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Show NEW YORK HARBOR LITIGATION 715 District, with boundaries embracing substantially the entire watershed of the Passaie River, and to another act, in 1907, prohibiting the dis- charge of sewage into the river after a date named, and directing the defendant Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners to prepare plans and specifications for a trunk sewer to dispose of the sewage and authorizing municipalities to contract with them for the service which they might require. Under authority of this act, the defendant Sewerage Commission- ers, in April, 1908, adopted a plan for sewage disposal, which provided for a main intercepting sewer, extending from the City of Paterson, along the right bank of the Passaic River, to a point in the City of Newark, and thence by a tunnel under the waters of Newark Bay and the cities of Bayonne and Jersey City to a point in Upper New York Bay about 500 feet north of Robbins Reef Light, where it was pro- posed to discharge the sewage at a depth of 40 feet of water below mean low tide. The estimated cost of the proposed sewer was $12,250,000. It was provided in the act authorizing the construction of the sewer that, before anv work should be undertaken or obligations incurred, a further investigation should be made by the Commissioners as to whether the discharge of the sewage into New York Bay would be likely to pollute its waters to such an extent as to cause a nuisance to persons or property within the State of New York, and that the result of such investigation, with the reasons for it, should be presented to the Governor of the State. Such an investigation was made and upon report of the Commis- sioners the Governor concluded that the discharge of the sewage as proposed would not pollute the waters of New York Bay so as to cause a nuisance to either persons or property within the State of New York, and the Attorney General of the State also advised the Governor that in his opinion the State of New York could not have any valid legal objection to the use of the sewer as proposed. There can be no doubt that the various commissioners who investi- gated this subject were men of the highest character and intelligence and that they studied it with the aid of the best obtainable sanitary engineers, chemists and bacteriologists, for the purpose of arriving at a solution which would protect land preserve the interests of all of the great communities involved. It is equally beyond doubt that the Governor and other officials of New Jersey, with full appreciation of the magnitude and seriousness of the undertaking, proceeded with great caution and with a settled purpose to fully respect the rights of the people of the State of New York. Learning of the plans of the State of New Jersey, thus detailed, the legislature of New York passed an act providing for a commission to investigate the probable effect upon the waters of New York Bay of the proposed Passaic Valley sewer, with power to cooperate with the authorities of New Jersey with a view to arriving at some mutually satisfactory solution of the problem. The record shows that various conferences were held between the New York Commission thus created and the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission, but for some reason, which does not clearly appear, no mutually satisfactory course of action was arrived at, with the result that, in October, 1908, this suit for an injunction was commenced. |