Long Island Water Works Company
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LONG ISLAND WATER WORKS COMPANY.—We learn that this Company will soon commence the work of excavating Baisley’s Pond, just south of this village.1 It is a question to be considered; what effect will this have upon the health of the surrounding neighborhood? There is upon the bottom of this large Pond a deposit of mud and vegetable matter, to the depth of from 8 to 12 feet. This immense mass of stuff is to be taken out and will be deposited upon the surface in the vicinity. When exposed to the action of the sun and air, there will be a miasm arising from it, that will be anything but healthful.
We should not imagine that in the present advanced stage of agricultural improvement, the people of a country town would be long determining what to do with an immense mass of decayed vegetable matter. Why it would be a godsend to our Long Island farmers, and enable them to save a great deal of money which would otherwise be paid into the Peruvian treasury or to the dealers in guano. As to the miasma which our contemporary fears, there are plenty of absorbents which can be mixed with the deposit and which will completely deodorize it. Jamaica people, if they please, can derive almost as much benefit from the mud, as Brooklyn hopes to get from the water.
Notes:
1. Baisley's Pond was a major supply reservoir for the Brooklyn Water Works located in what is today the borough of Queens. It was a former mill pond, named after its owner David Baisley, who had sold it to the local water authorities in 1852. It was also occasionally referred to as Baisley's Pond, Jamaica Pond, or Rider's Pond. For a period in 1857, it housed a team of engineers, including Walt's brother Thomas Jefferson Whitman ("Jeff"). [back]