Waste Weirs

Waste Weirs. Delaware and Hudson Canal. Installed at strategic places, especially where brooks and springs fed water in, waste weirs were the safety features of the canal, helping to control the level and the speed of the water. These openings in the canal bank were usually made of stone and fitted with a lift-up wooden gate. If you look down, you can still see the remnants of stone work from the weir. , The canal received its water from several sources , the rivers that paralleled it, dams that regularly supplied it, the brooks and springs that fed into it. These sources kept the water at the right height most of the time, but occasionally excess water from heavy rains or spring flooding threatened to overflow the banks and erode them. Water that flowed too fast , more than one-half mile per hour , was also a threat to the stability of the banks. If necessary, weirs, with spillways positioned slightly above the desired water level, were opened and water was released.