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N. J. Mosquito Extermination Association 



meadows, serving the pump at Frank Creek, and made hastily by 

 contract, were deemed entirely inadequate for purposes intended, in 

 that they lacked both width and depth. They were obstructed, too, by 

 roots and stumps to such an extent that drainage was impeded, re- 

 sulting in decidedly unsatisfactory conditions. On the same area our 

 difficulties were augmented by the discovery of several very bad leaks 

 at different points along the thirty-six inch main of the New York 

 and New Jersey Water Company, which stretches across the 

 meadows from the Bergen County line to Bayonne. These leaks be- 

 came so numerous and of such dimensions during the winter, that 

 it is estimated that several million gallons of water were wasted and 

 spread over about fifteen hundred acres of the Kearny Meadows 

 in addition to the accumulation of surface water and river water 

 forced in by high tides from the Hackensack and Passaic Rivers. 



The elevation of this entire area is only a few inches above low 

 water in those rivers which surround this area on the south-west 

 and north-east. We have often noticed at the bottom of wide 

 ditches on this territory when pumped almost dry, numerous min- 

 iature geysers, and when tested, water from such geysers proved 

 to be about four per cent saline — clearly indicating, I think, that 

 river water is forced in through subterranean channels. Again, in a 

 dry period when no surface water is accumulating and when the 

 surface is dry to a depth of twelve to fifteen inches, the meadows 

 will become flooded in a few days after the suspension of pump- 

 ing — a condition confronting us at the beginning of every season. 



About the middle of April, 1918, there occurred a period of high 

 tides, breaking all tide records for the past twenty-four years. The 

 dikes on the west side of the Hackensack River were swept away 

 to the extent of several hundred feet at various places from Lincoln 

 Highway to Bergen County — 2. distance of about six miles — and three 

 sluice gates were put out cf working order temporarily. The meadows 

 were flooded by the inrushing water to a depth of about five feet, 

 covering an area of several thousand acres. Railroad embankments 

 were washed away. The tide passing over the Belleville Turnpike 

 and through railroad culverts rushed westward to Frank Creek — a 

 distance of four and one^half miles — carrying with it vast quanti- 

 ties of debris of every description, including railroad filling, sods 

 and other material piled along ditches. At the end of about two 

 weeks, the water had receded sufficiently for us to find that practi- 



