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"Let's not rush to tear down water works -By JAMES AHEARN - The Record, Wednesday, April 10, 2002"
Let's not rush to tear down water works
The Record, Wednesday, April 10, 2002 By JAMES AHEARN I DROVE OVER to Oradell Sunday to see the old Hackensack Water Co. water works. Pat Schuber wants to demolish most of it. The oldest building, dating to 1882, would be reduced to the first-floor walls, which would enclose a garden. An immense, antique, Allis-Chalmers steam-powered pump, Old No. 7, would be turned into a motionless, ceremonial icon of the Industrial Age.
Schuber is the Bergen County executive. He has been fussing over what to do with the water works for a decade. It was in 1992 that the water company, now United Water Technologies, offered to give the old pump house, adjoining buildings, and the 15 acres they occupied to the county. In addition, the company volunteered to donate 31 adjoining acres of woodland and marsh on either side of the Hackensack River.
It was a good deal. The company had installed new technology to purify the water it delivered to consumers in Bergen and Hudson counties. It no longer needed the old equipment. For the county, short of open space, to receive 46 centrally located acres free was like manna from heaven. The gift was accepted.
But there were problems. Some of the waterworks buildings were said to be in poor shape. The whole complex sat on a low island in the river, subject to flooding. Two years ago Tropical Storm Floyd dumped five feet of water on the island.
An organization was formed advocating restoration and preservation of the buildings. The organization is called the Water Works Conservancy. It set about soliciting grants. Schuber was afraid that this effort would run short, and that the county would get stuck with a big bill. He asked the borough of Oradell to serve as a financial backstop to the conservancy. At first borough officials said yes. Then there was an election, and the new borough government said no.
All of this palaver fades when you stand in front of the water works and look at it. It is quite a remarkable relic, actually. It is big. There are several interconnected buildings, stretching 650 feet along Elm Street in Oradell. Five were pump houses, built at various times in the late 19th and early 20 centuries. All are walled in handsome red brick, with window frames painted now-peeling hunter green and with roofs of gray slate.
The impression is of a harmonious whole. Adjoining the pump houses to the north are filtration structures, two of comparatively recent vintage, also built of red brick.
I couldn't get inside. The structures are surrounded by chain-link fence. I did see broken windows here and there, missing slates on the roofs, brick in need of repointing, and industrial junk in corners. But I came away from my visit thinking that the water works could be a jewel. It reminded me of the old textile mills of Lowell, Mass., now turned into a national historical park, except that the water works were better designed to begin with.
When the Water Works Conservancy argued that the complex was historically significant, I had my doubts. But Maggie Harrer, board president of the organization, made a good case in an Op-Ed Page article ("Battle Over Van Buskirk Island in Oradell," March 14, 2002) in The Record.
She said that the complex "exemplifies the early 20th century development of a pure municipal water supply, crucial to a nation whose citizens drank water with foul taste, foul odor, and bacteria from untreated sewage dumped into rivers. In 1901, diarrhea, dysentery, and typhoid were rampant.
"Most of this remarkable complex of buildings and equipment predates World War I and survives with remarkable integrity. The site is the only intact facility of its kind in the nation."
In February the state Historic Sites Council rejected an application by the county to demolish most of the buildings. The vote was 9 to 0. Council members were indignant at the very idea. Turning the water works into a sort of Roman ruin would be "total theater," said the chairman, Alan B. Buchan. The National Trust for Historic Preservation also weighed in, saying the water works was truly worthy of preservation.
The council vote is subject to review by the commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection, Bradley Campbell, who is to rule by late June.
I would counsel against such fast action. Schuber is leaving office. He wants the issue decided before he departs. But he has had a decade to do something, and nothing has been done. This is now a matter that should be resolved with input from the candidates to succeed him, from the county freeholders, and from the public. The future of the water works should be discussed in the fall election campaign.
Whatever the decision, it should not depend on the acquiescence or financial backing of one town, Oradell. The site is and ought to be a county facility, whether it is restored or cut down.
Either way, the county can well afford to pay the bills, with help from the feds, the state, and private donors. As a first step, the public ought to be invited to see what is at stake here. The chain-link gates should be opened, the pump-house doors swung wide. If some structures are truly too decrepit for public visitation, let the county rig some interim repairs.
What say you?
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