WMOD00522

• Title: Projected Impacts of a Very Large Windpower Complex
• Date: 9/26/1978
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

Long-term impacts of the pumped-storage facility would have to do
mainly with resulting fluctuations in water level in the two lakes and with
the possible ecological effects of pumping Lake Ontario water into Lake Erie,

The interaction between the lake and its shoreline is one of mutual
adjustment over a geologic time scale extending to tens of thousands of years,
during which numerous catastrophic storms, floods, and droughts occur, No
analysis system has been evolved capable of assigning benefits or disbenefits
to the totality of such long-term processes. However, on a shorter time
scale, notable disbenefits are associated with episodes of unusually high or
low water and with wave action that alters the shores, High water destroys
land values by flooding and erosion, and low water aggravates problems of
water pollution, fisheries, etc. There are, of course, innumerable other
effects,

Water-level changes in Lake Erie have been studied in connection
with windstorms 19. Several times a century, windstorms have caused the
lake to rise at least 2 m above normal at Buffalo, causing widespread
damage. Less intense windstorms more or less regularly cause water level
changes of the order of I m at both ends of the lake, and life has accommo-
dated to them. A water level change would therefore be potentially damaging
only when it aggravated the effect of a natural windstorm. Further study
would be required to determine how the probability of extreme windstorms at
different seasons of the year relates to probable energy-storage status at
corresponding seasons, particular components of the environment exposed to
damage, magnitude of probable damages, and the cost and effectiveness of
mitigating measures. For the sake of this thought-experiment, it has been
assumed that available mitigating measures would render a water-level change
of 0.5 m acceptable for Lake Ontario, corresponding to 0.38 m excursions in
Lake Erie,

The one-way flow of water over Niagara Falls and through the WeIland
Ship Canal at present forms a barrier of sorts to the transport of living
organisms and waterborne material, It is breached by transport in various
other ways, such as on the bodies of migrating waterfowl and on the surfaces
of ships.- Nevertheless, very large quantities of Lake Ontario water entering
Lake Erie might aggravate problems of exotic organisms or materials invading
environments where they are now rare. More extensive studies would be
needed to define the scope of this problem.

3, Environmental I~pact of Transmission Lines

The principal direct impacts of conventional electric transmission
lines are that they occupy land, require commitment of resources for their
construction, cause a certain amount of interference with and annoyance to
other users of the environment, and perhaps have subtle biological effects
on nearby organisms that are not now well understood.

The occupancy of land by transmission lines is a phenomenon familiar
to most people. The land use is typically non-exclusive except for the
immediate area of the- tower footings, and other uses of the land are relatively
undisturbed. A rather complete listing of effects can be found by consulting
the environmental impact statement for any major transmission-line construc-
tion project, The present trend is to restrict new construction largely to
existing transmission corridors.