THE WASTE WEIR
A waste weir provides a means of removing excess water from the canal, and provides a means of draining a section of the canal for repairs, for winter, or in anticipation of flooding. Because rising canal waters could overflow the banks,
eroding them and causing a break in the canal, waste weirs were an important safety feature. Also, high water in the canal could prevent canal boats from passing underneath the low bridges. (There were over 300 bridges over the canal). Waste
weirs were often located near existing streams into which extra (waste) water could be emptied.
Our waste weir was built in 1842. It replaced a wooden aqueduct over Wood Creek on the original (1817) canal, approximately ¼ mile further west. One function of an aqueduct is to cross a stream. Another is to allow excess water to empty from the canal. Eliminating the aqueduct meant there was a need to regulate water levels in this section. When the canal was enlarged to 70 feet wide and 7 feet deep (1835) it was decided to build a stone arch culvert over Wood Creek and build an 80 foot long waste weir on somewhat dryer land. Most of this spillway structure is fitted and mortared limestone. These limestones were cut into blocks using hand tools, with some of them weighing as much as 500 pounds. The spillway is on the north side of the towpath. The canal water goes under the towpath through stone arch culverts approximately 6 feet high by 8 feet wide to the spillway. The center part of the spillway is 1 foot by 1 foot wooden beams and 4 sluice gates, 2 feet wide by 3 feet tall. The gates are opened or closed manually by turning 2 foot diameter cast iron handles that are threaded into 1 ¼ inch iron rods, which are attached to the wooden portion of the gates. When all four gates are open and the canal has been drained there is still approximately 6 inches of ·water flowing over the bottom sill of the gate structure. When all four gates are closed, the impounded water (in this case, Wood Creek is t.11.e feeder for this section of canal) rises up to the top of the spillway, and spills over giving the canal its 7 foot depth. The waste water then flows down a man made channel and rejoins the original course of Wood Creek , approximately ¼ mile west.
In its original condition, the waste weir set the canal at an elevation of 426 feet above sea level. When the waste weir was restored in 1969, in preparation for the opening of the Erie Canal Village, the canal inadvertently flooded portions of west
Rome (which didn’t exist in the mid 19th century). It was decided by the city of Rome engineering department to lower portions of the stone spillway some 26 inches to alleviate the possibility of flooding portions of Rome. This is why you see
two cut out sections in the stone work on eit.½.er side of the wooden gate structure. This modification does not effect the operation of the structure as it was originally intended.