29 



WATERS AND WATER-POWERS 



During the year the shortage of electric energ\^ for power pur- 

 poses in southwestern Ontario continued to affect production. It 

 curtailed natural growth; a number of new enterprises which desired 

 to obtain power were unable to do so, and m.Hiicipalities receiving 

 energ\- from the Niagara system of the Hydro- -^fectric Power Com- 

 mission were required to reduce their consumpiT(/ri by from 15 to 30 

 per cent of their maximum demands in December, .917. Though the 

 cessation of the manufacture of munitions will release some 30,000 to 

 40,000 h.p., this power will be absorbed by the municipalities and by 

 power-users whose demands have been curtailed. 



„ All the water at Niagara Falls allotted to Canada 



Niagara Power . 



Developments and the United States under the Boundary Waters 



Treaty — 56,000 cub. ft. per sec. — has now been 

 apportioned to the various development companies. Certain inter- 

 ests are now urging that the treaty be amended to permit the diver- 

 sion of a larger quantity of water, one proposal being that each 

 country- be permitted to divert 60,000 cubic feet, or 120,000 cubic 

 feet in all. 



Senator Edwards: How much power would that be altogether? 



Mr. White: It depends very much upon the head under which 



it is utilized: at the present time, 56,000 second-feet is developing 



about 650,000 horse-power; 120,000 cubic feet per second would 



yield about 1,400,000 horse-power, if only the head at the falls were 



utilized. If it were developed on the same plan as the Chippawa, and 



operated under a head of 305 feet, the proposed total diversion of 



120,000 second-feet would yield approximately 3,600.000 h.p. Of 



course, these are calculations that I am making ofT-hand. However, 



it is not necessary to divert any more water to double the power 



output at Niagara Falls, because, if adequate power is not obtained 



by means of the present diversion, it can practically be doubled by 



utilizing the water in the same way as the Ontario Hydro-Electric in 



their Chippawa-Queenston development, namely, b\' using the 



descent in the rapids above and below the falls as well as the fall in 



the cataract itself. 



The Chippawa-Queenston development of the Hydro- 

 Hydro-Electric j^, . c 1 1 -11 • f ^ • e 

 Extension tlectric, reterred to above, will consist of 6 units ot 



50,000 h.p. each, or 300,000 h.p. in all, operating 



under a net effective head of 305 feet. In other words, the output of 



the Chippawa plant will be equivalent to 80 per cent of the present 



output of all the plants on the United States side of Niagara Falls. 



It will use 10,000 cubic feet per second, conveyed through 4.^ miles of 



