A third of Warren under hundreds of feet of water? Two blue-water lakes between the First and Second Watchungs? What reads like fiction today was fact less than a half century ago. For over 30 years, from 1925 to 1955, Warren's very existence was threatened by State plans for a multi-million gallon reservoir that would have stretched from Warrenville nearly to Pluckemin. In a later version, a second reservoir would have filled the depression north of Dock Watch Hollow, from Liberty Corner Road to King George Road. Seriously considered at the highest levels of State government, the plan would have changed the face of Warren forever. Only the good sense of voters (and continued development in Washington Valley) finally put an end to the Chimney Rock reservoir scheme in November 1955. The incredible story begins in 1924 when the City of Elizabeth unveiled plans to create a reservoir by blocking Stony Brook at the Green Valley Gap in the First Mountain. The dam would have formed a lake inundating nearly half of Watchung Boro. North Plainfield and Plainfield vigorously opposed the scheme, fearing that a huge man-made lake looming high in the mountains above them presented an unacceptable risk of catastrophic flooding. "In those days the notion of making water supply a government function was still fairly new to this state," wrote Somerset County historian Jessie Havens in a l985 story about the reservoir plan. "Big cities in the North Jersey metropolitan area banded together to find a common solution to their chronic shortages. Their study of feasible locations for water storage found Washington Valley to be 'one of the finest natural sites for a large storage reservoir' in the state. It had been eyed before by private water companies, but until government entered the picture, never seriously." When Newark joined Elizabeth in championing the Washington Valley plan in 1927, localites experienced their first serious scare that their homes and businesses might actually be inundated. One who championed valley interests was John W. H. Crim, who had previously served as first assistant attorney general in the Harding Administration. "He pointed out, as so many after him would do, that although Washington Valley was a fine natural basin, finding water to fill it would not be easy," wrote Havens. "Nevertheless it looked for a while as though aqueducts and pumping stations were going to siphon up water from the North and South Branch and possibly even from the Passaic over the Second Mountain to create a giant lake." "By 1930 the difficulties of obtaining water to fill Washington Valley had given rise to a bigger and grander plan. As the mayor of Newark explained it, potable waters of the state belonged to all the people, therefore water storage projects at Wanaque, Pequannock and Chimney Rock should be interlocked into a common metropolitan water supply system." According to a 1930 map of the project, a major dam "would have been located about a half-a-mile north of the stone quarry at Chimney Rock along the road leading from Bound Brook to Martinsville," reported the press. "between the first and second Watchung ranges. The east dike, as proposed then, would have been almost opposite the Old Stirling Rd., which runs from Mountain Blvd. across the second range to Stirling railroad station…. The west dike would have been located two miles east of Pluckemin. A transmission aqueduct would pass through No. Plainfield." Roads in the area would have been relocated and a "taking-line" designated properties to be removed, "a line [beyond which] which no residences would be permitted for fear of pollution." The Chimney Rock or Washington Valley reservoir (the names were used interchangeably) scheme took advantage of the area's distinctive geography and geology - a long, narrow valley that could be plugged by dams at low points nestled between watertight basaltic mountains. A 1931 hearing held at Newark City Hall in response to the 1930 plan drew State Senator Dryden Kuser, county freeholders, Congressman Charles A. Eaton of Watchung and others to voice their opposition. Congressman Eaton's pleas "on behalf of the corpse," as he put it, clearly expressed the sense of futility and inevitability felt by the rural residents of Washington Valley in the face of the demands of New Jersey's largest city for a more dependable water supply. The deepening Depression, not the objections of valley residents, brought the reservoir project to a temporary halt. Six years later the reservoir plan reared its head again. On March 1, 1937, Sen. Charles E. Loizeaux of Plainfield, the Republican majority leader of the State Senate, introduced a package of five bills that would consolidate regional and state water supply efforts into a state agency with wide ranging powers to select reservoir sites, condemn land, build reservoirs, acquire existing systems and order interconnections between existing water systems. It was, said the Plainfield Courier-News, "the most elaborate and far reaching water program ever." "Major water control commissions described its enactment as vital if the metropolitan area is to be spared a potable water supply crises in years to come," said the paper on April 27. "Its foes cry of 'waste,' of 'super government,' of 'depopulation of unbounded areas.'" Republican Gov. Harold Hoffman was reported to be an "enthusiastic supporter" of the legislation but many Democrats were against the bills, at least in their initial form. Everyone familiar with the scheme knew that reservoirs in Washington Valley, created by a dam at Chimney Rock, and Long Valley were part of the plan. Jersey City's mayor Frank Hague was said to be opposed to a reservoir in Long Valley but "partial" to the Chimney Rock/Washington Valley plan. His thinking, according to the newspaper, was that "land which would be flooded by Chimney Rock reservoir is nestled between the first and second Watchung Mountains and is mostly undeveloped. Three little communities would be affected - Martinsville, Springdale and Warrenville - as compared with seven villages and crossroads hamlets in Long Valley." Mayor Hague and Gov. Hoffman notwithstanding, Republican legislators from Morris, Sussex, Warren, Hunterdon and Somerset counties lined up solidly against the plan, forming an inter-county stearing committee to fight it. A chain of giant reservoirs would stymie development of their areas, just then beginning, they argued. "Resentment that the cities should seek to encroach on their lakeland plays a definite part in their opposition," said the Courier-News. Senator Loizeaux's bills never got through the Legislature after interest in the water supply scheme faded. The worsening crisis in Europe and the Far East, not water supply, now drew the nation's attention. "No more was heard of damming the gap at Chimney Rock until after World War II,' wrote Ms. Havens in her article, "by when the valley had begun to be recognized as a charming rural retreat…." Predictably, however, when severe drought prompted a new study of north Jersey water resources, the notion of a huge reservoir filling Washington Valley was again dusted off and laid before the public as the best and cheapest solution. In July 1955 a special New Jersey Legislative Commission on Water Supply approved the report of Tippetts-Abbett-McCarthy-Stratton, New York engineers engaged by the State to study all aspects of New Jersey's water supply problem. Copies of the report, which advocated a Chimney Rock reservoir, were sent to all legislators, who were summoned into a special session on August 15th to consider the proposal. A bill providing for a referendum on a $76 million bond issue to finance the construction of the Washington Valley reservoir and related projects was readied for introduction and, according to newspaper reports, would easily pass in the Republican-controlled Senate and Assembly and be signed by Gov. Robert B. Meyner, a Democrat. The Tippetts-Abbett-McCarthy-Stratton plan, in its final version, called for pumping 70 millions gallons of water daily from the North Branch of the Raritan River into the reservoir, which standing alone had no appreciable water source. A second, much smaller reservoir would have been constructed in a depression in the Second Watchungs on both sides of Dock Watch Hollow Brook. Publication of the "taking map" sent valley residents scurrying to their magnifying glasses, anxious to see whether their properties would be inundated. George Bebbington, a Marine veteran who settled here after World War II, remembers his relief when he found that his newly-built house on King George Rd. would be spared. "Many of us in the valley found that if the reservoir were built, we would have water-front properties. We also wondered how we would get to work or go shopping, given that Washington Valley Rd. and all of the east-west roads for some six miles would be under water." Opponents to the Chimney Rock plan lost little time making their views heard. On July 26th over 400 residents of Martinsville and surrounding towns met at the Martinsville Community Club to implore the State not to flood their valley. With 200 more residents outside listening on loudspeakers, Joseph Zettle of Spring Run said the ultimate solution to the State's water problems would be found by diverting water from the Delaware and Raritan Rivers, not flooding Round Valley (the State's alternate location) or Washington Valley. The State's estimates that 350 homes would be affected in Washington Valley was wide of the mark, said another speaker, who said she had found 997 buildings, including 76 small businesses, three churches and one school within the area to be inundated. Worse news for Valley residents came a day after the meeting when State Conservation Commissioner Joseph McLean said that the State, if it decided in favor of the Chimney Rock proposal, should purchase the entire watershed to forestall real estate speculation and prevent pollution seeping into the water source from surrounding septic tanks. McLean said he hesitated to support the Washington Valley reservoir "because the engineer's report makes no recommendation to purchase 3660 acres of watershed adjacent to the site." On August 1st the governing bodies of Bridgewater, Warren and Bound Brook went on record as opposed to the plan. Bound Brook, though not directly affected by the scheme, would see the loss of its own reservoir on Chimney Rock Rd. On August 2nd the newly-organized League for the Preservation of Washington Valley met at the Martinsville Inn with local businessmen and political leaders to assess the impact of the proposed reservoir, and how to best counter it. Officials of Somerset County, Bridgewater, Bound Brook and Warren Township attended, along with church, bank and school officials of the communities affected. Warren representatives at the meeting worried openly about the severe loss of tax ratables, "nearly half," one estimated. Almost immediately the Chimney Rock reservoir plan became ensnarled in politics: Somerset County Senator Malcolm S. Forbes, a Republican running for re-election, supported the plan, while his Democrat opponent, Charles W. Engelhard of Far Hills, opposed it. Forbes defended the plan as "in the best interests of all people of New Jersey." Forbes admitted, according to a story in the New York Times, "that he was taking a very unpopular stand in his county and that he might well fail to be re-elected because of it. 'I have fully studied the need and justification for the Chimney Rock project,' he declared. 'I sincerely believe it is essential to alleviate the recurring water shortages in North and Central Jersey.' Although some of Senator Forbes' colleagues in the Legislature have told him that he is committing political suicide, other observers feel that he will gain more votes than he will lose by this seeming show of sincerity." Engelhard advocated the use of water from the Delaware River "as the only real solution of New Jersey's water problems." The League for the Preservation of Washington Valley vigorously denounced Forbes, saying it "deeply regrets that Sen. Forbes has become a defender of the chipmunks, field mice, bunnies, and handful of gentlemen farmers that populate the wide open spaces of Round Valley. This devotion to the flora and fauna of Hunterdon comes as a great surprise to his constituents in Somerset." Said the League: "His assertions strike us as sheer nonsense." As the campaign for State Senate heated up, candidate Engelhard continued to pound the incumbent, claiming that during dry spells prodigious quantities of water would have to be pumped up to the Washington Valley and Dock Watch Hollow reservoirs from the Raritan River, leaving the river a "cesspool." Joining the fray were members of the Springdale Methodist Church, who said both their church building and the cemetery behind it would be destroyed by the project. In early October a group called Republicans for Engelhard was formed. At a dinner on October 17th attended by 130 Republicans from all parts of Somerset County, politicians from Green Brook, Warren and Watchung voiced their support for Engelhard's anti-reservoir platform. Earl Ising Sr., a member of the Warren Township Committee, said he would remain a Republican but would "fight and vote against Senator Forbes and his $100 million bond issue." A week later John F. Lange, another member of the Warren Township Committee and head of the Republican Club, came out against Forbes. Meantime, Warren's board of education announced that plans to acquire a third elementary school site would be put on hold until after the November 8th referendum. Passage of the referendum, said board members, would force hundreds of families to relocate and "possibly postpone the need for a new school for another year or more." In the final weeks preceding the election, Washington Valley clergy sparked a prayer campaign in an effort to preserve the valley. By then, the estimated cost of the reservoir plan had soared to over $100 million. Not every valley resident was agitated by the hubbub. "To many area property owners, especially those who have lived here 20 or more years, the news was 'old stuff,'" reported the Bound Brook Chronicle. "The use of Washington Valley for a reservoir site has been recommended by various state water commissions for more than 30 years, but as one resident said yesterday, 'Nothing has ever been done about it yet, so we're not worrying that much.'" On November 8th State voters went to the polls in record numbers, decisively defeating the water referendum. In Somerset County, where the referendum was defeated by a better than three to one margin, Senator Forbes barely eked out reelection, winning by only 376 votes. In contrast, other County GOP candidates swept to victory by margins as high as 6,000. In the valley's three heavily-Republican election districts, two in Warren and one in Bridgewater, Engelhard polled 653 votes to 617 for Forbes. To the State's overwhelming rejection of the water referendum were added the votes of 879 valley residents. Surprisingly, 293 valley people voted in favor of the reservoir plan. Although Washington Valley was apparently saved from drowning, skeptics remained unconvinced that the State would look elsewhere in their water planning. Warren's local officials believed -- correctly, as it turned out - that the threat had been averted permanently, so much so that a year after the reservoir referendum's defeat they dedicated the township's new municipal building - on a site that would have been flooded had the politicians and engineers had their way. Later, when plans for a giant reservoir at Round Valley were announced, Valley residents finally knew that their homes, businesses, churches and cemeteries were safe. © Warren Township Historical Society |