Down the Highway to Churchill Falls

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This entry is dedicated to Dorothy Rhyne Blyth, Beth's much loved aunt, who passed away in Chapel Hill NC on June 3, 2017, aged 93.

In empty uncultivable places such as Western Labrador with hunting and trapping no longer a viable alternative, small communities often become enclaves that exist in the shadow of the big natural resource companies: Big Oil in Alaska and North Western Canada, Big Hydro and Big Mining in Northern Quebec. I had wondered who was King in Labrador, until I visited the town of Churchill Falls, in the middle of Labrador on the Churchill River. NALCOR, a government owned hydro power corporation rules. Its initial base was in Churchill Falls, where in 1971, in partnership with Hydro Quebec, a large power project was completed producing some 5,000 Megawatts. Now it is engaged in building a second hydro plant at Muskrat Falls on the Churchill River outside Happy Valley/Goose Bay. Every second pickup or van I have come across in central Labrador has the corporate insignia on the side. Their power lines criss-cross the Province, never out of sight.

Over the 46 years Churchill Falls has become a neat well organized company town with 650 souls – half of them children. The only residents are employees of the firm, and their families. Everything is provided by the corporation. Housing is cheap (CA$ 95 a month for a four bedroom) and the houses are heated and maintained for free. Everyone is educated at the company school, buys from the company store, and plays at the company arena and playground. I guess you can save money and return home – but few do. Most people are from Labrador anyway, and would be living somewhere else in the province. The town is now into its second generation (kids born here are now having families), and the few people I talked to seemed well adjusted and content to live here. It is part of the solution to the issue I had been reading about before visiting Labrador --- what are people supposed to do now that there are no more fish?

I had booked a visit to the hydro-power plant, and was fortunate enough to be the only person on the tour. My guide Felicia was from the only black family in town. She was born in Congo (Kinshasa), lived and married in South Africa, and now lives here. Her husband is the town doctor. She was a delight to learn from. The site is an engineering marvel. 11 huge pipes (penstocks) channel water down 900 feet to drive the 11 turbines. We wandered around deep inside the rock – looking at the dials and huge transformers – as rushing water is transformed into the power that drives my toaster oven. Most of the power is sold (at a below market price apparently) to Hydro Quebec. And the waterfall on the Churchill River runs dry. Nothing is free, but when carefully managed this still seems to me to be one of the best ways of generating electrical power.

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Photos

Approaching Churchill Falls town
Tricky iron grating bridge in the wet, over now dry tributary of the Churchill River.

Now dry tributary of Churchill Falls
Water now damned and used to generate power.

Only 1,800 mega watts being generated today
from a potential max output of 5,000

In Nalcor power generation station
Types of electrical transmission wire -- made of aluminium strands

Power transmission wire
Showing strands of aluminium fiber.

Model of underground turbine, and Felicity, the tour guide.
I was lucky enough to be the only customer on this tour, which meant could ask all the questions I wanted...

Comments

[Harry]

Lost for words
You sure know how to pic em Coates

[Rebecca]

Company Town
We talked about the robber-baron version of the company town on the way to Chapel Hill a little over a week ago, starting from the Tennessee Ernie Ford song. The NALCOR version sounds like a polar opposite. Your hard hat becomes you.