Ashland Oil Refinery. But I don't remember the stink being bad from that, I remember it from Lackawanna, the steel mill. And the economy, if I remember correctly, a crane operator at Bethlehem earned over $20 a hour back then.
I was watching a TV show on Niagra Falls and it showed that in the early 1900's, they started to build power plants on the US side, then Canada, then larger capacity on the US side, until there was enough capacity to consume more power than typically goes over the falls.
During the spring run-off, the water can flow faster, but some 60% is diverted to the power plants at any given time. And it goes into Love Canal! Have you heard of Love Canal before?
Back in the 50's it was not illegal to dump any sort of chemicals into the nearby rivers, and that caused Love Canal to become very toxic.
There is a system in place that if Security finds someone trying to go over the falls in a barrel or something else, they can send an alarm, and that will trigger all the generation systems to come online as well as open diversion tunnels, so that all the water over the falls will stop, then they can rescue the person doing something stupid.
So the flow over the falls can be set to 10% of normal all the way up to 100% of normal, but is usually set to 40% of normal with 60% going to the generation system.
Yes it was shut off for a time to study some rocks that might be ready to fall from the top, and to study how far upstream the falls are moving each year. While it might naturally move upstream at 12 - 25 feet per year, now because of the generation systems and water diverted from the falls, the upstream movement is only about 3' per year on average now.
In 1,000 years, the falls might move upstream 3,000 - 10,000 feet, and will be someplace near the edge of the lake, lowering the water level in the lake several feet.
Fred.
Money can't buy happiness but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche or Country Coach!
Sea Dog wrote: Very interesting tale.
Devoid of facts but, interesting never the less!
Well, I guess it's like the old game "Telephone." You tell somebody something, they tell the next person, and so on, and by the time it gets all the way to people in California it's a completely different story. At least us folks that live nearby understand the real story.
I particularly liked the comment about using Love Canal as a diversion channel! If that were the case, why did they spend so much money digging tunnels under the city on both sides of the border, just so the power plants downstream could get water? And why did they spend so much money trying to clean up Love Canal? We're talking so much water used by the power plants, that I bet it would sweep Love Canal clean in a day! If it were a diversion channel, Love Canal would never have become a superfund site. Of course, then Lake Ontario might be a whole other story...
2007 Holiday Rambler Endeavor 40PDQ 400 ISL Cummins/Allison
2002 Chevy Avalanche toad
Inside: Him, Her, and a pack of little furballs...
grant135b wrote: There has been a dam only a mile upstream from the falls since 1953.
Erosion has moved the falls several miles upstream since they and the Great Lakes were formed by glacial retreat about 10,000 years ago. For the last 100+ years, up to 75% of the river's flow has been diverted for the generation of electricity, which has had the added benefit of slowing erosion. Aside from a rock slide on the American side during the 1950's, the falls have been relatively stable over the last century.
It looks like they'll be around for a while, at least until long after we're gone.
Glacial retreat 10,000 years ago? I though that the warming only started happening in the last hundred years due to our burning fossil fuels. Someone really needs to look into this.
I don't know what they will do about the falls but I hope they just leave it alone.
Sea Dog wrote: Very interesting tale.
Devoid of facts but, interesting never the less!
Why do you say it is devoid of facts?
"There is a system in place that if Security finds someone trying to go over the falls in a barrel or something else, they can send an alarm, and that will trigger all the generation systems to come online as well as open diversion tunnels, so that all the water over the falls will stop, then they can rescue the person doing something stupid"
And here all this time I thought that they had Mighty Mouse in a little helicopter on stand by to pluck the barrels out of the river!
We just got back from a trip that included Niagara Falls, and as someone who has been thru Environmental Engineering school my primary thought on the Maid of the Mists was that the water smells exactly like sewage plant effluent. Kind of took the enjoyment out of that segment of the trip for me.
Sea Dog wrote: Very interesting tale.
Devoid of facts but, interesting never the less!
Why do you say it is devoid of facts?
"There is a system in place that if Security finds someone trying to go over the falls in a barrel or something else, they can send an alarm, and that will trigger all the generation systems to come online as well as open diversion tunnels, so that all the water over the falls will stop, then they can rescue the person doing something stupid"
And here all this time I thought that they had Mighty Mouse in a little helicopter on stand by to pluck the barrels out of the river!
It better be Mighty Mouse and a helicopter because that other deal has never worked yet.
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