PROFILE Don't look for gondolas the Kootenay Canal Photos by Brendan Halper Story by Jason Keenan June 24, 1992 The final approach to the generating station’ is a 50-foot deep concrete lined waterway. The far end of this the picture shows a part of the canal where the natural rock terrain was used rather than concrete lining. SNOW STAR Water at the dam enters the four penstock tubes at the dam and drops 245 feet to the turbines. To increase pressure, the tube diameter shrinks from 22 feet at the top to 18 feet at the bottom. x - i a~ = ICE CREAM Assorted Flavours. _ Limit 1. Over limit price 3.48 ea. 4 Litre Pail Thawed for your convenience 6.35/ kg EEDLESS WATERMELON Whole. Product of U.SA. -64/kg 29 FRESH CHICKEN THIGHS Family Pak only 4.39/kg. 99 CHICKEN LEGS Fresh. Back Attached. Ib. | | sicig” Ib JUNE, 1992 WED | THURS] FRI | SAT 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 Advertised prices in eftect at your neighbourhood Lower Mainland Safeway store. Quantity rights reserved. Some items may not be exactly as shown, AIR MILES™ BONUS DAYS Once again it's time to take advantage of our AIR MILES™ Bonus Days! Just show your AIR MILES’ great — Saturday June 20, 1992 and in addition to the AIR MILES™ you would regularly receive, you'll receive s every $150.00 purchase. Remember Sa! is just one of may fine AIR MILES™ sponsors. use the card, the sooner you'll take off. The more 50 BONUS MILES UNTIL SATURDAY Pharmacy regularions prevent the award of AIR MILESTM on prescription purchases. AIR MILES™ will be awarded on gift certificates when they ore redeemed not purchased They're having poetry readings down at the Kootenay Canal Generating Station. Well, that may be a wee bit of hyperbole. The poetry is actually the 3.5 foot diameter tur- bine shaft spinning just over 128 times every minute. The water turns the shaft, the shaft spins the generator, and the power heads out to the lower mainland. The 22-foot long shaft’s only movement is its spinning motion. It harnesses the raw power of nature with mechani- cal perfection. We at The Sun decided to take the tour, and see what makes the place hum, besides the generators. Located across from South Slocan at the end of the five-kilometre long Kootenay Canal, the generating station now offers tours of their operation to the public. For the first time the offer official tours with a guide. “We've had about 300 tourists so far this year,” said tour guide Sue Heaton, a Robson native. Some have come from as far away as the Netherlands. The tours began back on May 1, and will be offered until the end of August. We piled into the brand new Hydro truck and headed up to the dam itself. The canal leading into the water intakes is a 50-foot deep concrete, and in some places natural-rock, lined water route. In the churning water at the base of the dam driftwood from Kootenay Lake is collected, removed, and Biven away or bumed on the field next to dam. A recent incident there explained why the beaver is the national animal of Canada. One of the critters saw the floating collection of Wood as a perfect storehouse of building materials. It would swim to the dam, select a choice Piece of Wood, and drag it about a half kilometre down the anal, then leave it to get another piece. The beaver @rived at the stockpile about the same time the first = of wood did. It kept up the struggle for a few urs, becoming more and more frustrated. Sounds like the constitutional crisis. The canal begins at the south side of the Corra Linn dam, flows through the canal, and reenters the Kootenay after flowing though the ing sta- Guide Sue Heaton stands in the turbine shaft room where the sound vibrations from the shaft, which spins at 128.6 ‘pm, creates a deafening noise. tion and producing 532 megawatts per hour, nine Percent of the kilowatt hours produced in the Province by B.C. Hydro. That's enough to meet all of Vancouver's power needs on a cold winter day. One of the main reasons that such a small station produces so much power is the consistency of the water flow. “Almost all rivers ice up in the winter,” said Heaton. “We have the same amount of water all year long.” In diverting the water from the Kootenay River, the water is borrowed from West Kootenay Power, which holds power rights on the river, in exchange for elec- trical power from the site. And any extra water flow is Converted into power by the generating station. After the water enters the four 780-foot long tubes or penstocks, it undergoes a vertical drop of 24S feet to the scroll case, where it spins the turbine, which in turn spins the generators. To convert water into electricity, the turbines spin the generator. The 56 brushes spinning inside the cop- Per coil compartment of the generator create an elec- ic field, p ing as ry. The power is sent to transformers, where the volt- age is raised from 13,800 volts to 230,000 volts. It is then sent through the underground cable tunnel to the switchyard, and then shipped off to Selkirk Station near Trail, and then Vernon and Vancouver. The control room was never meant to be used when the plant was built between 1971 and 1976. It was supp to be run npletely from Cranb but the staff has grown to 26 at present. Though the plant is monitored and run from there, maintenance staff and B.C. Hydro Operations for the canal dam and Hugh Keenleyside are run out of the Offices there. If you want a tour, call them at 359-7287 . Hydro electrical foreman Byron McKenzie checks documents from the mimic , where the plants operations can be monitered from. il Tour guide Sue Heaton stands o electricity is produced by water s; tors. After going to the switchy. n top of one of the four massive generators where pinning the turbines, which in turn spin the genera- ard above the plant, the power is shipped off to Selkirk power station near Trail, and then to Vernon and Vancouver.