JERSEY CITY’S WATER SUPPLY.
AFTER much deliberation the Jersey City street and water board awarded the contract for a new water supply to the East Jersey Water Com. pany, of which Vice President-elect Garret A Hobart is president; the three Republicans voting in the affirmative and the two Democrats in the negative.
The plan adopted is that known as the Port Oram and Beach Glen supply, with one pipe having a capacity of 50,000,000 gallons daily by gravity at a head of 210 feet in the high service or Bergen reservoir in Jersey City. The water is to be drawn from the watershed of the Rockaway river, near its head. The price is $35 per 1,000,000 gallons for from a minimum supply of 20,000,000 gallons up to 25,000,000. Then the price will be $36 up to 30,000,000gallons. From 30,000,000 to 40,000,000 gallons the price will be $35, and from that to the maximum, $34.
The contract is to run twenty-five years; but the city has the option of buying the plant at the end of ten, fifteen, or twenty-five years for $6,900,000. The water is to be delivered by gravity at high service, Jersey City, at an elevation of 210 feet.
The company is to build two principal reservoirs, one at Long Wood, near Port Oram, the other at Glen Beach. These reservoirs, in conjunction with smaller reservoirs situated in convenient parts of the mountains will insure the city a supply for 100 days at a rate of consumption of 50,000.000 gallons a day, and will have a joint storage capacity of 10,800,000,000 gallons. Besides the Upper Rockaway river, the waters of Green Pond and Green Pond brook will be laid under contribution. The work is to be in operation within three years from the date of the contract.
The prices per 1,000,000 gallons compare favorably with any ever offered, while the upset price is $1,050,000 less than offered last year by the Jersey City Water Company, whose bid was accepted and afterwards set aside by the courts.
The only competitor the East Jersey Company had for the contract was the Rockaway and Hudson,which represents the J. Cooper Lord estate of Boonton. The latter company’s bid was higher than the East Jersey’s, asking,however, only $7,100,000 for a double pipe line piant; water to be taken from the same sources as offered by the East Jersey, as against $6,990,000 for the East Jersey with only a single pipe line.
