DAMMING NIAGARA

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 76, 22 December 1917, Page 13

DAMMING NIAGARA

A £20,000,000 PROJECT.

Tlio Niagara Falls is one of tho great natural assets of the American continent, not merely as a spectacle, drawing tourists from all over the world, but as a huge source of energy that, by tho genius of man, can be harnessed to the wheels of industry. Huge electro-chemical plants flank tho Niaga Palls on both the Canadian and American sides, and it is the cheap supply of energy from the rushing waters of the falls that has enabled America to compete in the electrochemical industry at a tremendous advantage over" other nations.

But legislation stands in the way of the full utilisation of tlio power stored up in Niagara Falls. By treaty between the United States and Great Britain, enough of the waters of tho Niagara Elver above the falls can be diverted to the American and tho Canadian side to generate about 730,200 but circumstances have interfered with the complete utilisation or this volume of water. A year ago industries on the American side of the Niagara River were getting from the Canadians at the falls 175,000 horsepower, but the growth of Canadian inaustries has led to a curtailment of this distribution by quite 60,000 horsepower.

It is not alone at Niagara Falls thai the drop 111 the river level makes i; possible to utilise the power of tin nf Vl ;ir y r l i 1 , ovln S TOter -' From the foot M the falls onward the tide moves witt Volume of quite 200,000 cubic feet i second, and m the course of five milof w «°J H 1 ? str , eam dl '°I> s over leet. If the Canadian and the Unitec states Governments cannot agree to e more liberal -use of the waters at 01 above Aiagara Falls, the only solution of America s problem is to utilise tl« lushing flow below the cataract. Plaiv Have been matured for that purpose • a P ro J cc t put forward for develop j«g 2,000,000 horse-power at a point j lew miles below the cataract. The Niagara River surges northward throiH: a narrow gorge,, with flanking banks mmg from 300 to 350 feet above the w At a P°' nt ealle(1 Foster'; *'a ts, however, the bank slopes easih ,fl ar '- s V ,va , ter > aMcl terrainnut tt" a , elt > wllicl ' di P s lai out, thus 'greatly narrowing the' expause of tho stream's surface. It is a( this point that it is proposed to creatc a second falls by means of a dam, rising a little more than 100 feet above P T nt - t 1 lovcl - Tllis Iv °uld laise the river level, so that there would be a difference of onlv two feet between tho loot of tho falls and- the spillway of the dnm. -Tlio arrangement niollt 1 ! 1 u°- Way '"terfeie with the effinil forking of the existing plants ih° V f u • ii 1 ' • plan wi " P re sorvc tlio falls in their full grandeur: it will ShiT "i al ' Ker , antl m o re imposing 1 pod by adding 50 feet to ita erit Vl?" • , IVliI il,tor but I,ot obliteiato tho rapids. Nisr, Ut p- ati °! 1 of tl,c pown ' of the <g<ira Etvcr is xiot a local concern. «t t : lec f. ri f a . l , onGr gy generated at tho falls is distributed westward as tar as Detroit, and eastward as far as acUS ?,7 a total.interval oi' quite 400 miles ■ Iho actual maximum length of distribution, taking the falls as a cen--S $$ m - ! Os - Nw York City lies ii lthin 300 miles of the proposed dain, and it is economically practicable to send current to tho metropolis. Tho amount of energy now used m the empire -fetate is well over 3,000,000 horse power, and there is an annual increaso at the rate of 300,000 horse power. Power plants already built at Niagara £2fl mn B nnn Sont i a t i otal invest ment of 120,000,000, and because of these hydro-electric stations industrial capital has been drawn to the neighbourhood that probably reaches an aggregate of more than £150,000,000. With an additional 2,000,000 horse power available, manufacturers of ono sort or another, with a capitalisation several times greater would be attracted to the distributm radius of this energy. I'o build the dam and to establish'the power piaaits would cost fully £20,000,000, and the entire project could b'e [nought to completion inside of a perlod of three yeaTs.