JERSEY CITY’S WATER SUPPLY.

JERSEY CITY'S WATER SUPPLY.

工程师Vermeule,任命为superin专家tend the details of giving Jersey City a supply of wholesome water, has presented his report on the subject. In it he altogether opposes the filtration of the Passaic water, which, however, he admits to be possible, though attended with such difficulties as to render its practicability a problem exceedingly difficult to solve. What then must be done for Jersey City? The contract with the East Jersey Company to furnish Pequannock water provides only for a temporary supply. On its face it calls for 20,000,000 gallons daily; but no quantity is specified. All that is actually laid down is,that the company shall give Jersey City the surplus of its Newark supply, whatever that may be. At a recent conference it was stated that the daily supply never exceeded 13,000,444 gallons, and had fallen as low as 9,000,000 gallons. The outcome of it all is, therefore, that for some time longer at least the people of Jersey City must drink a compound of Pequannock water and Passaic filth. It was claimed, however, that the Passaic water, independently of filtration, could be kept pure, and it was proposed to take legal steps to prevent the further pollution of the river between Belleville and Acquacanonck. But Corporation Counsel Bell holds out very little hope that the pollution of the river can be prevented. He says that the only right the State gave the city was tv take from the river whatever quantity of water it needed in whatever condition it found the water. The term “pure and wholesome,” Mr. Blair interpreted to apply to the water at the time the act was passed, which was 1852. Mr. Blair says that the pollution of the water has been going on in an open and notorious manner for forty years, and that millions of dollars have meanwhile been invested in important and legitimate industries on the river banks. The water has been polluted he said ; but the lapse of time without protest has given the investors rights which can not be overcome without long and costly litigation, if at all. If, therefore, filtration is not to be resorted to, then it only remains to bring the water from some source far removed from any possibility of pollution. Jersey City needs at present, works of a daily capacity of at least 35,000,000 to be increased to 50,000,000 gallons daily, whenever such increase shall be needed. Such a water supply can frequently,as it can best be procured from a ground or spring water source. If this water is proved after analysis to be thoroughly free from impurities, well and good. If it is not, then such impurities should be mechanically removed —and even then the purification, says Mr. S. P. Axtell in a recent article, should be “completed with a deep and thorough filtration.” For the present it would seem as if Jersey City will have to go very far to secure a requisite supply of wholesome water. But what is to prevent the dual system being installed? Vvith abundance of water on all sides, enough of the unfiltered river water could easily be supplied for all non-domestic uses, leaving the filtered water, or that brought from afar, for the daily cooking and drinking consumption.

Governor Morton, of New York, has signed Mr. Goodsell’s bill authorizing villages owning water works to sell water to adjoining towns and villages.