Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 July 1892 — A New Channel for The Iroquois. [ARTICLE]

A New Channel for The Iroquois.

BeuyGjfford is now talking np anew feature of his big drainage scheme which is likely to provoke great discussion in Rensselaer, pro and con. His plan contemplates nothing less than the diverting of a large portion of the waters of the Iroquois river, through town from the present channel into a new one, to be ent by him. The new channel is to start from the point of junction of the Iroquois and and Pinkainink rivers, about two miles due east of the north line of Rensselaer, and. run thence directly west until it opens into the small branch of the Iroquois which flows through the properties of Simon Phillips and W. Marshall, just west of the town limits. The ditch would run nortti of ' the Rensselaer depot, and would strike the branch above mentioned on the farm of J. B. Neal, better known as tlie old Yeoman homestead. The ditch, if made, would be cu,i of a depth and width sufficient to carry the greater part of the water of both streams, the Iroquois and Pipkamink, and become in fact, the main channel of the river. The branch into which thejiroposed channel would empty, would require great enlargkinent in order to carry the water. The cutting of this channel, which "could lie done by a steam dredge, could be done.much more quickly and vastly more cheaply than could the channel In the river be deepened through the rock. and will, it is thought, answer the purpose of drainage fully as well. Since the above was put iu type, we learn that, as proposed, the new channel w iff'"leave the Iroquois nearly a mile above the place of its jimciroh with the Pinkamink. ..Otherwise its course will be about as described above.

The matter is already being eagerly discussed, and the project is sure to meet with considerable opposition, and especially from the owners of property along the branch which is to forte the outlet and part of the western. end of the ditch. They will probably and seemingly not unreasonably. ask for heavy damages. The questiQp of. what effect, if any, the new bhannei would have upon public health is one to be considered. The project of putting of a big stream of sluggish and often stagnant water half around town, and in close proximity thereto, is one that might be fraught with many possi billies dangerous to the health of odr people, and as such it must lie closely scrutinized. Of course if the new channel can be made to have plenty of fall to insure a rapid current its whole length, it probably would not bn Objectionable from the point of public health. ■* -L