The people of Yonkers should be grateful to the Board of Health for the decision and determination displayed in the destruction of three of the dams on the Nepperhan River. The dams have long been a thorn in the flesh of this city, and the polluted waters which they have retained in semi–stagnant ponds have been a constant menace to public health.

The tearing down of the dams will permit the river to freely run its course through the city, and keep its channel comparatively clean.

Dr. Valentine Browne has been for a long time actively opposed to the existence of those dams and ponds, and it is to his constant exertions backed up by our energetic Health Board and the Police Board, that we owe the present happy relief. We thank him, and we thank the Board of Health for all they have accomplished for the good of the city. And the good they have done is greater than may have been understood at first glance.

The knowledge of the filthy and unhealthful conditions of the Nepperhan River has by no means been confined to the people of Yonkers. It has been published abroad in many ways, more particularly by the investigation made of it in the interests of the State Board of Health. The existence of such an unsightly, malodorous and dangerous waterway in our midst has necessarily kept away from us many persons who otherwise would have been attracted by the beauty and accessibility of the city to settle here. You may search the whole catalogue of evil influences, but you will find none so powerful to deter people from populating any locality, as the presence of some source of danger to health and life. That what has been substantially an open sewer must be placed very pronouncedly in that category, there is no gainsaying.

What has been done is but one step in the right direction. Much more remains to be done before we can confidently say that the river has ceased to be a thing to excite reasonable apprehension in the minds of those living in its neighborhood.

There are still three dams and water powers located farther up the stream than those destroyed on Thursday night. Although they have not been supposed to receive and retain so much matter of impurity as those farther down the river, still they must necessarily come under the same bann; for situated as they are in the midst of a settled district they can not fail to harbor much filth, and be opposed to proper sanitary conditions.

These, too, should go. The stream should be allowed to flow freely throughout the entire city so that there shall be no stagnation of its waters by which dirt and disease germs are most surely retained and fester.

No sewage should be allowed to discharge into the river. Such drains as now empty into it should be removed and the discharges they have provided should empty in to public sewers debouching into the Hudson River. The river channel should be thoroughly dredged and the river should be confined within stone walls of sufficient height to insure a strong current, which is in itself the best means of keeping the channel clean and the laws against polluting of the water or clogging the channel by deposing or throwing into the river anything that might cause either one or the other should be rigidly enforced, and any offenders punished in the full penalty prescribed by the city ordinance.

The really thorough improvement of the Nepperhan would be an incalculable boon to the city, and would result in materially aiding its development and financial prosperity.