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Show NEW YORK HARBOR LITIGATION 717 appreciable pollution would not be caused thereby; that the Passaic River empties into Newark Bay and its water, charged, under existing conditions, with the sewage collected from the same communities in- tended to be served by the projected sewer, in large part reaches New York Bay in the vicinity of Bobbins Reef Light, by natural channels, without causing substantial injury to the water; and that the City of New York has long been discharging into the Bay at or near to the shore lines thereof, daily, more than seven times as great a volume of sewage (entirely untreated) as the daily discharge of the proposed sewer would be for many years to come. The answer concludes with further denials that the waters of the Bay would be corrupted or their usefulness impaired by the use of the proposed intercepting sewer. After the defendants had answered, the Government of the United States, by leave of court, filed a Petition of Intervention. The warrant assigned for this intervention was, the power and duty of the Govern- ment with respect to navigation and interstate commerce, and the inherent power which it has to act for the protection of the health of government officials and employees at the Brooklyn navy yard, and its duty to protect from damage the Government property bordering upon New York Bay. The projected sewer was described in this Petition of Intervention, substantially as in the original bill, but it was averred that the plans for the removal of solids from the sewage were so indefinite and in- adequate that the use of the sewer would result in the obstruction of navigation by the filling up and shoaling of the channels of the Bay, and that the proposed purification of the sewage was so insufficient that the waters would be rendered unsightly and unhealthf ul to per- sons using them for commerce or dwelling upon the adjacent shores. It was averred that there were other, better and more advanced meth- ods of sewage disposal than those proposed, and that the threatened injury to commerce and navigation, to the public health and to the property of the United States was not necessary. For these reasons the Government joined in the prayer for relief. The coming of the Government into the case was followed by con- ferences between its officials and the Sewerage Commissioners, with the result that a method of treatment of the sewage was decided upon much more thorough, comprehensive and definite in character than had been adopted before and the manner of dispersion of it at the outlet was so changed as to secure a much greater diffusion, at a great depth, in the adjacent waters. These changes were ultimately embodied in a stipulation between the United States, acting through its Attorney General, and the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners, acting under authority of a special act of the New Jersey legislature. It was agreed that upon the filing of this stipulation, properly executed, with the Clerk of this Court, the Petition of Intervention of the Government should be dis- missed, without prejudice-which was done on May 16,1910. The stipulation provides, with much detail, that at or near to a pumping station to be located in the Newark Meadows, near Newark Bay, the material coming from the trunk sewer shall first pass through coarse screens to remove floating matter; then through a grit basin or basins, to remove heavy matter, as far as practicable; then through self-cleaning mechanical screens, with openings of not over four- |
