New Britain herald., 1928-01-11
AVERAL PROTESTS
 RIVER DIVERSION
Urges N1alaK to Hdp Ddslt
 Sol by Boston


 simply that of whether or not the city Of Boston is going to take part of the watershed of the Connecticut river and eventually drain 1t into the Atlantic ocean. according to Deputy Atty-General Ernest L. Averill. who spoke on the present between Connecticut and Massachusetts to tho members of the Kiwanis club today.
 MT. Averill showed . map of Maa- sachusetts in which he pointed out that the city of Boston. by looking 75 years ahead. l. planning to con- struct . tunnel from . reservoir which 1t now taps to tho Ware river. and from there to the Swift river. both tributaries of ths Connecticut river. aAd divert water from the Connecticut river to the Atlantic coast watersheds. This ;s something the war department has never :e- fore permitted unless 1t has been to improve navigation. ha said. He added that since it will not help navigation any by draining waters from the Connecticut watershed into the Atlantic ocean. he did not be- lieve the war department would ap- prove it.
 He said the city of Boston states that all it wants from the Ware aud Swift rivers is the flood water, but that the actual facts show the city wants to take enough water 90 that it will interfere with navigation on the Connecticut river. with Hartford sewage disposal and that 1t will re- duce the amount of water needed for domestic purposes along the Connecticut river.
 MT. Averill said that Connecticut Is step ahead of Massachusetts in the matter of sewage disposal but that if all sewage is. removed from the Connecticut river in Connecticut. there still remainA what flows in from Massachusetts and there must be sufficient flowage to carry 1t away.
 The proposed plan is to build tunnel from the reservoir on the At lantic watershed side of the Ware river and thence to the Swift river, on the Connecticut watershed side, there to build two dams and stor- age reservoir. The latter would by 59 square miles in area and would have a daily capacity of 40 billion gallons of water. All Connecticut would get would be 20 million gall Ions day, which. he said, is below the low flowage of the stream now. Hartford boats, if heavily loaded sometimes have trouble getting as far as the Hartford dock and the government spends thousands of dollars a year to keep navigation open from Saybrook to Hartford. It is not a question of few feet but the very last inch, the state official 
 The tunnel. Mr. Averill said, would be 13 feet in diameter and 12 miles long and would have a capacity of 800 million gallons a day. This would take away from Connecticut water which would be lost to the state forever.
 The deputy attorney generla said it is a question of arousing public in- terest in the issue and seeing that 1t is prevented before Massachusetts is permitted to expend the &65.000,00O for the purpose. After that, he said. no court in tho land would give Connecticut the verdict. He asked that civic clubs and the public in general prevail upon the from this district to bring as much pressure to bear and to give as full publicity as possible to the project, to prevent the city of Boston taking Connecticut river water.
 Mir. Averill spoke in place of Judge E. w. filling, attorney general. Judge filling. who had agreed to speak, was presented and introduced his assistant. who. he said, was the best informed man in Connecticut on the subject.