the staff of the Ridgewood blog
New bridge landing NJ, Bergen County Historical Society is hosting a lecture on : The Water Crisis of 1876 ,Thursday, April 25, 2019 at 7:30 pm at Steuben House, River Edge, NJ
Presented by Kevin Olsen
New Jersey has long depended on surface water for much of its potable water supplies. The 1876 Annual Report of the State Geologist features detailed discussions of the state’s water resources and provides valuable insights into what was then known about pure water and public health. By 1876 the links between pure water and health were well established but the underlying pathology was only dimly understood. In 1876 the New Jersey Geological Survey was forced to find ways of measuring the disease-causing potential of a water supply without actually knowing exactly how diseases were transmitted. This task was given special urgency because in the summer of 1876 a committee of the northern New Jersey mayors requested the aid of the State Geologist in identifying new sources of water supply. Searching for an alternative source of supply, Geological Survey chemists analyzed water samples from wells and rivers throughout the region. Based on these results the Geological Survey recommended the upper Passaic River basin as the new source of domestic water. The Geological Survey recommendations of 1876 lead directly to the construction of reservoirs in northern New Jersey. Today there are 13 major reservoirs in with a combined storage capacity of 76.2 billion gallons.
Kevin Olsen is the Instrumentation Specialist on the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department’s support staff at New Jersey’s Montclair State University. As an historian Kevin has published a number of papers related to chemical history and New Jersey’s maritime history.
The lecture takes place in the Steuben House, 1209 Main St, River Edge, NJ. No charge. Please join us for refreshments at the conclusion.
