208 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 320 



THE WATER PROBLEM OF NEW YORK. 



The water problem before the city of New York, how to meet 

 the increasing demands of the vast and fast-growing population 

 for water for domestic use, sanitary purposes, and for the require- 

 ments of commerce and manufacture, has been answered by Mr. 

 John R. Bartlett. While engineers and politicians have been spec- 

 ulating with the limited possibilities of the Croton watershed, and 

 with visionary plans for diverting the waters of the upper Ramapo 

 River, and for getting an additional supply from the Adirondacks 

 or Lake Erie, and have reduced to despair sanitarians and all 

 others acquainted with the really critical condition of the city's af- 

 fairs on the water question, Mr. Bartlett has been quietly maturing 

 plans which meet the emergency practically and conclusively. He 

 offers to furnish the city with not less than 50,000,000 gallons of 

 pure water daily, under a head pressure of three hundred feet. 

 He and associates have the water to sell, the unquestioned right to 

 sell it, and will pour it into the city ready for use without demand- 

 ing of the city a single dollar before the water has been delivered. 



These plans have been recently presented to the sinking-fund 

 commissioners of the city, and are elaborately set forth in a folio 

 volume of a hundred and seventeen pages. The water is to come 

 from the Passaic watershed, situated in the States of New Jersey 

 and New York ; and the quantity supplied to New York City will 

 not more than equal the amount of rainfall in that portion of the 

 watershed which lies in New York State. In the book is discussed 

 every phase of the problem. It anticipates every question which 

 the extent of the plans suggests, and abounds in statistics and com- 

 parative calculations which show deep research, and will be valua- 

 ble for reference for all cities. 



In order to properly appreciate the magnitude and the benefi- 

 cence of this project, an outline of its inception and progress is 

 necessary. The data which follow are furnished by Mr. Bartlett's 

 book and the recent well-known history of New Jersey. They tell 

 a story of successful enterprise, on whose completion the State of 

 New Jersey and the entire metropolitan district are to be pro- 

 foundly congratulated. 



Mr. Bartlett first directed his attention to the crying demand for 

 pure water raised by the cities and towns east of the Orange Moun- 

 tains in New Jersey. Newark and Jersey City, the chief municipal 

 centres of this region, and incidentally the suburban and adjacent 

 towns, had been agitating the question for years. Official inquiries 

 of engineers and health-officers instituted by these plans had 

 evoked on each occasion the startling result that the water fur- 

 nished their people was unfit for use, and was a constant menace 

 to the health of the communities. The various examinations 

 showed a steadily increasing danger. This was made manifestly 

 logical and necessary by the fact that the water for this region was 

 taken from the lower Passaic River, a tidal stream, and at a point 

 in the river where the pollution from the fast-growing cities and 

 increasing factories was all deposited. 



The only remedy lay in getting water from a source above the 

 point of pollution. The State was manifestly helpless, because of 

 its inability to legislate to any particular locality rights to which all 

 places had a just claim ; nor could it attempt a general relief, be- 

 cause of the immense amount of money which would be required 

 to pay for the condemned land and the taking-away of individual 

 rights. Even if this should be accomplished by a vote of the peo- 

 ple of the State, other serious constitutional objections interposed, 

 and difficulties of a practical and business nature which were well- 

 nigh insurmountable. The helplessness of the cities themselves 

 was even more pronounced, as added to the State's difficulties 

 were individual indebtedness and political imbroglios, which have 

 been fully ventilated during the last year. 



A unification of all interests was essential, — a harmony of ac- 

 tion on the part of all the water companies and corporations having 

 rights below the point designed for the source of supply, a similar 

 harmony of all riparian owners, and a harmony of all legal rights 

 to the water, — in fact, a condition was essential which seemed 

 beyond the reasonable power of human energy to bring about, and 

 this is the condition which Mr. Bartlett has successfully worked 

 out. 



The detailed story of how the history of this entire section, from 



its original granting to the present time, was mastered, in order to 

 ascertain beyond peradventure the absolute rights of every claim- 

 ant ; how the records of judicial action during this time were all 

 consulted to justify these rights ; how the engineering problems, as 

 many as anticipation of any diverse plans might ev'er involve, were 

 all solved ; how the legal aspect of every phase of the work was 

 fully understood at each step ; how the immense business manipu- 

 lations of purchasing the many acres of property arid satisfying all 

 owners were accomplished, — how all these things were done will 

 be an interesting chapter of a future history of New Jersey. Suf- 

 fice it here to note with amazement and pride that it all has been 

 done. 



The immense Passaic watershed of the States of New Jersey 

 and New York was at command, and the water was ready to be 

 poured into the houses of the long-suffering people. Here devel- 

 oped the most interesting phase of the project. The extent of the 

 watershed is about 877 square miles. The average daily capacity is 

 700,000,000 gallons. A computation based on the most generous 

 allowances, and in accordance with the well-known increasing de- 

 mands for water -by each succeeding generation, showed that the 

 State of New Jersey could not within any time that fair calculation 

 could devise, certainly not within a hundred years, use, or waste in 

 generous use, more than 300,000,000 gallons daily. The remain- 

 der, 400,000,000 gallons, would continue as now to flow away into 

 the sea. To devote to practical use this immense amount of water 

 was a problem which immediately arose. The condition of New 

 York City and its fast-increasing water wants suggested at once a 

 proper place to bestow it. Here the Croton watershed was being 

 taxed to its utmost capacity. Aside from the danger to a great 

 citv like New York of depending on only one source of supply for 

 water, — a danger which all great municipalities recognize and 

 guard against to the utmost limit, — this source was showing evi- 

 dence of soon becoming insufficient to supply the requisite amount 

 of water. Its whole capacity, with Quaker Bridge dam and every 

 other storing contrivance utilized, would be only 250,000,000 gal- 

 lons daily. To estimate the future by the records of the past, 

 within ten years the wants of the people of New York City could 

 not be supplied. 



The dependence on a bountiful supply of water of a city's prog- 

 ress and welfare is so well known that it need not be argued. It 

 is an axiom. In small towns, where the chief consumption is con- 

 fined to the direct uses of the inhabitants, the amount of water . 

 used per capita can be small ; but in a large municipality people 

 are not the only consumers. The onward march of steam, and the 

 various succeeding inventions of civilization, have rendered neces- 

 sary an immense amount of water for their assistance. Large 

 cities, therefore, have this quantity included in the per capita use 

 of water; and, besides the other considerations of better health 

 and greater security, a larger /^r capita use of water indicates an 

 advanced state of prosperity. A ridiculous argument has been 

 used in New York against increasing the water-supply. " Let the 

 waste of water be stopped," it said : " we are using too much." 

 The fact is, that a generous use of water could not be indulged 

 without a generous waste. The permanent necessity of the for- 

 mer renders the latter not an evil, but a desirable condition. 

 Moreover, statistics show that the ratio of increase of population 

 does not in any degree determine the ratio of increase in the water 

 wants of a city; because, whereas in a small community 10 gal- 

 lons daily /<?r capita might be sufficient, in a large community the 

 various other uses of water mentioned above would render \X\& per 

 capita needs considerably over 50 gallons. 



A striking illustration is furnished by the city of Philadelphia, 

 where in 1810 they used 7 gallons of water per capita ; in 1830, 

 17 gallons ; in 1S60, 36 gallons ; in 1880, 68 gallons ; in 1886, 80 

 gallons; and it is said the figures of this year will show 100 gal- 

 lons. 



These facts serve to show more conclusively the imminent neces- 

 sity for immediate attention to New York's wants. Mr. Bartlett's 

 efforts had brought an available quantity of water from a pure 

 source to the opposite banks of the Hudson, where he was con- 

 fronted with a new series of problems, legal and mechanical. He 

 meets all the questions as to the right to bring the water through 

 and out of the State of New Jersey with opinions giving specific 



