HYDROLOGY OF NEW YORK 



523 



inated water supplies, discontinuing the use of Hudson and 

 Mohawk rivers therefor, and reserving them instead for sewage 

 disposal. This proposition is equally true as regards the other 

 principal rivers of the State. 



The foregoing indicates that pure water supply and sewage dis- 

 posal must go together — that they are of equal importance and 

 neither can be neglected. To accomplish these objects, a per- 

 manent State water supply and sewage disposal commission 

 should be created at some time in the future. This commission 

 would work substantially on the lines laid down by the several 

 English commissions, who have considered questions of water 

 supply and sewage disposal for the last 40 to 50 years. 1 



Before the work of such a commission can be effective, it is 

 necessary that a new topographical map of the State be made 

 at a scale not smaller than rw^fm • The work of the English com- 

 missions has been specially effective because of having the Ordi- 

 nance Map of Great Britain at a considerably larger scale than 

 rs^oo. The area included in the several water centers should be 

 undertaken first and will occuy from 10 to 15 years. After this 

 map is well advanced, such a commission could be properly 

 appointed. 



In reference to the present topographical map of the State, it is 

 at too small a scale ( wwfcws ) to be of use other than as a general 

 guide. The definition of the several water areas will require more 

 precision than is possible on a map of the scale of the present 

 topographical map. 



The writer will indicate some of the duties which may be likely 

 to fall upon such a commission as is here suggested, drawing some- 

 what upon an act proposed a few years ago in New Jersey, largely 

 the work of the late Lebbeus B. Ward, of Jersey City. 



In the first place, with the topographical map at a scale of 

 rr-o-60 in hand, the commissioners would precisely define the area 



^oine of these commissions are. (1), Sewage of Towns Commission, 

 1858-65; (2) First Rivers' Pollution Commission, 1868; (3) Second Rivers' 

 Pollution Commission, 1870-74; (4) Royal Sanitary Commission, 1871; (5) 

 Royal Commission on Metropolitan Sewage Discharge, 1884-85; (6) Royal 

 Commission on Metropolitan Water Supply, 1893; (7) Royal Commission 

 on Metropolitan Water Supply within the limits of the Metropolitan Water 

 Companies, 1898-99; (8) Royal Commission on Sewage Disposal, 1898- 

 clate. 



