Category Archives: Chats Falls GS

American Eel Engagement Workshop – Government Response Statement

As a potential next step for the Ottawa River, we recommend assessing a suitable location for a ladder at the Carillon Generating Station over the next 1-2 migration seasons coupled with a commitment to providing passage the following year. Studies conducted by Hydro QC and Milieu Inc. in 2001 and 2010 revealed that more elvers approach the southern turbines than northern ones; however, shorelines, the shipping canal, and the spillway were not assessed. It is reasonable to delay installing a permanent ladder until such assessments are completed; however, free passage should be provided by the 2019 migration season. Consideration should be given to translocating elvers captured during such assessments above the Carillon Generating Station. Continue reading


Chats Falls Generating Station, Ottawa River

Chats Falls Generating Station

PLANT GROUP: Ottawa/St. Lawrence Plant Group
DRAINAGE BASIN: Ottawa River
RIVER: Ottawa
NEAREST POPULATION CENTRE: Ottawa (56 km (35 miles) southeast)
IN SERVICE DATE:
UNITS 2-5 – October 1931
UNITS 6-9 – October 1932
BUILT BY: Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario
ASSET TRANSFERRED TO ONTARIO POWER GENERATION: April 1, 1999
NUMBER OF UNITS: 8
HISTORICAL NOTE:
Early in the 20th Century the Chats Falls Power Company, later known as the Ottawa Valley Power Company, was formed and proceeded with surveys and plans for a development that would place a powerhouse at Egan Chute with a dam along the Ontario shore, upstream from Fishery Pool. This development would use only half of the flow of the river. An agreement was made in 1928 between this company and the Commission for a development of the whole site in one powerhouse. The agreement provided for the organization described later and was followed by the completion of a contract whereby the Commission purchased the Ottawa Valley Power Company’s share of the power. Surveys and engineering studies proceeded and construction started in the Fall of 1929.

Chats Falls & Chenaux – Waterpower Agreements Renewal – Ross

June 13, 2011:

Excerpt:

I write this open letter as an Algonquin Elder from Pikwàkanagàn First Nation in response to your invitation for public comment to the proposed waterpower agreements with Ontario Power Generation Inc. (OPG) at Chats Falls and Chenaux. I write one letter to you both since there is a lack of continuity in MNR’s approaches to waterpower agreements in different parts of the Ottawa River Watershed and elsewhere in Ontario. There also is a lack of continuity between these proposed agreements and MNR’s responsibilities under the Lakes and Rivers Act (LRIA). I think that it is wrong for MNR to have so many different ways of treating agreements under Ontario Regulation 242/08 and also wrong to not acknowledge in every waterpower agreement the fact that MNR has responsibilities under LRIA. Continue reading


Mississippi, Chats, Chenaux Hydroelectric Generation Facilities – Agreement Renewals – Allen

June 20, 2011:

Excerpt:

Through my June 15, 2008 public input to MNR re EBR 010-3320 (To establish new regulatory provisions under the Endangered Species Act, 2007 to allow certain activities to continue), I alerted MNR to issues which it could have incorporated into the proposed agreements. For unknown reasons MNR has decided not to follow that advice. I ask that all of my three-year-old public comment to EBR 010-3320 be reviewed and incorporated into any agreement which goes forward. I also ask that my public comments re EBR 011-3334 be reviewed and incorporated into any agreement which goes forward. Continue reading


Chats Falls Generating Station Agreement Renewal – Disposition of American Eel – ORA

June 20, 2011:

Excerpt:

The ORA has noted previously that upstream and downstream passage should be pillars of all waterpower agreements involving eels. The agreement should be re-written with more careful and clear approaches that meet the tests of OReg. 242; otherwise the ministry may be unnecessarily subject to strong challenges. We have previously suggested ways of doing this in our response to the recent EBR posting on waterpower agreement. Continue reading