Wabagishik Dam and Generating Station

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Coordinates: 46°18′56″N 81°31′16″W / 46.3156°N 81.5212°W / 46.3156; -81.5212
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Wabagishik Dam and Generating Station
MW[2]

The Wabagishik Dam and Generating Station (or Lorne Falls Generating Station) is a

Vale Limited
, which is notable in the area for its mining operations.

History

Before the dam

People of the indigenous

Finnish homesteaders.[4]

At the same time, small mining operations had sprung up around the

steam power at the smelter.[6] As a fuel source, however, wood was a quickly-depleting resource in the area due to extensive deforestation caused by logging, wood-burning, and clearance for new settlements.[7]

Mond was a smaller competitor to the

Canadian Copper Company, whose subsidiary, the Huronian Power Company (established by 1902), had developed the High Falls dam on the Spanish River to leverage hydropower for its mining and smelting operations.[8] Mond would follow suit with its own competing subsidiary, the Lorne Power Company.[8][9][10]

Construction and early operations

The Lorne Power Company's first major project was the Wabagishik dam at Lorne Falls.[8] Dam construction occurred in either 1908[11] or 1909,[2][7] and the plant was commissioned in 1909.[2] By the end of the year, the generating station was connected to the Victoria Mine, which switched to electric power, though not soon enough to save the lives of two workers who had died in 1908 when a steam boiler exploded.[6] The Lorne Falls plant was followed in 1915 by the Nairn Falls Dam and Generating Plant on the Spanish River, also owned and managed by the Lorne Power Company.[8] Both plants provided 60 Hz power to Mond's operations, in contrast to the 25 Hz produced by Inco's Huronian Power Company.[12]

In 1929, 20 years after operations at the plant began, the Mond company merged with the International Nickel Company, or

Coniston.[12]

Recent history

In the mid-2010s, safety inspections revealed deterioration of the concrete of the

snapping turtles, as well as seven species of bat.[11] Ultimately, a minimum flow provision was added to the spillway replacement project to improve walleye spawning conditions at the base of the spillway, along with a post-construction monitoring program[13] and a staged timeline of bush clearing recommended to minimize the impact on bat habitat.[11]

Geography and hydrography

Main article: Vermilion River (Sudbury District)

The dam sits on the

Sudbury
to the east, whose municipal boundaries the complex falls within.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Waterpower Management". Vale.com. Archived from the original on 14 August 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  2. ^ a b c "Celebrating the History of Waterpower in Ontario" (PDF). Ontario Waterpower Association. June 2017. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  3. Ontario Archaeology. 42. Ontario Archaeological Society
    . Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  4. ^ a b c Svensk, Ruth (26 January 2012). "Natural Heritage of the Vermilion River". Vermilion River Stewards. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  5. ^ Jewiss, Tom (Spring 1983). "The mining history of the Sudbury area". Rocks and Minerals in Canada. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
  6. ^ a b Charbonneau, Yvan (17 January 2015). "Victoria Mines Ghost Town". GhostTownPix.com. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  7. ^
    OCLC 1148593526
    .
  8. ^
    ISBN 9781554588374
    .
  9. ^ McAllister, Marty (September 1989). "INCO HISTORY: MOND: The Man, The Process, The Company". The Inco Triangle. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
  10. ^ Twenty-first annual report of the Bureau of Mines (PDF) (Report). Vol. XXI. Department of Lands, Forests and Mines. 1912.
  11. ^ a b c d e Vale Limited (26 February 2018), Wabagishik Spillway Project Overview (PDF), Vermilion River Stewards, retrieved 7 August 2020
  12. ^ a b c "Five Plants in Inco's Huronian Hydro-Electric Power System" (PDF). The Inco Triangle. August 1952. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
  13. Vale Limited
    . Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  14. ^ Heron, Linda (16 March 2016). "Heavy Metal Contamination – Wabagishik Lake, on the Vermilion River system". Retrieved 8 August 2020.
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