Water main on Bushwick Avenue to be closed, Bushwick Glass Works affected

BUSHWICK AVENUE MAIN

TO BE CUT OFF TO-MORROW

Big Section of Eastern District

Will Probably Suffer From

Lack of Water.

BREWERIES WILL BE AFFECTED.

Some Factories May Be Obliged to Temporarily

Suspend Business - Rain Badly Needed.

After deliberating as to the means that could be devised whereby the actual daily consumption of the water in this borough could be decreased, with the least inconvenience and suffering to Brooklynites, all Saturday and Sunday and to-day, Chief Engineer Van Buren and Engineer De Varona, in charge of the Brooklyn Department of Water Supply decided this afternoon to close down the Bushwick main to-morrow unless rain occurs before that time. It was intended to shut down the main on Willoughby avenue, which main supplies the Eastern District, the section bordering on the river and also the Brooklyn Navy Yard. That section of the borough, however, is so thickly populated that great suffering would be caused all over that locality by the stoppage of the flow of water through the main mentioned.

By the shutting down of the big Bushwick avenue main which also pours its water into the homes and factories and breweries in the Eastern District, thousands of householders will be deprived of their usual daily supply of water and over a score of the largest breweries and manufactories in Brooklyn will be seriously inconvenienced. In some cases it is thought that some of the big breweries will be obliged to shut down or that they will at least be unable to brew their usual number of kegs and barrels of malt liquor, until arrangements can be made for a replenishing of their inadequate water supply from other sources than those of the Department of Water Supply of this borough.

Chief Engineer Van Buren said this afternoon that he thought that some of the breweries that will be affected by the shutting down of the Bushwick avenue main to-morrow had private wells from which the water needed in their business could be pumped in case of an emergency like the one that is so soon to arise. Not all of the breweries have their own sources of water supply, however.

Some of the big manufactures and brewing concerns that will be most seriously affected by the dearth of water after the main on Bushwick avenue is closed are the Ulmer Brewing Company, the Claus Lipsius Brewery, S. Liebmann's Brewery, the Brooklyn Brewery, the Burger Brewery, the Fallert Brewery, the Huber Brewing Company, the Congress Brewery, the Ochs Brewery, the Castle Braid Manufacturing Company, the Iron Clad Manufacturing Company, the Lawrence Rope Factory, the Standard Rope Factory, the Bushwick Glass Works, Cooper's Glue Works, the Kings County Oil Refinery, the Brooklyn Union Gas Company, the American Manufacturing Company, the Valentine Varnish Company and the Standard Oil Company. There are many other smaller concerns that will also be affected in a business way when the Bushwick avenue main ceases to carry its usual flood of waters.

Engineer De Varona, in speaking about the urgent need of the conservation of what scanty supply of water still remains on storage in the reservoir basins of the system, said:

"The damage and hardship caused to many of the residents of the borough by reason of the shutting down of the Bushwick avenue main will not be as great or as general as if either of the other two mains - the Broadway or the Central avenue main - were shut down.

"The closing of the Willoughby avenue main, which we have been contemplating, would cause widespread inconvenience to the people living in the Eastern District and it is in order to deprive as few of the residents as possible of their usual water supply that we have suggested the shutting down of the Bushwick avenue main, instead. Engineer Van Buren and myself have written Deputy Commissioner of Water Supply Moffett, recommending that this main be at once shut down.

"This morning, at 6 o'clock, when soundings were taken, the water in the reservoirs was but one and one-half feet above the top of the bell of the distributing pipes."

Deputy Commissioner of Water Supply Moffett was not at his office in the Municipal Building to-day and it was said there by some of his subordinates that he would not probably be at his office all day.