New Power from Niagara

Niagara Falls, mecca for honeymooners, is also one of the world's great sources of electrical energy. To harness more of Niagara's power without damaging the falls' scenic beauty, the U.S. and Canada in 1950 signed an accord giving each a greater--but more controlled--share of the Niagara River's rushing waters. Canada immediately expanded its Niagara power plant to take full advantage of its quota, but U.S. plans were blocked by a fight over who would develop the power. Last week Congress finally passed a bill authorizing the New York State Power Authority to build a $600 million power project near Niagara Falls.

Public v. Private. The biggest block to U.S. development of the Niagara was the clash between public-and private-power backers; they introduced conflicting bills in every Congress from 1950 to 1957 and effectively canceled each other out. In 1956 the need for Niagara development became vital when the Schoellkopf plant of the Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. crumbled into the roaring waters during a rockslide. This forced the area's industry to buy power from Canadian plants at much higher rates than before.

Worried about a possible exodus of industry, the New York State Power Authority, headed by literate, terrible-tempered Robert Moses, last fall asked the Federal Power Commission for a license to go ahead with a Niagara project. The FPC refused to consider the application, explaining that the 1950 treaty with Canada provided that Congress must decide who should develop Niagara's power.

Bob Moses went to court and in June got a federal circuit court ruling that FPC, not Congress, was the proper agency to act on the New York State project. But until the issue was finally settled, financing the project would be difficult. Meanwhile, Ohio and Pennsylvania were clamoring for a "fair share" of the Niagara power, regardless of who developed it.

To end the argument, New York's Representatives, along with Republican Senators Irving M. Ives and Jacob K. Javits and Democratic Senator Robert S. Kerr of Oklahoma, chairman of the Senate Public Works Subcommittee, pushed the bill through. The bill provides that the new project's 1,800,000-kw. capacity be divided evenly among industry and public bodies, e.g., counties, municipalities, nonprofit cooperatives. Ohio and Pennsylvania will get 10% of the total U.S. output v. the 20% they asked for.

$385 Million v. $600 Million. The 1950 U.S.-Canadian agreement specified the volume of water to be left in the river at certain times to maintain the flow over the falls--more in the warmer months, when tourists flock to Niagara, and less in the winter and at night, when scenic considerations are less important. The U.S. project will divert its share of the water (now being used by Canadian plants) from a point upstream from the falls through huge concrete conduits to two power plants several miles downstream. The New York State Power Authority, which is already a partner with Canada in developing the International Rapids section of the St. Lawrence River for power (TIME, June 6, 1955), will finance the project with a bond issue to be sold to the public later this year. It will also use part of the money--and the fill removed in digging the conduits--to construct a scenic parkway along the Niagara River. Tentative completion date: 1960. The long delay has been an expensive one: had the project been started in 1950, it would have cost only $385 million, about half of the present estimate.

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