-OIF —— 
 
 • I 
 
 THOjVIAS H, MeGANN, Gity SUn/egor, 
 
 --A_TsTH)- 
 
 ALPHONSE FTELEY, Consulting Engineer, 
 
 -—on - 
 
 General Sewerane Plan, 
 
 FOR THE- 
 
 CITY OF HOBOKEN, N. J. 
 
 1890 . 
 
 Printed by order of the Mayor and Council 
 
 * 
 
 HOBOKEN, N. J. 
 
 THE EVENING NEWS PRINT, 
 
 1890 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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REPORT ON A 
 
 | 
 
 GENERAL SYSTEM OF SEWERAGE 
 
 Of the City of Hoboken, N. J. 
 
 Made in accordance with a resolution of the Mayor and Council, 
 
 passed June 11, 1890. 
 
 Hoboken, N. J., Sept. 8, 1890. 
 To the Honorable Mayor and Council of the 
 
 City of Hoboken: 
 
 Gentlemen — In accordance with your 
 resolution of June 11th, 1890, the following 
 report and accompanying map upon a general 
 sewerage system for your city is respectfully 
 submitted. 
 
 There are many good and urgent reasons 
 for the adoption and carrying into effect at 
 once a comprehensive plan of building your 
 q sewers and draining your low lands, for the 
 ( _ piecemeal and haphazard methods so far 
 ~f-* pursued in the laying out and construction of 
 3 your sewers, especially of those in the third 
 -£-~and fourth wards, have not only resulted in 
 unnecessary expense to the adjacent property 
 •owners, but considerable of what has been 
 done will need to be rebuilt in the future in 
 order to conform with a general system for 
 _.the whole city. 
 
 One of the main difficulties in the problem 
 was to design such a system as would utilize 
 
 <P 
 
 _ this aim has been kept constantly in view 
 throughout the study of the subject. 
 
 LOCAL CONDITIONS. 
 
 Your city occupies about one and one-half 
 miles of frontage on the west side of the Hud¬ 
 son River, directly opposite one of the great¬ 
 
 est cities of the world, and there is no reason 
 with the present facilities of communication 
 and the natural advantages of the location, 
 why your city should not be one of the most 
 important suburbs of the city of New York. 
 Without doubt one of the chief reasons why 
 it has not reached that distinguished position 
 is because of the fact that over one-half of 
 your city’s site is an unreclaimed marsh. The 
 growth of the city must necessarily be slow 
 until proper steps are taken for the filling in 
 of these swamps. 
 
 The marsh lands, comprising about four 
 hundred and fifty acres, varying iu width 
 east and west from one thousand to three 
 thousand feet, lie between the Palisade “trap” 
 ridge on the west boundary of the city, and 
 the short ridge of uplands which forms the 
 west shore of the Hudson River. This latter 
 ridge, together with “Castle Point,” vai'ying 
 in height from five to one hundred feet above 
 mean high water in the Hudson River, was 
 without doubt at one time an island, and the 
 present marsh lands, now occupy the site of 
 what was then one of the channels of the 
 river, which has become gradually filled up 
 by the action of the waters. The marsh con¬ 
 sists of blue clay or river silt overlaid with 
 several feet of decomposed swamp vegetation, 
 and ranges in depth from thirty to one hun¬ 
 dred feet. 
 
 41247 
 
Before tbe building of your city when the 
 south and north ends were open to the free 
 circulation of the tides, these swamps were 
 similar to the extensive meadows now seen to 
 the west of the “Palisades,” their surface 
 being at about mean high water, subject to 
 the periodical action of the tides they were 
 free from sewage or other contamination and 
 were no menace to the health of the commu¬ 
 nity. But by the construction of streets and 
 railroad embankments the natural outlets 
 have been closed and replaced by very inade¬ 
 quate substitutes in the shape of tidal sewers. 
 The consequence has been that the meadow 
 surface has sunk from high water level to 
 about two feet below the same datum, so that 
 during heavy rains, especially when they are 
 accompanied by extraordinary high tides, the 
 water is dammed in, causing innundation. 
 
 About one third of the swamp has now 
 been reclaimed, the elevations of the streets 
 varying from one to five feet above high 
 water. The greater portion of this reclaimed 
 area is south of Fifth street, and built up of 
 tenements containing a dense population. 
 This reclamation continues gradually by the 
 construction of streets, and largely by the 
 dumping in of the garbage collected each day 
 from the ash barrels of the entire city. Several 
 miles of tidal sewers, one-half being of brick 
 on piles, and the other half of wooden boxes, 
 have been constructed in this section from 
 time to time without any regard to a precon¬ 
 ceived plan for tbe whole. They have but 
 three outlets. The one at the south end of 
 Jefferson street extending about six hundred 
 feet beyond the limits of the city, and conse- 
 quentl} 7 outside of the jurisdiction of your 
 Honorable Body, empties into the Delaware, 
 Lackawanna and Western Railroad Canal, 
 which is one hundred feet wide. This outlet 
 starts at Ferry street as a four feet six inches 
 by six feet wooden box sewer reduces to a 
 thirty-inch iron pipe under the southerly em¬ 
 bankment of the railroad, and thence is said 
 to continue as a crib box eight feet square,an 
 examination of which failed, however, to dis¬ 
 cover any bottom except mud. The second 
 outlet is at the southerly end of Park avenue. 
 It was built some twenty years ago of crib 
 work, and is said also to be about eight feet 
 square. The bottom of the end at the rail¬ 
 road canal is now about one foot below low 
 
 water. Both these outlets are beyond the 
 city limits, and over three thousand feet from 
 the currt nt of the river, and are creating a 
 vile nuisance in the railroad canal, which at 
 some future day, when Jersey City becomes 
 more thickly populated, may have to be aba¬ 
 ted. The third outlet is through Third street, 
 commencing at Monroe street, or about one 
 thousand feet east of the west boundary of 
 the city as a three feet by four feet wooden 
 box: it extends as such easterly for about one 
 thousand feet to Grand street, where it con¬ 
 nects with a four foot circular brick sewer; 
 this latter increases to a five foot sewer at 
 Washington street, and continues as such to 
 the bulkhead line at tbe Hudson River. All 
 these outlets are practically level, their bot¬ 
 toms being at about the elvation of low water. 
 
 The lateral sewers throughout the meadow 
 district all connect with these outlets and are 
 partially brick, two feet six by three feet 
 nine, of oval shape, and partially wooden 
 boxes three feet by four feet; in most cases 
 they are flat or have very slight inclination, 
 and their bottoms are generally at the eleva¬ 
 tion of about one foot above mean low water. 
 In some places water and gas mains pass 
 through the sewers, forming dams within. 
 
 The tide gates are very imperfect affairs, 
 that at Jefferson street was built to be auto¬ 
 matic, but is is now inoperative. The one at 
 Park avenue, about two feet square, is atten¬ 
 ded by a gate keeper, while at Third street 
 there is no gate in operation. 
 
 As the modern system of plumbing prevails 
 throughout the city, nearly all cesspools and 
 water-closets are connected with the sewers. 
 When the tide rises it carries the floating re¬ 
 fuse discharged from the houses inland and 
 deposits it upon the open meadows. During 
 its passage the sewage generates sewer gas, 
 which accumulates in the upper open part of 
 the sewer, and then as the rising tide fills the 
 sewers it forces the dangerous gases up into 
 the dwellings and buildings. This serious ex¬ 
 posure to health is not alone confined to the 
 meadow districts, but because of the fact that 
 the upland sewers in Willow 7 avenue, Park 
 avenue and Garden street, are connected with 
 the meadow sewers, the evil effect of the sew¬ 
 er gas may, and no doubt does extend to the 
 houses on these streets as far north as Thir¬ 
 teenth street. 
 
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 The object of properly constructed sewers 
 is to quickly and effectively carry of the re¬ 
 fuse from the houses, but from what has been 
 •described above it is easy to see that this de¬ 
 sideratum is far from being attained under 
 the present conditions of your sewers in the 
 meadow r district. They are not sewers in the 
 true sense, they are nothing more or less than 
 elongated cesspools, and are not only inade¬ 
 quate as proper and healthful drains for your 
 houses, but by emptying their filthy contents 
 out on the meadows during the ebb and flow 
 of the tide, convert what might be a harmless 
 marsh into a pest hole. Even the river water 
 flowing in from the river contributes towards 
 the evil, for the excreta and sink slops from 
 the houses, being lighter than the salt water, 
 float on the surface of the incoming tide far 
 out on the meadow land, and is there deposit¬ 
 ed on the grass to fester and decay, causing 
 the disagreeable smell, which at times per. 
 meates the entire city. This state of affairs 
 exists largely over the entire meadow section 
 of the city south of Eighth street. The ditch 
 which flows through that street at Madison 
 street, and which extends to Fifteenth street, 
 serves, it is true, as a partial outlet, but on 
 the other hand it also brings the filth from 
 the sewers in the southern portion of the city 
 up into the northern part of the marshes and 
 largely contributes to the disagreeable odor 
 of which the residents of the upper section of 
 the city so often complain. 
 
 That this condition of things is dangerously 
 effecting the health of the inhabitants of the 
 meadow district is attested by the returns of 
 the Board of Health and Vital Statistics, the 
 annual statement of which for 1889 shows 
 a death rate for each one thousand inhabitants 
 in the first ward of 27, in the third ward of 
 27.2, in the fourth ward of 32, while in the 
 second ward it is but 17.5. The annual rate 
 from zymotic causes was: first ward, 8.2; 
 third ward, 8.9; fourth ward, 9.6; second 
 ward, 4.7. 
 
 RAVINE ROAD SEWER. 
 
 By the construction of Ferry and Harrison 
 streets the overflow of the Ravine Road sew¬ 
 er which drains some five hundred acres of 
 thickly populated area on the hill has been 
 temporarily dammed out, and as Commission¬ 
 ers have been appointed to provide a proper 
 outfall for this sewer the question of that out¬ 
 
 let sewer has not been considered in this ie 
 port. Considerable drainage will, however, 
 continue to flow from the side of the hill even 
 after the Ravine Road Sewer is completed. 
 
 THE UPLANDS. 
 
 The existing sewers on the uplands are in 
 good condition and amply large for the duty 
 required of them. On several of the thickly 
 populated streets there are no public sewers, 
 the sewerage taking place through small 
 private drains. For instance, on Washing¬ 
 ton street, between Ferry and Newark streets; 
 on Washington street, between Sixth and 
 Eighth streets; on Hudson street, from Ferry 
 to near Eighth, and on River street, between 
 Hudson place and Seventh street. For these 
 streets is shown on the map the kind and 
 size of sewers which should be built in the 
 future. 
 
 The practice of draining houses through 
 private drains is not only wrong, but dan¬ 
 gerous to the health of the community. $ All 
 sewers should be the property of the public; 
 accessible by man-holes for cleaning out and 
 for purposes of ventilation, and all use of 
 them should be made under rules and regu¬ 
 lations established by the municipal authori¬ 
 ties. 
 
 The Bloomfield street outlet,.at its mouth 
 in the D., L. & W. R. R. canal, is several 
 feet below low water, so that at high tide 
 this sewer is tide-locked as far north as New¬ 
 ark street, thereby greatly impairing its dis¬ 
 charging capacity and dangerously obstruct¬ 
 ing its ventilation. The use of the railroad 
 canal as an outfall for your sewage is de¬ 
 cidedly wrong. Its use should be confined as 
 an outlet for overflow storm sewers only, 
 and for such use all rights which this city 
 may own in it as an outlet should be main¬ 
 tained. A new outlet should be built through 
 Ferry street to empty out in the river be¬ 
 yond the bulkhead line to drain the Bloom¬ 
 field and Washington street sewers. 
 
 The Newark sti'eet outlet, which princi¬ 
 pally drains all the area between Hudson and 
 Washington streets and south of Eighth 
 street, is overworked. In the first place it 
 should be extended out further into the cur¬ 
 rent, and secondly a connection with the 
 Third street sewer should be made at Wash¬ 
 ington street so as to obtain relief. This 
 
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 must not be done, however, until the lower 
 district is disconnected from the Third street 
 sewer (which will be described further on), 
 otherwise the volume of water coming from 
 the upper portion of the city would back up 
 that sewer aud inundate the meadows. The 
 Third street sewer must also be extended out 
 to the current, and a suitable tide gate pro¬ 
 vided. In its present position it is creating a 
 nuisance. 
 
 The Eleventh and Fourteenth street out¬ 
 lets are adequate, and are now working well. 
 The one at Eleventh street, as the city de- 
 veiopes, will of course be extended out into 
 the stream. At present it is causing more or 
 less trouble at Castle Point. 
 
 GENERAL SYSTEM FOR THE DRAINAGE OF THE 
 MEADOW DISTRICT 
 
 The original strip of 450 acres of marsh 
 lands is now divided into two portions by the 
 embankment of Eighth street. About one- 
 tialf of this area has been reclaimed from the 
 swamp and is now thickly populated. 
 
 The southerly portion will be considered 
 first. A careful and exhaustive consideration 
 as to the feasibility of extending and im¬ 
 proving the existing tidal system of sewers 
 in order to bring relief to the present evils, 
 and to provide for the future growth of the 
 city, has been made. But the conclusion has 
 been reached that sooner or latter you must 
 resort to pumping in order to gain proper 
 and efficient drainage. This has been the 
 result finally reached in many localities con¬ 
 taining low, flat districts where the question 
 of drainage has received proper treatment. 
 As for instance, may be mentioned Boston, 
 Mass.; Newark, N. J.; Norfolk, Va.; Stan 
 ford, Conn.; Chicago, Ill.; Milwaukee, Wis., 
 &c., and in Europe, London, Berlin, Dantzig, 
 Hull, &c. The next thing considered care¬ 
 fully was whether the separate or combined 
 system was most suitable and economical to 
 meet your circumstances, for the arrange¬ 
 ments of the lines of the sewers and their 
 size materially depend upon the system 
 adopted. Without going into detail, it can 
 be explained that by the separate system is 
 understood the erection of two sets of sewers, 
 one for the discharging of house refuse and 
 iroof water (generally through small pipes 
 and sewers), and another set for discharging 
 
 rain water from the streets and subsoil only; *) 
 
 while by the combined system is understood 
 the building of sewers large enough to carry 
 simultaneously the house refuse and all rain 
 water. The decision as to which system to * 
 
 adopt was a very important part of the sub¬ 
 ject, and had to be carefully taken into ac¬ 
 count, for the cost of the maintainance of 
 the pumps will depend entirely on the amount 
 of water raised. 
 
 So far as the territory south of Eighth 
 street is concerned, the combined system is 
 most advantageous, for the reason that 
 nearly one-half of the area is now sewered, 
 in most cases, with oval brick sewers 2.6x3.9 
 that must be utilized, and as all sewers must 
 be built on piles, which in many places will 
 have to be driven to great depths, thereby 
 making the cost unusually large, it is impera¬ 
 tive that the general plan of sewerage for 
 the entire district should provide for as few 
 sewers as possible consistent with proper 
 drainage. ’ 
 
 Further, the usual small size sewers used 
 in the separate system as house and roof 
 water drains would be inadequate here, for 
 the reason that this district is now, and will v ; 
 no doubt continue to be, built up of tene¬ 
 ments and factories, and as the practice in 
 your city is to build upon from 50 per cent, 
 to 60 per cent, of the lot area, a very large 
 allowance for roof water would have to be 
 provided for. 
 
 All the sewers shown on the plans are pro¬ 
 portioned to give minimum or self cleaning 
 velocities of 2 1-2 feet per second when run¬ 
 ning full. The grades being in nearly all 
 cases three inches in each one hundred feet, 
 and the discharge being based on one half of 
 a rain fall of one inch per hour. 
 
 By reference to the map it will be seen that 
 the well is located in the southern portion of 
 the city near Ferry street, on the line of what 
 would be Clinton street if that street were 
 produced southerly. The exact location of 
 course cannot be stated until the question of 
 a site is determined. The bottom of the well 
 is to be at about fourteen feet below mean 
 high water or nine and one quarter feet below 
 mean low water in the Hudson River. Into 
 this well will run an intercepting or main 
 sewer, commencing at Fourth street, and the 
 west boudary of the city on an elevation of { 
 
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 three feet below mean high water or eight 
 feet below the street grade, and one foot be¬ 
 low the present surface of the meadows. 
 From thence it will continue through Fourth 
 street to Monroe street; thence north to Fifth; 
 thence east to Grand street; thence south to 
 Fourth street; thence east to Clinton street; 
 thence south to the well, which it will enter 
 at an elevation of 13.3 below mean high water. 
 A spur branch extends through Monroe street 
 to Sixth street, thence west to the boundary. 
 This line for the main sewer was chosen for 
 several reasons; first, the presen sewer in 
 Clinton street is an old wo'oden box which 
 sooner or later will have to be rebuilt, two 
 blocks of it is built on piles, which can be 
 utilized in the construction of the new main; 
 secondly, the location of the main through 
 Fourth street and Fifth street not only taps 
 all the existing sewers, but the route affords 
 an economical alignment for the future lateral 
 sewers, thus forming a valley to which all 
 sewers between Second and Eighth Streets 
 will flow. These lateral sewers as will be 
 seen by the map need be but twelve, fifteen, 
 eighteen and twenty-four inch pipes. 
 
 For that portion of the district south of 
 Second street another valley or intercepting 
 main through Ferry street and Newark ave¬ 
 nue is provided. It commences at the west 
 boundary on an elevation of three and a half 
 feet below mean high water, continues east to 
 Jefferson street, where it will be five feet be¬ 
 low the same datum; and thence east through 
 Newark avenue to the well which it will enter 
 at an elevation of 7 1-2 feet below mean high 
 water. A spur to the main extends west 
 through Paterson Plank road to the boundary. 
 
 From the well a cast iron tail overflow sew- 
 <er is to be built to discharge the sewage 
 through Ferry street into the river at the 
 pier line. 
 
 The area drained by the well will be all that 
 territory between Park avenue and the hill 
 Third and Eighth streets, all Garden street 
 and the hill, Third street and the southern 
 boundary, and the remaining portion of Wil¬ 
 low avenue sewer area between Eighth and 
 Twelfth streets, the whole comprising two 
 hundred and eighty-six acres, to which should 
 be added fifty acres draining from the Pali¬ 
 sades. In the distant future when the hill 
 
 district is fully sewered, this will be material¬ 
 ly reduced. 
 
 In order to reduce the area to be drained 
 by the pump well as much as possible, a new 
 branch sewer must be built through Seventh 
 street, from Park avenue to Garden street, so 
 as to conduct the sewage from the Park ave- 
 enue sewer north of Seventh street into the 
 Garden street sewer, and so into the Hudson 
 river. 
 
 All the present outlets will be closed by au¬ 
 tomatic overflow gates. The one in the Third 
 street sewer will be placed at Garden stret, 
 and that intersection reconstructed so as to 
 change the sewage coming through Garden 
 street sewer north of Third street easterly in¬ 
 to the Third street sewer and so empty into 
 the river. The sewage from the Garden street 
 sewer south of Third street is to be turned 
 west, and will finally discharge into the well. 
 
 At the well, in a neat substantial building 
 will be erected four centrifugal pumps having 
 a capacity in twenty-four hours of fifty-four 
 million U. S. gallons, when all four are in 
 operation which, however, will not be re 
 quired until a storm occurs approaching in 
 intensity to that which took place in 1882, 
 when it rained 6.17 inches in twenty-four 
 hours and which was the greatest storm that 
 visited this region since 1854. In other words 
 ample pumping capacity is provided in these 
 four pumps for a fall of six inches rain storm 
 over the entire area of three hundred and 
 thirty-six acres when attended by a high tide, 
 which may be three feet higher than the 
 usual or mean high water. 
 
 Full data as to the storms for the last 19 
 years was obtained from the New York office 
 of the United States Signal Service Depart- 
 men', and which are hereto annexed. 
 
 OPERATION OF THE SYSTEM. 
 
 When all the connections with the river are 
 closed, the house refuse and rain water will 
 flow to the well. In the new sewer north of 
 Fifth street, which will be built from time to 
 time as the growth of the city demands, 
 and also in the new mains, the rain water 
 will flush out any deposit accumulated during 
 dry weather flow. This will also be the case 
 to a great extent with most of the old sewers, 
 although some of the very flat ones, and those 
 with irregular bottoms, and those obstructe 
 
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 by water and gas mains, will need cleaning 
 out. The latter should be reconstructed. 
 
 There being no tide in any of the sewers, 
 the present evil from the displacement of 
 sewer gas will be'averted and no backing r :up 
 of the tide will occur. 
 
 As all future sewers will be placed from three 
 to nine feet below mean high water, and from 
 eight to fourteen feet bel w the established 
 grade of the streets, an opportunity will be 
 afforded for the construction of cellars. In 
 such cases these cellars must be connected 
 with the sewers through separate house con¬ 
 nections, and valves, which can be automatic, 
 placed inside the walls of the buildings,which 
 will close in the event of any accident to the 
 pumps or the possible occurrence of an over¬ 
 flow from storms by the rising water. In 
 fact all connections with all sewers should be 
 regulated bj r proper rules established by your 
 Honorable Body. In the unexpected event of 
 a storm with which the pumps could not 
 cope, the gates on the old tidal outlets would 
 come into operation and the tidal system for 
 the time being would prevail and those cellars 
 below high water level having their sewer 
 valves closed would be protected from inun¬ 
 dation. 
 
 FLUSHING. 
 
 The high water of the river can be let into 
 the sewers, and the entire system flushed out 
 whenever it is desired 
 
 PRELIMINARY WORK NECESSARY TO INAUGU¬ 
 RATE THE SYSTEM SOUTH OF 
 EIGHTH STREET. 
 
 In order to put into immediate operation 
 this system for the territory south of Eighth 
 street, it will not be necessary to wait until 
 the main intercepting sewers are built; in 
 fact the new mains and laterals need only be 
 constructed as the growth of the city requires 
 them. 
 
 It'will require the immediate construction 
 of the well and pumps and sufficient inter¬ 
 cepting sewer to connect the well with the 
 present Newark avenue tidal sewer, and a 
 cast-iron tail force main between the well and 
 the present eight-foot outlet at Ferry street 
 and Park avenue. 
 
 As nearly all the existing sewers intersect 
 each other at the numerous street crossings 
 and are generally at an elevation of from low 
 
 to one foot above low water level their con¬ 
 tents will flow into the well. 
 
 With the gates on all the tidal outlets 
 closed, and the branch sewer in Seventh 
 street, and the alterations in the Third street 
 sewer, the area to be drained by the pumps 
 will be limited to the 2^ acres already above 
 described. 
 
 The estimated cost of the preliminary work 
 should be as follows: 
 
 Branch sewer at Seventh street and six- 
 foot intercepting sewer from Newark 
 
 avenue to the well. $7,500 00 
 
 Cast-iron outfall from well to Park ave¬ 
 nue outlet, and gates at all outlets and 
 changes at Third and Garden streets. 16,000 00 
 Well, four pumps,engmrs, boilers, build¬ 
 ings, land and incidentals. 86.500 00 
 
 Total.$110,000 00 
 
 The annual cost of maintenance for the dis¬ 
 trict south of Eighth street will be $15,000.00. 
 
 With this plant in operation, the present 
 built up portion of the meadow district would 
 be afforded a good outlet to the existing 
 sewers, and the water on the marsh lands 
 could be removed or maintained at any 
 heighth desired. The improvement in the 
 health and comfort of the inhabitants and 
 advancement of value in property which 
 would surely follow the introduction of this 
 system of draining would more than compen¬ 
 sate for all necessary outlays. The construc¬ 
 tion of the new main intercepting sewers in 
 Clinton street, Fourth street, Grand street 
 and Fifth street should follow next as soon as 
 possible, in order to provide for the early de¬ 
 velopment of the new district north of Fifth 
 street, and also to insure a more thorough 
 connection of the existing sewers with the 
 well. The cost of that portion from Newark 
 to Fifth streets would be $35,000.00. These 
 outlays would extend over a period of time 
 depending on the growth of the territory 
 The construction of the Ferry street and 
 Newark avenue intercepting sewer, which 
 will cost $30,000.00, and also the remaining 
 portion of the iron tail outfall to the river at 
 a cost of $30,000.00, should also immediately 
 follow, or at such time as the nature of cir¬ 
 cumstances would indicate their absolute ne¬ 
 cessity. 
 
 TERRITORY NORTH OF EIGHTH STREET. 
 
 This area comprises about 135 acres, 100 of 
 which are marsh lands. There are very few 
 buildings in the district, but like in the lower 
 
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9 
 
 portion of the city the original condition of 
 the meadows have been changed, being dam- 
 k med up by the embankment of Eighth, 
 
 Twelfth,Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth 
 streets and that of the New Jersey Junction 
 ij Railroad. All these cross the entire width of 
 
 * the marshes, forming it into five depressions 
 
 or basins which receive the drainage from 
 about 100 acres on the Palisades. One ditch 
 ■eight feet wide and one foot deep runs through¬ 
 out the entire length and finds an outlet in 
 the cove near the foot of Fifteenth street. As 
 this ditch continues south to the Madison 
 street sewer at Fifth street it carries into 
 these northern districts as already stated more 
 or less sewage filth. Immediate temporary 
 relief to this section may be had by closing 
 out the sewage at Eighth street; constructing 
 at once as shown on the map a four by eight 
 feet sewer with proper tide gates at Fifteenth 
 street to intercept the present main ditch. 
 Intelligent ditching should be done through¬ 
 out all the streets shown on the city map run¬ 
 ning north and south, and ample culverts 
 ■constructed under the present streets; all 
 these ditches must be kept constantly open 
 and in good repair by systematic supervision; 
 the object being to provide ample outlets for 
 these marshes, and to keep them free from 
 
 ^ sewage. 
 
 GENERAL SEWER A.GE PLAN. 
 
 ^ Thb “combined” system, with pumping, 
 
 ■has also been adopted for this section of the 
 oily. The reasons which make that method 
 of draining the most advantageous one for 
 the territory south of Eighth street, apply 
 with equal force to this area. 
 
 ' The map shows the main and lateral sewers 
 which must be built from time to time as the 
 future growth of the city requires. The 
 pump well can be located near Fifteenth 
 street and Park avenue, and for some years 
 during the gradual increase in the population 
 of this section, the Fourteenth street sewer, 
 which empties out in the current will answer 
 
 as an outfall sewer from the pump. It is im¬ 
 possible at this early day to anticipate the 
 future devolopement of the “cove” sufficiently 
 to determine on the permanent location of 
 either the well or the discharging outfall. 
 
 The new r Fifteenth street tidal sewer will 
 answer as the overflow outlet. This should 
 be extended as shown on the map down Wil¬ 
 low avenue and connect with the present 
 sewer at Twelfth street, thus making a union 
 between the upper and lower districts. Be¬ 
 sides, it will afford sewerage to those houses 
 now in Willow avenue, and this street being 
 the principal thoroughfare, and most likely to 
 be built up first, this tidal sewer will answer 
 the purpose of drainage until such time as the 
 growth of the district demands the introduc¬ 
 tion of the pumps. Further, as the small 
 piece of uplands between Tenth and Twelfth 
 streets, west of Willow avenue, is most likely 
 to develop before the meadow portion, this 
 sewer in Willow avenue would serve the 
 purpose of a tidal main, and intelligent 
 changes to that end could be made in the 
 plan without vitiating the general design. To 
 attempt, however, to extend the tidal system 
 into the meadow territory, would be to re¬ 
 peat the same errors committed in the south¬ 
 erly portion of the city. 
 
 The cost of the four by eight foot tidal sew¬ 
 er will be about $15 per lineal foot. 
 
 Pumping capacity to the extent of thirty- 
 eight million U. S. gallons in twenty-four 
 hours will be required for this district. This 
 capacity is determined upon the same data as 
 to storm water as was used in the lower 
 section, allowance being made for not only 
 the one hundred and thirty-five acres within v 
 the boundaries of Hoboken, but it also pro¬ 
 vides for the possible natural drainage from 
 one hundred acres on the hill. If, however, 
 before you introduce the pumps, this hill 
 drainage is taken care of, as is now under 
 contemplation, a corresponding reduction can 
 be made in your future pumping plant. 
 
 T. H. M.cCann, 
 
 City Surveyor. 
 
10 
 
 STATEMENT OF PRECIPITATION IN HUNDREDTHS OF AN INCH|OBTAINED FROM THE NEW YORK 
 OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES SIGNAL SERVICE. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Jan. 
 
 Feb . 
 
 Mar . 
 
 Apr . 
 
 M Y.f 
 
 June. 
 
 July. 
 
 Aug . 
 
 Sept . 
 
 Oct . 
 
 Nov . 
 
 Dec . 
 
 Total . 
 
 1871 .. 
 
 1.15 
 
 3.86 
 
 4.90 
 
 3.41 
 
 4.49 
 
 7.14 
 
 3.60 
 
 5.48 
 
 2.13 
 
 7*04 
 
 4.33 
 
 1.24 
 
 48.80 
 
 1872 .. 
 
 2.40 
 
 1.45 
 
 3.93 
 
 2.49 
 
 2.44 
 
 2.94 
 
 9.45 
 
 6.13 
 
 3 44 
 
 3.54 
 
 5.04 
 
 2.54 
 
 45.79 
 
 1878 .. 
 
 5.05 
 
 1.73 
 
 1.92 
 
 3.05 
 
 4.08 
 
 1.29 
 
 4.15 
 
 7.66 
 
 2.51 
 
 2.47 
 
 4.01 
 
 2.06 
 
 39.98 
 
 1874 .. 
 
 4.82 
 
 2.41 
 
 1.88 
 
 7.02 
 
 2.16 
 
 2.87 
 
 3.22 
 
 2.53 
 
 7.21 
 
 1.82 
 
 2.21 
 
 2.69 
 
 40.84 
 
 1875 .. 
 
 2.77 
 
 3.23 
 
 4.25 
 
 3.21 
 
 1.47 
 
 1.66 
 
 5.23 
 
 10.42 
 
 2.51 
 
 3.13 
 
 4.43 
 
 2.78 
 
 45.09 
 
 1876 .. 
 
 1.21 
 
 5.39 
 
 7.90 
 
 3.79 
 
 3.94 
 
 2.87 
 
 5.72 
 
 2.97 
 
 5.24 
 
 1.68 
 
 4.40 
 
 2 29 
 
 47.40 
 
 1877 .. 
 
 I 3.55 
 
 1.67 
 
 6.65 
 
 3.18 
 
 0.73 
 
 3.31 
 
 3.86 
 
 2.54 
 
 1.33 
 
 7.69 
 
 5.48 
 
 0.95 
 
 40.94 
 
 1878 .. 
 
 4.53 
 
 3.41 
 
 4.02 
 
 1.93 
 
 3.73 
 
 • 2.91 
 
 5.26 
 
 7.30 
 
 3.20 
 
 1 71 
 
 3.74 
 
 4.93 
 
 46.67 
 
 1879 .. 
 
 3.05 
 
 2.74 
 
 2.04 
 
 4.06 
 
 2.33 
 
 3.42 
 
 3.39 
 
 5.17 
 
 1.45 
 
 3.58 
 
 2.21 
 
 5.79 
 
 36.13 
 
 1880 .. 
 
 2.19 
 
 2.11 
 
 4.66 
 
 3.18 
 
 0.82 
 
 1.69 
 
 6.67 
 
 4.40 
 
 2.26 
 
 2.81 
 
 2.40 
 
 4.15 
 
 37.34 
 
 1881 .. 
 
 5.41 
 
 5.06 
 
 6.,78 
 
 1.00 
 
 2.33 
 
 6.23 
 
 1.31 
 
 1.56 
 
 1.38 
 
 2.10 
 
 2.87 
 
 4.37 
 
 40.40 
 
 1882 .. 
 
 6.15 
 
 4.36 
 
 2.32 
 
 2.15 
 
 4.21 
 
 2.87 
 
 2.75 
 
 1.63 
 
 14.51 
 
 1.69 
 
 1.80 
 
 2.22 
 
 46.61 
 
 1888 .: 
 
 3.22 
 
 4.58 
 
 1.63 
 
 3.82 
 
 3.03 
 
 4.00 
 
 3.37 
 
 2.29 
 
 3.57 
 
 4.27 
 
 1.65 
 
 3^40 
 
 38.83 
 
 1884 .. 
 
 6.07 
 
 5.09 
 
 4.43 
 
 2.66 
 
 4.35 
 
 4.16 
 
 6.14 
 
 8.56 
 
 0.15 
 
 3.63 
 
 3.44 
 
 6.66 
 
 55.34 
 
 1885 .. 
 
 3.50 
 
 6.09 
 
 1.19 
 
 2.44 
 
 2.22 
 
 1.86 
 
 3 04 
 
 7.70 
 
 0.72 
 
 5.62 
 
 5.05 
 
 2.69 
 
 42.12 
 
 1886 .. 
 
 5 02 
 
 5.90 
 
 3.54 
 
 4.95 
 
 6.53 
 
 3.01 
 
 2.57 
 
 1.18 
 
 1.79 
 
 3.90 
 
 4.61 
 
 3.73 
 
 46.73 
 
 1887 .. 
 
 4.19 
 
 5.26 
 
 3.51 
 
 3.67 
 
 0.99 
 
 7.70 
 
 6,75 
 
 3.66 
 
 2.30 
 
 2.36 
 
 2.04 
 
 4.20 
 
 46.63 
 
 1888 .. 
 
 5.14 
 
 4.03 
 
 5.64 
 
 3.57 
 
 4.87 
 
 1.68 
 
 1,27 
 
 6.35 
 
 7.40 
 
 4.14 
 
 4.81 
 
 4.05 
 
 52.95 
 
 1889 .. 
 
 5.38 
 
 3.07 
 
 4.09 
 
 5.90 
 
 3.25 
 
 2.38 
 
 9.63 
 
 3.39 
 
 7.43 
 
 2.53 
 
 9.82 
 
 1.81 
 
 58.68 
 
 1890 .. 
 
 2.95 
 
 3.86 
 
 6 67 
 
 2.58 
 
 3.11 
 
 4.19 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 A “rainy dav” is one on which .01 inch or more ram fell in 24 hours. 
 
 MAXIMUM STORM EACH YEAR. 
 
 YEAR 
 
 PRECIP¬ 
 
 ITATION 
 
 DATE. 
 
 NO. OF 
 RAIN ^ 
 DAYS. 
 
 1871.. 
 
 2.37 
 
 March 24. 
 
 110 
 
 1872.. 
 
 3.80 
 
 July 26. 
 
 :99 
 
 1873.. 
 
 2.24 
 
 August.21. 
 
 124 
 
 1874.. 
 
 2.41 
 
 September 17. 
 
 99 
 
 1875.. 
 
 3.34 
 
 August 12. 
 
 153 
 
 1876.. 
 
 3.45 
 
 March 25. 
 
 147 
 
 1877.. 
 
 4.02 
 
 October 4. 
 
 123 
 
 1878.. 
 
 2.11 
 
 February 22. 
 
 132 
 
 1879.. 
 
 1.11 
 
 Maj r 19... 
 
 135 
 
 1880.. 
 
 1.81 
 
 July 22 . 
 
 133 
 
 1881.. 
 
 2.40 
 
 March 19. 
 
 127 
 
 1882.. 
 
 6.17 
 
 September 23-24. 
 
 141 
 
 1883.. 
 
 2 31 
 
 May 21-22. 
 
 141 
 
 1884.. 
 
 3.63 
 
 June 25-26.. 
 
 135 
 
 1885.. 
 
 2.87 
 
 August 2-3. 
 
 111 
 
 1886.. 
 
 3.72 
 
 April 5-6. 
 
 115 
 
 1887.. 
 
 3.13 
 
 Juue 22-23. 
 
 130 
 
 1888.. 
 
 3.93 
 
 August 21-22. 
 
 146 
 
 1889.. 
 
 1890.. 
 
 2.92 
 
 November 9.. 
 
 152 
 
 New York, Sept. 9, 1890. 
 To the Honorable Mayor and Council 
 of the City of Hoboken: 
 
 Gentlemen —On June 11, 1890, your Hon¬ 
 orable body passed the following resolution: 
 
 “ Resolved, That City Surveyor Thomas H. 
 
 McCann is hereby instructed to prepare, in 
 co-operation with Alphonse Fteley, Chief 
 Engineer of the New York Aqueduct Com¬ 
 missioners, a general sewerage plan of the 
 city, to be presented to this Board, with their 
 report, as soon as possible.” 
 
 In order to carry out the instructions there¬ 
 in contained, I have have visited Hoboken 
 several times and frequently conferred with 
 Mr. McCann. The main conclusions reached 
 in his report have been arrived at after a 
 full discussion of all points of importance, 
 and are concurred in by the writer. It may 
 not be out of place, however, that, without 
 referring again to the details of construction, 
 I should add a few words as to the reasons 
 which led to the adoption of the plan herein 
 recommended. 
 
 The territory of Hoboken covers an area 
 of about 720 acres. It is in the form of an 
 irregular parallelogram (its longest side 
 north and south), and, originally, was almost 
 wholly occupied by marshes freely opened to 
 tidal water, the only exception being a cen¬ 
 tral ridge 270 acres in area on the edge of the 
 river. This ridge being in the most favorable 
 natural conditions as to drainage, no special 
 comment is necessary, with the exception that 
 its sewers, which are already built, and 
 which are, I am informed, generally in good 
 condition, should be properly arranged to 
 act in harmony with the rest of the system. 
 
 4, 
 
 4j 
 
 ) 
 
 
 
11 
 
 The area covered by the city proper is conse¬ 
 quently limited, but your territory now re¬ 
 ceives in addition the drainage of 150 acres 
 of the high grounds in Jersey City and in 
 the town of West Hoboken, on the western 
 boundary of Hoboken. The drainage of that 
 territory is a burden of no small magnitude 
 for your city. I am informed, however, 
 that you expect to be gradually relieved of 
 it, as a system of sewerage is being perfected 
 in the neighboring communities just named. 
 The size of the sewers has been s© propor¬ 
 tioned as to provide for that district, but the 
 drainage therefrom should be excluded in 
 time for the better working of the system 
 which is now recommended. 
 
 From what precedes it follows that the 
 treatment of the low lands, which were for¬ 
 merly, and are now, occupied by marshes, 
 has been the principal subject of our labors. 
 
 The comparatively small area of your city 
 and its situation on the bank of the Hudson 
 river are two very favorable conditions for 
 good and economical sewerage, but the uni¬ 
 formly low surface of the land now under 
 consideration renders the problem more diffi¬ 
 cult of solution. 
 
 Owing to the location and size of your city 
 the idea of disposing of the sew r age by artifi¬ 
 cial means, such as chemical treatment or 
 filtration through earth, must obviously be 
 excluded. You have indeed adopted from 
 the beginning the most advisable method, 
 that of discharging the contents of the sew¬ 
 ers into the river; but, unfortunately, in¬ 
 stead of devising at an early date a general 
 sewerage system, and of building gradually 
 your sewers to follow its requirements, they 
 have been built without preconcerted study, 
 for the purpose of meeting immediate and 
 local needs. In making this statement no re¬ 
 flection is intended on their designers, who, I 
 am informed, were called upon from time to 
 time to build individual drains, and who, in 
 the absence of a well established plan, could 
 only devise to the best of their power the 
 means of meeting local requirements. 
 
 The fact remains that the sewers in the 
 lower part of the city are built so close to 
 the surface that the water stands in the 
 ground a very few feet from the street level; 
 that their inclination towards the river is 
 either null or very small, and that their dis¬ 
 
 charge into tide water is slow and imperfect. 
 The public seldom realizes the actual condi¬ 
 tion of public works built out of sight under¬ 
 ground, but were it possible to uncover at 
 once all the sewers now built in the low lands 
 and to show you their condition, there would 
 be exposed to view a net of open ditches 
 more than seven miles in aggregate length, 
 partly filled with black, offensive silt, while 
 above it ebbs and flows with the tide a filthy 
 liquid, the movement of which towards the 
 river is so slow that the organic matters 
 therein contained have ample time to decom¬ 
 pose and to emit deleterious gases. 
 
 The result of this state of things are:—A 
 high death rate, inferior sanitary conditions* 
 general discomfort, and depredation of prop¬ 
 erty. 
 
 Your attention has been called before to- 
 these crying evils, and several times during 
 the last twenty years the question has been 
 agitated of improving the sewerage of the 
 flat lands. 
 
 You have recently ordered that the street 
 grades should not be, in future, below eleva¬ 
 tion five above mean high tide, and I have 
 no doubt that, in the course ©f time, the ad¬ 
 vantages derived from an improved system 
 of drainage would induce your citizens to fill 
 up the portions now built upon where the 
 surface of the street is much lower. 
 
 A very much higher grade than elevation 
 five would be necessary to enable you to build 
 a proper system of sewerage working by grav¬ 
 ity only, but similar results can be obtained 
 at a much smaller cost by lowering the 
 grades of the sewers to be built and by 
 pumping. 
 
 This mode of sewerage, which is now rec¬ 
 ommended, cannot be considered as an ex¬ 
 periment; it has been tested in a number of 
 conspicuous instances and found successful in 
 cases similar to yours. By its means your 
 sewers can be built with sufficient inclination 
 to be self-cleansing, their contents can be 
 quickly discharged into tide water, the pro¬ 
 duction of noxious gases can be reduced to a 
 minimum if not arrested, cellars can be prop¬ 
 erly built and maintained, and the level of 
 the water can be lowered in the ground, to 
 the great gain of public health. Against 
 these priceless advantages the drawbacks 
 which may result from the fluctuation of 
 
3 0112 077601 
 
 463 
 
 12 
 
 ground water should not be weighed a mo¬ 
 ment. 
 
 In order to diminish the lift of the sewage 
 by the pumps, it has been thought advisable 
 to divide the low lands in two parts, sepa¬ 
 rated by the embankment of Eighth street. 
 To these two parts the same system is appli¬ 
 cable, with the only difference that, in the 
 southern portion, the existence of the old 
 sewers would diminish the efficiency of the 
 plan. They would be drained readily, but 
 they would not be self-cleansing, and the 
 level of the ground water would not be ma¬ 
 terially lowered until, in the course of time 
 (especially in the case of the wooden sewers), 
 they were gradually replaced by new struc¬ 
 tures built in harmony with the rest of the 
 system. North of Eighth street, on the con¬ 
 trary, the plan proposed can be fully carried 
 out. 
 
 In both cases the system proposed would 
 include: 
 
 First—A number of lateral sewers to be 
 gradually built, of sufficient capacity to car¬ 
 ry all sewage and rain water quickly to the 
 pumps. 
 
 Second—One or more main sewers to col¬ 
 lect the contents of those just described and 
 to convey them to the pumping apparatus. 
 
 Third—A pumping station. 
 
 Fourth—An out-fall sewer, to convey the 
 discharge of the pumps to tide water. 
 
 Fifth—One* or more overflow sewers of 
 large capacity to assist the pumps, or to act 
 in their place, in case of emergency. 
 
 Centrifugal pumps are recommended. That 
 class of engines has been brought to a great 
 degree of efficiency. They can be established 
 at a comparatively moderate cost, and are 
 well adapted to the lifting of sewage, and, 
 generally, of liquids containing solid mat¬ 
 ters. 
 
 In the present case the pumps are cal¬ 
 culated to take care of all the sewage and of 
 all rain that may fall on the territory. The 
 small area of the latter makes it practicable 
 to do so without excessive cost, and in order 
 to adapt the machinery to the ever-changing 
 duties that it would have to perform, it is 
 
 thought advisable to erect four pumps which 
 can be used independently in such number as 
 the quantity of rain fall may call for. 
 
 By the erection of a pumping station, of an 
 out-fall sewer, and of several connections in¬ 
 dicated in Mr. McCann’s report, you can re¬ 
 lieve the southern district materially without 
 waiting for the main sewers, the construction 
 of which should, however, follow without 
 delay. 
 
 As to the northern district, on which but 
 few buildings now stand, while the general 
 features of the proposed system of sewerage 
 should, in my opinion, be followed, it is ob¬ 
 vious that its further development must 
 necessarily depend upon the growth of the 
 city in that direction. 
 
 In conclusion, I must say that a portion of 
 your sewerage system is now in a deplorable 
 condition: that in justice to the citizens . 
 whose lives, as is shown by the health re¬ 
 turns, are exposed to excessive risks, prompt 
 action should be taken, and that whatever 
 may be the expenditure that you may have 
 to incur for the purpose of remedying the 
 present evils, the investment cannot fail from 
 being remunerative. If it were represented 
 that while the present system requires very 
 little or no superintendence, and that the 
 proposed plan commits you to a large yearly 
 outlay, I may be permitted to say that you 
 are suffering to-day from grave and growing 
 evils, which would have been prevented if 
 you had adopted, at an earlier period, the 
 suggestions of your advisers, and that unless 
 you decide without delay to meet the cost of 
 necessary improvements, the legitimate 
 growth of your city will be greatly retarded. 
 
 If you decide to build the improvement 
 recommended, the whole sewerage / plant 
 should be put under responsible direction in 
 order to secure unity of action at all points, 
 and all future developments of the system 
 should be made in accordance with the pro- * 
 ject herewith presented in all its main fea¬ 
 tures. 
 
 Respectfully submitted, 
 
 A. Fteley, 
 Consulting Engineer.