Niagara River (Ontario) Remedial Action Plan fonds, 1984-1997, n.d.

The Niagara River Remedial Action Plan was part of an initiative to restore the integrity of the Great Lakes Basin ecosystem. In 1972, the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement was signed by both Canada and the United States to demonstrate their commitment to protecting this valuable resource. An amendment in 1987 stipulated that Remedial Action Plans (RAPs) be implemented in 43 ecologically compromised areas known as Areas of Concern. The Niagara River was designated as one of these areas by federal and provincial governments and the International Joint Commission, an independent and binational organization that deals with issues concerning the use and quality of boundary waters between Canada and the United States. Although the affected area included parts of both the Canadian and American side of the river, Remedial Action Plans were developed separately in both Canada and the United States. The Niagara River (Ontario) RAP is a three-stage process requiring collaboration between numerous government agencies and the public. Environment Canada, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, and the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority are the agencies guiding the development and implementation of the Niagara River (Ontario) RAP. The first stage is to determine the severity and causes of the environmental degradation that resulted in the location being designated an Area of Concern; the second stage is to identify and implement actions that will restore and protect the health of the ecosystem; and the third stage is to monitor the area to ensure that the ecosystem’s health has been restored. Stage one of the RAP commenced in January 1989 when a Public Advisory Committee (PAC) was established. This committee was comprised of concerned citizens and representatives from various community groups, associations, industries and municipalities. After several years of consultation, the Niagara River (Ontario) Remedial Action Plan Stage 2 Report was released in 1995. It contained 16 goals and 37 recommendations. Among them was the need for Canadians and Americans to work more collaboratively in order to successfully restore the water quality in the Niagara River. Stage three of the Niagara River (Ontario) RAP is currently ongoing, but it is estimated that it will be completed by 2015. At that point, the Niagara River Area of Concern will be delisted, although monitoring of the area will continue to ensure it remains healthy.

Strategies for water pollution control in Dhaka, Bangladesh: an institutional and economic analysis

This paper presents primary data based on research carried out as part of a large World Bank project. Results from our survey show that water pollution in Dhaka watershed has reached alarming levels and is posing significant threats to health and economic activity, particularly among the poor and vulnerable. Rice productivity in the watershed area, for example, has declined by 40% in recent years and vegetable cultivation in the riverbeds has been severely damaged. We also found significant correlation between water pollution and diseases such as jaundice, diarrhoea and skin problems. It was reported that the cost of treatment of skin diseases for one episode could be as high as 29% of the weekly earnings of poor households. Given the magnitude of the contamination problem, a multi-agent stakeholder approach was necessary to analyse the institutional and economic constraints that would need to be addressed in order to improve environmental management. This approach, in turn, enabled core strategies to be developed. The strategies were better understood around three types of actors in industrial pollution, i.e. (1) principal actors, who contribute directly to industrial pollution; (2) stakeholders, who exacerbate the situation by inaction; and (3) the potential actors in mitigation of water contamination. Within a carrot-and-stick framework, nine strategies leading to the strengthening of environmental management were explored. They aim at improving governance and transparency within public agencies and private industry through the setting up of incentive structures to advance compliance and enforcement of environmental standards. Civil society and the population at large are, on the other hand, encouraged to contribute actively to the mitigation of water pollution by improving the management of environmental information and by raising public awareness.

Plan of the river from Niagara to Fort Schlosser

1 map :|bdigital, JPEG file

Niagara Falls Stereo Cards collection, 1885-1903, n.d.

This collection contains 40 stereo cards of Niagara Falls and the Niagara River. Images include Niagara Falls in winter (the ice bridge); Prospect Point; the Whirlpool Rapids and the Whirlpool; the Upper River rapids; the Maid of the Mist; and Dixon crossing the Niagara River on a tightrope below the Great Cantilever Bridge. Twenty of the cards were published by Underwood & Underwood. The remaining cards are from various publishers including Keystone View Company, American Stereoscopic, Griffith & Griffith, H.C. White Company, E. & H.T. Anthony & Company, and Realistic Travels Publisher. George E. Curtis and Geo. Barker are listed as photographers on a few of the cards.

Geology and ground-water hydrology of the Heart River irrigation project and the Dickinson area,

Mode of access: Internet.

Economic development and Environmental quality: The environmental Kuznets curve for water pollution

The main aim of this study was to analyze evidence of an environmental Kuznets curve for water pollution in the developing and developed countries. The study was conducted based on a panel data set of 54 countries – that were categorized into six groups of “developed countries”, “developing countries”, “developed countries with low income”, “developed countries with high income” and “coastal countries”- between the years 1995 to 2006. The results do not confirm the inverted U-shape of EKC curve for the developed countries with low income. Based on the estimated turning points and the average GDP per capita, the study revealed at which point of the EKC the countries are. Furthermore, impacts of capital-and-labor ratio as well as trade openness are drawn by estimating different models for the EKC. The magnitude role of each explanatory variable on BOD was calculated by estimating the associated elasticity.

Canadian Niagara Power Company fonds

Power at the Falls: The first recorded harnessing of Niagara Falls power was in 1759 by Daniel Joncairs. On the American side of the Falls he dug a small ditch and drew water to turn a wheel which powered a sawmill. In 1805 brothers Augustus and Peter Porter expanded on Joncairs idea. They bought the American Falls from New York State at public auction. Using Joncairs old site they built a gristmill and tannery which stayed in business for twenty years. The next attempt at using the Falls came in 1860 when construction of the hydraulic canal began by the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Co. The canal was complete in 1861 and brought water from the Niagara river, above the falls, to the mills below. By 1881 the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Co. had a small generating station which provided some electricity to the village of Niagara Falls and the Mills. This lasted only four years and then the company sold its assets at public auction due to bankruptcy. Jacob Schoellkopf arrived at the Falls in 1877 with the purchase of the hydraulic canal land and water and power rights. In 1879 Schoellkopf teamed up with Charles Brush (of Euclid Ohio) and powered Brush’s generator and carbon arc lights with the power from his water turbines, to illuminate the Falls electrically for the first time. The year 1895 marked the opening of the Adam No. 1 generating station on the American side. The station was the beginnings of modern electrical utility operations. The design and operations of the generating station came from worldwide competitions held by panels of experts. Some who were involved in the project include; George Westinghouse, J. Pierpont Morgan, Lord Kelvin and Nikoli Tesla. The plants were operated by the Niagara Falls Power Company until 1961, when the Robert Moses Plant began operation in Lewiston, NY. The Adams plants were demolished that same year and the site used as a sewage treatment plant. The Canadian side of the Falls began generating their own power on January 1, 1905. This power came from the William Birch Rankine Power Station located 500 yards above the Horseshoe Falls. This power station provided the village of Fort Erie with its first electricity in 1907, using its two 10,000 electrical horsepower generators. Today 11 generators produce 100,000 horsepower (75 megawatts) and operate as part of the Niagara Mohawk and Fortis Incorporated Power Group.

Technical Note: Assessing a 24/7 solution for monitoring water quality loads in small river catchments

Quantifying nutrient and sediment loads in catchments is dif?cult owing to diffuse controls related to storm hydrology. Coarse sampling and interpolation methods are prone to very high uncertainties due to under-representation of high discharge, short duration events. Additionally, important low-?ow processes such as diurnal signals linked to point source impacts are missed. Here we demonstrate a solution based on a time-integrated approach to sampling with a standard 24 bottle autosampler con?gured to take a sample every 7 h over a week according to a Plynlimon design. This is evaluated with a number of other sampling strategies using a two-year dataset of sub-hourly discharge and phosphorus concentration data. The 24/7 solution is shown to be among the least uncertain in estimating load (inter-quartile range: 96% to 110% of actual load in year 1 and 97% to 104% in year 2) due to the increased frequency raising the probability of sampling storm events and point source signals. The 24/7 solution would appear to be most parsimonious in terms of data coverage and certainty, process signal representation, potential laboratory commitment, technology requirements and the ability to be widely deployed in complex catchments.

The effects of temperature on nickel tocicity in goldfish (carassius auratus L.)

Although it is widely assumed that temperature affects pollutant toxicity, few studies have actually investigated this relationship. Moreover, such research as has been done has involved constant temperatures; circumstances which are rarely, if ever, actually experienced by north temperate, littoral zone cyprinid species. To investigate the effects of temperature regime on nickel toxicity in goldfish (Carassius auratus L.), 96- and 240-h LCSO values for the heavy metal pollutant, nickel (NiCI2.6H20), were initially determined at 2DoC (22.8 mg/L and 14.7 mg/L in artificially softened water). Constant temperature bioassays at 10°C, 20°C and 30°C were conducted at each of 0, 240-h and 96-h LCSO nickel concentrations for 240 hours. In order to determine the effects of temperature variation during nickel exposure it was imperative that the effects of a single temperature change be investigated before addressing more complex regimes. Single temperature changes of + 10°C or -10°C were imposed at rates of 2°C/h following exposures of between 24 hand 216 h. The effects of a single temperature change on mortality, and duration of toxicant exposure at high and low temperatures were evaluated. The effects of fluctuating temperatures during exposure were investigated through two regimes. The first set of bioassays imposed a sinewave diurnal cycle temperature (20.±.1DOC) throughout the 10 day exposure to 240-h LeSO Ni. The second set of investigations approximated cyprinid movement through the littoral zone by imposing directionally random temperature changes (±2°C at 2-h intervals), between extremes of 10° and 30°C, at 240-h LC50 Ni. Body size (i.e., total length, fork length, and weight) and exposure time were recorded for all fish mortalities. Cumulative mortality curves under constant temperature regimes indicated significantly higher mortality as temperature and nickel concentration were increased. At 1DOC no significant differences in mortality curves were evident in relation to low and high nickel test concentrations (Le., 16 mg/L and 20 mg/L). However at 20°C and 30°C significantly higher mortality was experienced in animals exposed to 20 mg/L Ni. Mortality at constant 10°C was significantly lower than at 30°C with 16 mg/L and was significantly loWer than each of 2DoC and 39°C tanks at 20 mg/L Ni exposure. A single temperature shift from 20°C to 1DoC resulted in a significant decrease in mortality rate and conversely, a single temperature shift from 20°C to 30°C resulted in a significant increase in mortality rate. Rates of mortality recorded during these single temperature shift assays were significantly different from mortality rates obtained under constant temperature assay conditions. Increased Ni exposure duration at higher temperatures resulted in highest mortality. Diurnally cycling temperature bioassays produced cumulative mortality curves approximating constant 20°C curves, with increased mortality evident after peaks in the temperature cycle. Randomly fluctuating temperature regime mortality curves also resembled constant 20°C tanks with mortalities after high temperature exposures (25°C - 30°C). Some test animals survived in all assays with the exception of the 30°C assays, with highest survival associated with low temperature and low Ni concentration. Post-exposure mortality occurred most frequently in individuals which had experienced high Ni concentrations and high temperatures during assays. Additional temperature stress imposed 2 - 12 weeks post exposure resulted in a single death out of 116 individuals suggesting that survivors are capable of surviving subsequent temperature stresses. These investigations suggest that temperature significantly and markedly affects acute nickel toxicity under both constant and fluctuating temperature regimes and plays a role in post exposure mortality and subsequent stress response.

Niagara Falls Taxi Service, N.Y., Scenic motor trips [printed advertisement], ca. 1917.

One pamphlet advertising scenic motor trips conducted by the Niagara Falls Taxi Service, Inc., ca. 1917.

Quality of Pond Sediments

This powerpoint presentation discusses sediments in 18 sample ponds in Myrtle Beach, Charleston and Hilton Head. It attempts to answer the questions: How contaminated are bottom sediments in typical coastal stormwater ponds? and Do these contaminant levels have the potential to pose ecological and human health risks? Charts of findings are included.

J.W. Spencer fonds, 1866, 1881-1921

Joseph William Winthrop Spencer (commonly known as J.W. Spencer) was a geologist and geomorphologist best known for his work on the geology of southern Ontario and the Great Lakes. He was born in Dundas, Upper Canada in 1851, but moved to Hamilton, Ontario in 1867. In 1871, he began studies in geology at McGill College in Montreal. In 1875 he worked in the Michigan copper mines and shortly afterwards prepared a thesis on the copper deposits. He submitted this thesis to the University of Gottingen in Germany in 1877 and was awarded a doctorate in geology, the second Canadian to earn a doctorate in this field. In 1880, he became a professor of geology and chemistry at King’s College in Windsor, N.S. Subsequently, he taught at the University of Missouri, and then the University of Georgia, but moved to Washington, D.C. in 1894, where he worked as a consultant geologist. Spencer spent much of his life studying preglacial river valleys in Ontario and the origins of the Great Lakes, as well as the Niagara River and Falls. In 1907, he published a book titled The Falls of Niagara: their evolution and varying relations to the Great Lakes. His opinions in these areas differed from some of his contemporaries, namely the American geologist Grove Karl Gilbert. Gilbert published a review of the The Falls of Niagara that exposed some flaws and inaccuracies in Spencer’s estimate of the age of the falls. Spencer’s studies also took him to the Caribbean and Central America. In 1920 he moved back to Canada, but died the following year.

John Edminster letter, July 19, 1850

John Edminster was a Baptist missionary born in Cato, New York, in 1820. He was ordained a Pastor in Birmingham, PA, in 1842. He served as Pastor in White Deer, Clinton, Muncy, Derry, Moreland, and Madison, PA. In 1850, he moved to Oregon, Illinois, and established two churches there. He later served at several churches in Iowa, eventually becoming Pastor at Stillman Valley Church and residing at Hale, Ogle Co., Illinois.

Under the Table rock Niagara falls, March 20, 1856.

[From Jasper Cropsey Sketch book, 1855-1856]