I heard that next year (2011) Niagara Falls will be shut off for maintenance or something. Is this true? I would like to go up and see it, but I can't find any information about it. Does anyone have any information about this?
drew4allyou
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I don't think Niagara Falls can ever 100% be shut off, but water can be diverted to the hydro electric plants.
A little known fact is that during the night, the hydro electric plants siphon off extra water to their reservoirs which reduces the flow over the falls. Then, during the day, the plants open the dams and generate elecricity by using the stored water in the reservoirs from the night before.
The same is done during the winter. Overall flow over the falls at both night and day is reduced mostly because there aren't as many tourists. Water always flows though, there are actually treaties governing how much water the plants can take and at what times.
To your question though, I don't see why they would ever need to shut off the falls for maintanence?
Wiininiskwe *Ajidamoon*
While it is possible, with the diversion dams and tunnels that divert water into the turbines....it would likely flood out Chippawa if they did it.
So no, they won't be shutting down the water, but there are plans to open up extra tunnels to turbines rarely in use, which will slow the flow over the Falls greatly. They only use 1/4 of the tunnels actually built, and usually during the night, as apposed to during the day when tourists are wanting to see the Falls. The US is needing more hydro than they are currently buying from us, so by diverting more water to the turbines, the OPG will be able to meet that demand. I just hope they charge the US a ridiculously high price for it. What choice do they have but to pay it?
?
The flow of water is so great at Niagara Falls it cannot be shut off. A small portion of water is diverted by hydro dams in the off season and at night in the tourist season.
They did build a series of dams in 1953 on the Canadian Horseshoe Falls to do remedial work on the falls. They were able to reduce erosion so much that there has not been any talk of doing it again. I believe the last time they built dams to study the rock formation was on the American side in 1969. They were looking at removing the talus (the rocks at the bottom of the American and Bridal Veil Falls). They concluded that it was best to leave Mother Nature alone.
Interestingly enough in 1848 the Horseshoe Falls was reduced to a trickle for 30-40 hours when an ice jam occurred at the mouth of Lake Erie.
Looking at pictures of the Falls in the winter you would know it is near impossible to stop the flow of water.
capitalgentleman
How do you shut off a giant waterfall?
There is a dam upstream that can regulate the flow a little, but you may as well try to stop the tide. There is a huge amount of water there! There is no way to turn it off, although apparently once or twice, in extremely cold years, it has frozen for a few hours, and not flowed.
old lady
Yes. It's shut down in the winter because of the cold weather, then in spring they do maintenance before the tourist season openes.