Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-07-12
TO STOP BIDS ON
SEWER Tunnel BY
INJUNCTION SUIT.
New York, Jersey City, Pater-
son and Passaic to Join
in Proceedings.
WILL REQUEST CHANCERY
COURT FOR WRIT MONDAY
Claim Sewage from Newark
Meadows Through So, 100000
Tunnel Would PoIlute Bay.

'' "~6S - -. - y - -
Meadows Through So, 100000
Tunnel Would PoIlute Bay.
penditure of s6,OOO,OOO by the Passaic
Valley Sewerage Commission for the
construction of a tunnel from the
Newark meadows to Robbins Reef in
New York Bay is to be opened Mon
day in the Chancery Court in Jersey
City. when an application for an in
junction will be made by Warren
Dixon, representing the combined in
terests of city officials and sanitary
engineering experts from New York,
Jersey City, Paterson and Passaic.
A conference was held today In the
office of ]. Hosey Osborn in the City
Hall in Passdic between DR.. Charles
E. North, a consulting sanitary engi
neer, of New York city, and John w.
Griffin, an engineer associated with
the water department of Jersey City,
at which it was decided to get the
signatures of as many prominent men
as possible in the fqSr cities metioned
attached to the petition applying for
an injunction.
Sewage Should First Be Purified.
1t is pointed out by those interested
in securing the injunction that even
If the sewage is carried way out to
Robbins Reef it will eventually have
to be purified before it can be dumped
into the waters of New York bay and
if the expense of publication must
eventually be born, the sewage could
just as well be treated on the mead
ows and disposed of in Newark bay
This plan they claim would prevent
the expenditure of the $6.000,000 for
the tunnel, which is planned to carry
the sewage underground to Robbins
Reef.
Bids on the tunnel work will be
opened on Tuesday at the office of
the Passaic Valley Sewer Commission
in this city, and it is for this reason
that the utmost haste is urged in
bringing about the application for the
injunction which would restrain the
awarding of contracts for the sewer
until the sewer commission shows
cause why the sewerage should not
be emptied into Newark bay.
Newarkers Only Ones Opposed.
The officials in the cities interested
in bringing about the erection of the
disposal plant at the meadows claim
the residents of Newark are the only
ones opposed to this plan. They say
that the local business men have Wis
IN, nf f.ly ho nf ha
greatest harbors in the country and
for this reason do not want to run
the risk of it's being contaminated
with the sewage from northern New
Jersey.
Charles N. Sterret, former president
of the finance board of Paterson;
Nathan Barnett and William Buck
ley, both prominent business men and
politicians in Paterson; Mayor George
N. Seger and Eugene Beggs, father of
Surrogate Beggs, both of Passaic,
have become interested in the matter.
Commissioner Osborn, of Passaic,
is not inclined to favor the idea of
bringing an injunction against the
commission because he says it would
only delay matters and may not ac-
complish the desired results. He says
he has utmost confidence in the en-
gineers of the commission and is sat
isfied that they are doing what Is
best.
In spite of his opposition, however,
canvass is being made today among
the prominent men of Passaic, with
a view of obtaining their signatures
to the petition for the injunction.
Fight Started by N. Y. and Jersey City.
The fight against the tunnel plan
was started, it is claimed, by Jersey
city and New York city. municipali-
ties which will not benefit materially
~ the construction of the Passaic
sewer. 1t is for this Commissioner
Osborn says that he does not feel in
clined to join in the movement to
secure the injunction. 1t was
rumored today that DR.. North is en-
ployed by a trade organization in
New York to interest people in Jer-
sey in opposing the sewer disposal
plant In New York bay.
Several hearings have been held by
New York parties seeking to have the
commission restrained from pouring
its sewage in New York bay, and re-
Gently an agitation was started which
claimed that the disposal plant at
Robbins Reef would endanger the
passage of large ocean liners in New
York bay.
The commission engineers secuted
this idea. though. for they claimed
that the disposal plant would be, con-
structed at depth OF forty feet be-
low mean low water. The rivers and
harbors commission has already said
that forty feet would give sufficient
clearage for any of the vessels using
New York harbor.
A few years ago Mayor Mcbride,
of Paterson, named commission
composed of Charles H. Sterret. Will
lam Berdan and DR.. john L. Leal for
the purpose of studying the rac-
ticability of treating the sewage in
the Newark meadows and then dis
posing of it in Newark bay. Follow
ing their Investigations they drew up
a set of resolutions strongly recon-
mending that this course be adopted.
1t is charged that through the in
fiuence of the local city officials this
plan was turned down by the sewer
commissioners on the ground that 1t
would be detrimental to Newark and
the development of Newark bay.