I just came back from the official opening ceremonies of the new.

10 kilometre water tunnel that now passes underneath the City of Niagara Falls to the power plants at Queenston, Ontario.

The 12.7 metre diameter tunnel is now taking 500 cubic metres of water per second to the Sir Adam Beck Generating Station. This is now supplying enough hydro power to supply electric power to 160,000 homes in Ontario. Bob Chiarelli, Ontario Minister of Energy was at the ceremony and he said, “This will be a source of clean energy for the next 100 years”.

 City of Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati commented,” as well as being the Honeymoon Capital of the World we could be known as the Renewal Energy Capital of the World”. Hey, why not?

Niagara M.P.P. Kim Craitor also commented on how proud he was of the dedicated group of employees who built the tunnel.

This 7 year project employed at its peak 600 people and the tunnel was completed without any major accidents.

You may not know this but Niagara Falls is the birthplace of hydro electricity. The first power plants were built in the early 1900’s in this area.

Attached are some photos of the ceremony.