Water Supply of Jersey City: Water Supply of Jersey City

Water Supply of Jersey City

The supply of fresh running water available to Jersey City residents today is easy to take for granted. For many, the water supply is a resource of unknown origins. Occasional water main breaks and periodic droughts, however, are unpleasant reminders that the city is not self-sufficient in regards this basic necessity.

At earlier times, Jersey City's water source was much closer to home. Colonial Dutch and English farmsteads in Jersey City relied on well water or nearby springs. The Bergen Hill area had several notable wells, including one at Bergen's center square. In the 1830s, below Bergen Hill, the separate municipality of Jersey City had three public water pumps located at Newark Avenue and Bay Street, First and Erie Streets, and Grove and Fifteenth Streets. Jersey City author Joan D. Lovero reports that "the superior quality of the drinking water from the Bergen hill gave rise to a thriving business in which kegs of water were delivered to the homes on the lowland in Jersey City" (35). Water was sold door-to-door with the trade of water for a penny a pail. In certain areas, the early fire department relied on water from the Hudson River.

Local historian J. Owen Grundy writes in his history of Jersey City that "The wells, which had been dug in the early city, were found inefficient, and on October 4, 1844, John D. Ward, a nationally known engineer, called upon the city to create an adequate water supply. But the issue remained dormant until 1851 when commissioners were appointed to provide a water supply for Jersey City, Van Vorst [Township] and Hoboken. The commissioners were Edwin A. Stevens, who founded Steven Institute of Technology in Hoboken, Edward Coles, Abraham J. Van Boskerck, Dudley S. Gregory, and John D. Ward" (34).

In 1850, the engineer William S. Whitwell, known for the Boston Water Works, was hired to design a three-reservoir complex for waterworks service stations costing approximately $650,000. Reservoir 1 at Collard Street and Summit and Laidlaw avenues was built in 1851. Grundy explains that "it was decided to take water from the Passaic River, then so pure, that one could see pebbles on the bottom. Water works were constructed at Belleville. On June 30, 1854, the first water was let into the pipes, and on August 15 it was available in homes, shops, and factories throughout the city, from the reservoir on Central Avenue" (Grundy 34). The water supply also complemented the development of the city's fire department.  About twenty years later, the system's capacity was expanded with the construction of Reservoir 3 on a 14-acre site along Summit Avenue. For some unknown reason, the second proposed reservoir was never built, and its location was used for Pershing Field Park.

The Water Commission also installed a municipal sewerage system affecting Jersey City's water supply. It was "a tidal canal from Communipaw Cove to Harsimus Cove, principally along the line of Mill Creek and Hoboken Creek" (Eaton 105). As a result, according to Grundy, by 1899, "the Passaic River had become so polluted that it was abandoned as a source of supply; and the new waterworks at Boonton began furnishing the city with pure water from the Rockaway River in 1904" (Grundy 45).

Reservoir 3 was decommissioned in the 1980s, and the site has been placed on the US National and New Jersey Registers of Historic Places.  Reservoir 1 has been demolished. 

Jersey City residents continue to receive their water supply from New Jersey's Boonton Reservoir, administered by Suez North America (formerly United Water, Inc.) under the auspices of the Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority. For many years, Jersey City has supplied the offshore tourist centers of Liberty Island and Ellis Island with their water supply.

Eaton, Harriet Phillips. Jersey City and Its Historic Sites. Jersey City, NJ: Women's Club of Jersey City of Jersey City, 1899.
Grundy, J. Owen. The History of Jersey City, 1609-1976. Jersey City, NJ: Progress Printing Co., Inc. 1976.
"Jersey City's Water Works." New York Times 15 August 1894.
Lovero, Joan Doherty. Hudson County: The Left Bank. Sun Valley, CA: American Historical Press, 1999.
Winfield, Charles H. History of the County of Hudson, New Jersey. New York: Kennard & Hay Printing Company, 1874.