Crisis on the Nepperhan Page 1

CRISIS ON THE NEPPERHAN

Introduction

In 1892 the City of Yonkers engaged in what today would be called a “covert” police action to rid the downtown of what it perceived to be a “nuisance”—the polluted Nepperhan River. The actions of the City can be interpreted in a variety of ways:

a reasonable use of municipal power to prevent a public health disaster;
an extra–legal action that damaged property rights without giving the affected owners recourse to the courts;
an enlightened view of the impact of pollution upon the environment and the public health;
an illegal use of governmental power to achieve a new vision for downtown Yonkers (its commercial development) that was not possible to obtain through the legal channels of the time.