WATER FOR NEW YORK CITY

Once more the subject of tapping the great lakes and of obtaining a water supply from them or from lake George or lake Champlain for the supply of New York city has come to the front, apropos of the Smith bill forbidding Dutchess county, N. Y., to be used as a water furnisher for the metropolis. The alleged grounds for advocating the great and the smaller lakes as the best sources for the supply of New York are many. Among them it is confidently urged that the cost would be less; that the engineering difficulties would not be so great as many think, that the supply would be unfailing; that the water would be so pure in quality as not to require filtering; and that the elevation of the lakes would be so high as to do away with the expense of building and maintaining pumping stations. If all, or even a majority of these factors were present, then it would certainly be good policy to entertain the idea. As to the engineering difficulties: It is argued that, because the trend of the ground from these lakes to the coast is on the down grade, therefore, there would be much less trouble in carrying water down from them, which again, would introduce the element of cheapness. Those who uphold this theory forget the enormous expense which would accompany the buying up of rights of way, bridging valleys, and building conduits, all of which would be necessary wherever the water was brought from, and the greater the distance, of course, the more costly the experiment would be. Putting out of sight the loss of head from friction—no inconsiderable factor when the other difficulties attending the proposed source are considered—there remain those of pumping and purity. Lake George, by itself, even though its elevation above tide water is 322 feet, could not supply water from a head high enough to meet the pressure necessary in the high-level in New York city. The same objection can be brought against lake Champlain. In each case, the water would have to he pumped to a suitable elevation—in the case of lake Champlain certainly of 300 feet or more, and at least the same in that of lake George, the latter being unable, besides, to supply more (if it did not furnish less) than half the amount required. If lake Ontario is selected, it must not be forgotten that its level is not more than 247 feet above tidewater, whereas the elevation at which water should he delivered in New York is 300 feet, so that, if sufficient provision is made for the necessary fail for a gravity flow through an aqueduct, the water of that lake would need to be pumped 300 feet at least, so as to be available. The same objection as to pumping applies to lake Erie, which, even with its 588-foot elevation, would be insufficient to deliver water to this city by gravity. The objection to lake George is thought to be met as follows by Assemblyman John T. Smith, author of the Dutchess County bill: “The upper Hudson and lake George watersheds contain 2,900 square miles. A tunnel three miles long will turn the waters of Schroon lake into lake George, and a canal one mile long will turn the upper Hudson at Riverside into the Schroon river watershed. By building a dam at the lower end of lake George, so as to raise its waters 117 feet, making an elevation 440 feet above tide, an aqueduct 155 miles long can be built to deliver water into the Croton watershed in lower Dutchess at an elevation of 285 feet above tide, or, allowing the same fall as the new Croton aqueduct, at an elevation of 330 feet. The area of lake George reservoir would be about fifty-four square miles.” But the elevation referred to would not suffice for delivering a gravity supply to New York; pumping must necessarily be resorted to. That being so, the following figures presented by Mr. Smith are given simply for what they are worth. Even he allows that they are only an approximate estimate for building a tunnel sufficient for 500,000,000 gallons a day: Condemnation of the whole of lake George watershed, three times the assessed valuation ($1,500,000), $4,500,000; dams at Ticonderoga and head of lake, $(15.500,000; dams on Schroon lake and Hudson river, $200,000; clearing shores of lake, $500,000; tunnel and canals for flood water of rivers, $1,900,000; tunnels and pipes for Croton river, $56,000,000; cost of right of way for pipe lines and tunnel, $1,000,000; for supervision and contingencies, $10,500,000; total. $81,310,000. Granting, however, for the moment, that these are correct, and that the arguments preceding his are founded on truth, there remains another difficulty—that of the quality of the water which must be delivered to New York in a non-diseasc-producing and perfectly wholesome condition, so as to avoid, if possible, the expense of filtration. Passing over the fact, now more or less universally acknowledged, that all water intended for mankind to drink should be filtered, it can be shown that the water from lakes George, Champlain, Ontario and Erie, if brought to New York, would require filtering. Take lake Erie, for instance, and look at Cleveland’s experience, and that of other cities and towns along its shores. The ravages of typhoid, owing to the use of its water for domestic purposes, proves its waters to be polluted. Lake Ontario’s water is equally an object of suspicion, on account of the enormous amount of sewage—always steadily on the increase—which is constantly being discharged into it from the large cities and industries on its banks. Take lake George or lake Champlain: Connected with each are sufficient hotel and other interests to render their waters more than suspected. Especially is this the case at lake George, where, as on lake Schroon, there are extensive hotel, summer residence and cottage interests, besides villages and industrial establishments, some on the banks, others on streams discharging into those lakes. The same may be said of the upper Hudson watershed as a whole. If, therefore, filtration is necessary, it stands to reason that its expense should not be added to by going hundreds of miles away to secure a water no better—possibly worse—than what can be secured close at home. The most important condition of all is, therefore, lacking—that of the purity and wholesomeness of the water. Abundance there may be—enough to supply at least 500,000,000 gallons a day in addition to the present Croton supply. The third requisite—that of availability to supply that amount, without pumping at an elevation of 300 feet above tide level in New York city, even if the insistency of Mr. Smith and ohers that it can be supplied is correct, need not now be brought forward, so long as the water so de’ livered needs filtration. And, as any new water supply for this city should be filtered, so as to place it beyond suspicion, the first and third points urged in favor of the lakes’ supply need not be considered.

R. E.