People v. New Jersey & Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners

Citations

• 256 U.S. 296

Syllabus

<p>New York brought this suit against New Jersey and the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners, to enjoin the execution of a project to convey the sewage of the Passaic Valley through a sewer system and to discharge it into a part of New York Harbor, known as the Upper New York Bay, the plaintiff alleging that the sewage would be carried by the currents and tides into the Hudson and East Rivers and be deposited on the bottom and shores of the Bay and upon and adjacent to the wharves and docks of New York City, and would so pollute the water as to render it a public nuisance, offensive and injurious to persons living near it or using it for bathing or for purposes of commerce, damaging to vessels using the waters, and so poisonous to fish and oysters in it as to render them unfit for food. The United States intervening opposed the plan as threatening, unnecessarily, obstruction of navigable channels, injury to the health of persons navigating the waters and of officials and employees at a navy yard, and damage to government property bordering on the Bay; but withdrew, without prejudice, upon the filing of a stipulation executed by its Attorney General-, and by the defendant sewer commissioners acting, under authority of an act . of the New Jersey legislature, agreeing upon a modification of the . -method proposed for purifying and dispersing the sewage, specifying the results that must be secured thereby or through requisite additional lawful arrangements, allowing the Government full opportunity to inspect the workings of the sewer system aftd providing that compliance with the stipulation should be made a condition of any permit issued by the Government for construction, maintenance or operation. The case having proceeded to final hearing between the original parties,—</p> <p>Held: (1) That the right of New York to maintain such a suit on' behalf of her citizens was clear, without regard to the precise location of the boundary between the two States or to New York’