Newark water supply quality

Newark Water Quality

This morning I woke to make myself coffee, and I smelled the water as I filtered it through a Brita filter. The water was discolored and had a strong chlorine smell.   I recall fondly the quality of the water here and have firsthand knowledge of its sources and history.

In the early 1970’s (ca. 1973-75) I worked for The Newark Board of Education’s Outdoor Education. We took Children from Newark schools to the Pequannock watershed to learn about the source of their water.

Newark’s fine water supply was born of the need for clean water in the 19th century because of Newark’s poor sanitation. Dead horses were allowed to lie rotting on its streets, raw sewage from Newark and Patterson and points above ran into the Passaic River and Typhoid was endemic. At that time the river and well water was the source of Newark’s water, the 1890 US Census deemed Newark as America’s “unhealthiest city,”.

The Pequannock watershed was selected as source of Newark’s water because of the natural purity of the water and because the locality was a sparsely settled portion of the State. I also observed the water supply of East Orange working for the city’s recreation department’s summer day camp ca. 1978. East Orange’s program was not educational but recreational in nature.

 “Since 1892 the city of Newark has been blessed with a water supply of rare purity, giving this city what is considered by engineers and others informed on this subject as good water, if not a better one, than any other city of its size in the world can boast.”  (From an article in the Newark Sunday Call on May 12, 1912, prepared by Morris R. Sherrerd, City Engineer).

Beers

In 1900 there were 51 NJ breweries, 25 in Newark employing many of Its German citizens who lived here in large numbers. The beer industry was important here because of the quality of Newark’s drinking water. After the flight of Newark’s white majority beginning after World War 2, the beer industry began its decline partly as a result of their refusal to employ the Black citizens who began to become dominant during the great migration in World War 1 and the need for workers in the war related industries.

The decline in the water quality of Newark I believe stems from the decline in brewing and the corruption in city politics that began in the sixties. This decline was further exasperated by the decision of the city council during the 1970’s to augment Newark water with water from the Ramapo River.