SECTION II.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON WATER SUPPLY.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON

WATER SUPPLY.

To the Merchants' Association of New York:

GENTLEMEN:

The Committee on Water Supply presents herewith its report.

The proposal of the Board of Public Improvements in August, 1899, to enter into a long-term contract with the Ramapo Water Company to furnish the city with water, called the carnest attention of the public to two important subjects:

First: The City's needs, immediate and future, for an additional supply of water.

Second: The best method of meeting these needs, both as to the sources of the supply and the manner in which it should be procured; that is, whether by private contract or municipal construction.

The Merchants' Association requested the Board of Public Improvements to suspend action upon the proposed contract with the Ramapo Water Company, pending the result of an investigation to be made by a committee appointed by the Association. The request was acceded to and this committee was accordingly appointed by your president to investigate whether the need of the City for an additional supply was urgent; what was the best available source for an additional supply; whether the City's financial condition permitted municipal construction; whether the Ramapo contract, or any contract with a private company, was advisable; and, finally, whether there were legal or constitutional difficulties in the way of the City's acquiring and owning an additional water supply adequate to its needs, and, if any such difficulties were found, how they should be removed.

The creation of Greater New York projected a new element into the problem of supplying water to the inhabitants within the enlarged City. Manhattan and the Bronx had been supplied from the Croton, Bronx and Byram watersheds; Brooklyn from ponds and wells on Long Island; Queens and Richmond partly from private, partly from public, local sources. But, if additional water was needed, the uniting of these communities into a single municipality, with common aims and interests, demanded a large plan and a long look ahead both as to the sources of the additional supply and as to the manner in which it should be obtained. To secure a bountiful supply of pure and wholesome water, sufficient for immediate needs and ample for future needs, seems not only to be the concern of the whole City, but to present a problem which can best be solved by treating it in the largest way, both from an engineering and a financial point of view, and by planning for many years to come. In this spirit the committee has studied the questions involved in this investigation.

We wish to extend to the Merchants' Association our hearty thanks for the prompt and generous manner in which it has aided us in making the investigation.

The work of the committee, which has extended over a period of more than seven months, has been divided among four sub-committees:

I.
1. The Engineering Committee has considered the present
supply and the available sources of future supply,
with their cost; also the use of salt water for fire pro-
tection and sanitary purposes;

2. The Committee on Municipal Finance and Public Policy
has investigated the financial history of the water
supply of the City, and has considered whether
it is in the public interest that the City's
needs for water should be met by private con-
tract or by a municipally-owned plant;

3. The Committee on Fire Protection and Insurance has considered the question of an additional water supply from the viewpoint of insurance and protection for the business parts of the City;

4. The Committee on Legislation has considered the various legal and constitutional questions arising in the course of the investigation.

The reports published herewith, notably from the Engineering and the Municipal Finance Committees, contain much valuable information which has never before been published.

PART I.

RELATIVE FINANCIAL RESULTS OF MUNICIPAL AND PRIVATE OWNERSHIP.

The Committee on Municipal Finance, with the cordial cooperation of the Comptroller, has made an exhaustive examination of the records of the Water Supply Department so far as the Comptroller's office contains them. Statutes and resolutions authorizing the issue of bonds or outlays for water supply have made it necessary to keep many separate accounts on the Comptroller's books, with the result that it has been an exceedingly laborious matter to ascertain fully the City's investment in its water-supply; but the work done has laid a foundation for at more scientific and accurate system of bookkeeping. The official reports of the Department of Water Supply are very incomplete and lack most important data necessary to any real knowledge of the management and finance of that important depart

ment.

The data collected and analyzed under the direction of this committee demonstrate that the water works of the former City of New York have been and are a source of profit and not a financial burden.

We may divide the history of New York's water supply into three periods: the first commences in 1832, when the municipality initiated measures to use the Croton watershed for the supply of the City, and ends in 1884, when a new supply was found necessary. During this period the Croton Aqueduct was built, which is still available for a supply of 90,000,000 gallons daily. About 20,000,000 gallons daily additional were secured in the latter part of the period from the Bronx and Byram rivers. The second period, 1885-1889, is marked by the building of the New Aqueduct, water from which was supplied to the city in