sit has no other
source of supply and no provision
has been made either by the Legis-
lature of the State of New Jersey or
the water commission of the State
to furnish the said town water for
t.,l,4 l., IND 10,
the merits of the controversy be-
tween the attorney general and the
defendant, the East Jersey Water
Company; its only concern is that its
inhabitants shall have pure and
wholesome supply of water.
The answer further sets out that
Nutley made the contract under the
assumption that the East Jersey
Water Company had power under its
charter TO collect. furnish and sell
water.
1t asks that no injunction be issued
restraining the East Jersey Water
Company from delivering nor the
town of Nutley from receiving water
until either the Legislature. the State
Water Supply Commission or the
town itself shall have had an oppor-
tunity to obtain a supply of water
sufficient for its needs.
When Attorney General Edmund
Wilson first brought suit on behalf
of the State, ii was set forth that
the East Jersey Water Company
was, under its charter. precluded
from taking water from a stream of
less width than the Delaware at
Phillipsburg. The Passaie at Little
Falls is much narrower than the
statutory designation.
Like Nutley the other towns are
supplied by subsidiary companies
Little Falls is supplied by the Little
Falls WSter Company, the city of
Bayonne and the other towns by the
New York and New Jersey Water
Company, and like Nutley, they have
no interest in the suit except as it
affects their supply
Joseph Macdonald. appearing for
the township of Little Falls. AYERS
that the township has the right to
take water from the Passaic river
there because the town is on its
banks, and any water diverted finds
It's way back TO the stream through
the soil and otherwise, so that there
is no appreciable diminution of the
flow
Judge Gilbert Collins, of Collins
& Corbin, is defending the action
on behalf of the East Jersey Water
Company, its subsidiaries and the
towns il supplies. He holds that the
company simply does the pumping
as the direct agent of the towns that
are being supplied.