Dry Gotham

For months New York City's 6,930,446 citizens have been living under the threat of an acute water famine this summer. The 1930 Drought followed by a mild winter of little snow has halved the normal supply to carry the city through the year. Every little rainfall this spring in the vast Hudson River watershed has made welcome news in the metropolitan Press. Public officials have issued warning after warning. Campaigns (welcomed by plumbers) to repair all leaky faucets have been pressed. Citizens caught sprinkling their lawns or washing down their front sidewalks were liable to arrest. Looming in the background is the possible necessity of water-rationing when hot days come.

This state of affairs made New York citizens more than ordinarily interested last week in their State's struggle before the U. S. Supreme Court to enlarge the city's water supply by tapping the distant Delaware River. At present the city pipes most of its water 100 mi. down from the Ashokan (130-billion-gal.) and the Schoharie (20-billion-gal.) reservoirs in the Catskill mountains. Other big reservoirs (Croton, Kensico) nearer the city supplement this supply. Four years ago the city administration authorized a $275,000,000 program whereby the headwaters of the Delaware, all within New York State, would contribute materially to the municipal supply through an 80-mi. aqueduct. New Jersey hustled into the Supreme Court with a demand for an injunction against New York on the ground that diversion of the Delaware would seriously damage its interests. Pennsylvania, mindful of Philadelphia's future water needs, joined the fray. To Special Master Charles Newell Burch of Memphis the Supreme Court referred the case for hearing. Last February Mr. Burch in his report advised the Court to allow New York to draw 440,000,000 gal. per day from the upper Delaware (about one-sixth of its average flow) provided it constructed plants to eliminate sewage and industrial waste from the river below the diversion.

Last week's argument before the Supreme Court was on the Burch report. Its approval was sought by New York City's corporation counsel and an assistant attorney general of the State. Chief Justice Hughes withdrew from the case because he had once done legal work on the city's water program. Of counsel for New Jersey was U. S. Representative James Montgomery Beck of Pennsylvania. This one-time Solicitor General of the U. S. whose right to a House seat was questioned because his domicile was in Washington, not Philadelphia, used to spend summers at Sea Bright, N. J. He argued that New York City should get its water from the Hudson River valley, good for another 100 years, and not leap out of bounds to injure other States. Pennsylvania's counsel asked protection against the day when Philadelphia would "stop drinking purified sewage" and draw fresh water from the Delaware.

The water which New York City seeks from the Delaware equals one-half of the city's present daily consumption (880,000,000 gal.). The 6,930,446 citizens average 129 gal. per day each to drink, bathe in, cook with, wash clothes, heat and light homes, put out fires, wash streets, flush sewers.

Of the 24 New York reservoirs supplying water to the city, biggest and best is Ashokan.* Last month Ashokan with a 17-billion gal. driblet in it was declared virtually empty. It has now risen to 50 billion gal. Normally at this season it should be nearly full to carry the city through the summer. Croton reservoir was 85% full last week. The city had on hand about a five-month supply of water.

Many a fictioneer has dallied with the idea of how a villainous character of his might poison the whole New York water supply by depositing lethal germs in the reservoirs. City officials scoff at the notion as pure fancy. They cite these facts against the execution of such a plot: 1) the watersheds and reservoirs are watched by a special sanitary patrol; 2) water is impounded in Ashokan for three months, so long that virulent bugs would die before getting into the aqueduct; 3) daily chemical tests of the water (22,000 per year) are made from Ashokan all the way down the chain into the heart of the city for the instant detection of poison or pollution; 4) so large is the amount of water flowing into the city, so great is its admixture and dilution that a small army of poisoners could not put in enough bacteria to produce contamination; 5) at 50 of the 95 available places along the chain the water is being constantly chlorinated.

*Last month because New York City disputed a local tax bill on its $7,000,000 Ashokan reservoir dam and real estate, the property was auctioned off to Ulster County for $181,099.45. The sale did not affect the water supply of the city, which can recover its holdings by paying the tax bill plus 10% interest.

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