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Vol. LXXXVIII
JULY 22, igii
No. 2262
CATSKILL WATER WILL BE HEREIN 1913.
A{ter That There Will Be No Talk of a Water Famine for at Least
Half a Century—A Giant Engineering Work Planned Without Precedents,
ALARMED by the prospect of a water
famine, with its attendant peril
from tire and disease, it is only natural
that property owners and realty develop¬
ers in the outskirts of the city should
wonder when this danger will be per¬
manently abated. It is .'^mall consolation
to companies having in mind the develop¬
ment of tracts in the suburbs of Queens,
the Bronx and Westchester to be told
that future safety lies in heavy rain falls.
They demand assurance of permanent re¬
lief. The inspector who visits the prem¬
ises to repair the leaky pipe and the park
attendant who turns off the flow of water
But the cjuestion that arises in tlie mind
of the property owner and realty man is
how long the additional supply will prove
a barrier to a repetition of the water
shortage of 1911. At the rate New York
ha.s grown within the last quarter of a
century, the Catskill aaueduct should he
suflicient to supply an adequate amount
of water for half a century. It may be
necessary in a quarter of a century to
extend the watershed area of New York
into the Adirondacks, or it may not he
necessary to do this for a century. Suffice
it to say, however, that if New Y'ork can
get safely through the present stringency
city, but because the use of salt and
sewage ladeiied harbor water will be
rendered unnecessary with the high pres¬
sure system.
The work of building the great water¬
way is naw more than half done. If the
benefits from experience in work of this
kind count for efflciency, and efficiency
represents more rapid work, the spark¬
ling springs of the Catskills will be
brought to the very homes of the summer
tourist ere he visits his vacation haunts
year after next.
New Y'orkers are sticklers for getting
their money's worth. Space does not per-
from the public fountains are symbols of
the seriousness of the present shortage of
supply. What is the city doing to insure
an adequate supply? How soon will the
water from the Catskills be available for
parched and thirsty- New York? How
long will this new supply be adequate?
The answer is found in the twenty-four-
hour workday of l;.,0(lO men scattered
over a line of about 13() miles and work¬
ing at elevations ranging frum TOIl feet
above mean sea level to depths twenty-
one times further into the earth than lie
the f.jundation grillages of New York's
tallest skyscraper. All of this army of
diggers, concrete mixers, ironworkers,
drillers and engineers are running a
thrilling race against time. Their goal is
to deliver an additional supply of water
into the Bronx and Manhattan hy the
summer of 1913.
and be patient for twenty-four months
longer, the next three generations will
not have to give anxious thought to the
water supply.
New York will receive for the $11)1,-
S."jO,fX10 it is expending for 4,000,000 in¬
habitants of to-day and its 120,000,000
population of a half century hence,
first, a ibetter and purer water.
It will also have sufRcient water
to permit the flushing of all streets
and doing away with the unsanitary
sweeping of them that is now practiced.
Finally, it will have a fire-fighting water
pressure that will not depend upon pumps
or fire engines for reaching to the height
of tall buildings. The new supply will
represent a means to a lowering of the
insurance rates, not only as a result of
increased high pressure fire service area,
which will be extended to all parts of the
mit an exhaustive account of how the
huge Catskill water fund is being spent
hy Commiaisoners Charles Straus, Charles
N. Chadwick and John F. Galvin, hut a
eummary of the complete Catskill Moun¬
tain water system will give some con¬
ception of the magnitude of the work they
are conducting.
The streams to be dev|iloped are the
Esopus, Rondout, Schoharie and Catskijl.
The watershed of the Esopus is 255
square iniles; of the Rondout, 170 square
miles; of the Schoharie, 22S square miles,
and of the Catskill, 224 square miles. The
f^quare mile area of New York City is
'.i'lG. The capacity of these watersheda is
L'.^0,000,000 gallons a day from the
Esopus (equal to the present normal sup¬
ply from the Croton watershed); Ron¬
dout, 157,000.000 gallons a day; Scho¬
harie, 200,000,1100 gallons a day, and Cat-