John Hessin Clarke

“ The court, recognizing the importance of the ruling which it is making to the great populations interested, as well in the state of New Jersey as in the state of New York, will direct that the decree denying the relief prayed for shall be without prejudice to the instituting of another suit for injunction if the proposed sewer in operation shall prove sufficiently injurious to the waters of the bay to lead the state of New York to conclude that the protection of the health, welfare or commerce of its people requires another application to this court. ”

“ The health, comfort and prosperity of the people of the state and the value of their property being gravely menaced, as it is averred that they are by the proposed action of the defendants, the state is the proper party to represent and defend such rights by resort to the remedy of an original suit in this court under the provisions of the Constitution of the United States. ”

“ There is only one point upon which all the experts called for the opposing parties agree, viz., that in the present state of learning upon the subject the amount of dissolved oxygen in water is the best index or measure of the degree to which it is polluted by organic substances, it seemingly being accepted by them all that upon the oxygen content in water depends its capacity for digesting sewage-that is for converting organic matter into inorganic and harmless substances by direct oxidation and by sustaining bacteria which assist in such conversion. ”

“ The opinions of seemingly well qualified experts vary in giving from 25 per cent. to 50 per cent. of saturation as the amount of oxygen necessary to prevent the appearance of such offensive odors from decomposition of organic matter.
Measured by this dissolved oxygen standard, the evidence of the complainant is that as early as 1906 the water adjacent to New York City, especially in the Bronx and lower East River was much polluted by sewage, but that the water in other parts of the bay, especially near Robbins Reef Light, was somewhat, but not greatly, contaminated. ”

“ The witnesses agree that so long as there is sufficient dissolved oxygen in the water the process of digestion of the sewage will go forward without producing offensive odors and that when it sinks below a required percentage of saturation such odors will appear, but, unfortunately, there is a wide divergence of opinion among them as to what the required lower percentage is. ”

“ It is, however, of much significance that the authorities of the city of New York, after many years of investigation of the subject of sewage disposal, in their latest plans propose to adopt a treatment of screening and sedimentation and dispersal in deep water very similar to, but not so extensive and thorough as that provided for in the stipulation between the defendants and the United States. ”

“ There can be no doubt that the various commissioners who investigated 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 and preserve the interests of all of the great communities involved. ”

“ The terms of this stipulation were adopted by the government under the advice of army engineers of high rank and by the sewerage commissioners on the advice of distinguished sanitary engineers and it must be accepted as established by the testimony taken in 1919 that at that time screening and sedimentation and thorough dispersion in water through deeply submerged multiple outlets was regarded by the most competent authorities as the most approved method of disposing of sewage in large volume. ”