In lower Jersey City the water supply from the wells was inferior
and insufficient in quantity. According to Winfield there was quite
a business carried on at one time in carting water from the hill and
selling it by the pail from door to door. Upon March 1st, 1839, a
company was incorporated and authorized to arrange for a water supply
for the city, but it failed to accomplish anything. On March 18th,
1851, Edwin A. Stevens, Edward Coles, Dudley S. Gregory, Abraham J. Van
Boskerck and John D. Ward were appointed a Board of Water Commissioners
to supply Hoboken, Van Vorst and Jersey City with pure water. They
employed William S. Whitwell as engineer. Numerous plans were suggested
but the commissioners decided upon taking the water from the Passaic at
Belleville. Mr. Whitwell began the work near Belleville, August 26th,
1851, and submitted his plan on December 9th of the same year. On March
25th, 1852, legislative authority was given to construct the works.
Upon June 30th, 1854, water was let into the pipes from Belleville, and
on August 15th, distributed through the city. Up to that date the cost
was $652,995.73. At that time the water in the Passaic at Belleville
was so pure and clear that the stones could be seen at the bottom of
the river. At the same time the board adopted a sewerage plan, a tidal
canal from Communipaw Cove to Harsimus Cove, principally along the line
of Mill Creek and Hoboken Creek. The scheme provided that it should be
open to navigation, and it was believed that factories, lumber, coal,
and stone yards would locate along its shores, but it was never carried
out. The water and sewerage questions are still unsolved problems of
grave importance in Jersey City.