Immediately west of the pier connecting Grass Island with the shore is the intake of the Niagara Falls Power Company. This is protected by cribs and booms extending from the northwestern end of Grass Island northwestwardly 750 feet, and thence northeastwardly 700 feet to the shore. About a thousand feet northwest of the latter is the intake of the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company protected by cribwork and booms only partially built on the two parcels of land granted to the company in 1886 and 1893. On December 8, 1903, the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company applied to the United States Govern ment through Major Theodore A. Bingham, United States Engineer at Buffalo, for permission to construct cribs and booms about 800 feet long, extending from the western elbow in the criband-boom-work of the Niagara Falls Power Company, northwestwardly (down-stream) beyond the intake of the applicant company. (See page 180.) On December 11, 1903, the Niagara Falls Power Company joined in the application. (See page 182.) On December 30, 1903, the War Department signified that, subject to certain conditions, it would interpose no objection. (See page 183.) The cribs permitted by the War Department are movable, and removable on 30 days notice; and the connecting booms are permitted only during the ice season. The Commissioners of the State Reservation at Niagara have no control or jurisdiction of any kind over any of these struc tures, none of them being within the boundaries of the Reservation. By the grant to the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company made in 1893 (see page 174) the grantee was restricted from erecting any structures upon the premises granted and also upon a small part of the premises granted the same company in 1886 without permission in writing previously granted by the Commissioners. October 4, 1893, the Commissioners gave permission for the erection of certain structures on a part of these lands (see page 177), but the company has never availed itself of this permission. In 1901 it constructed a dike of a different character from that specified in the permit, very nearly coinciding in position, however, with part of the authorized structure. In 1903 it extended from the dike certain cribs connected by booms which were of a different character of construction from that authorized by the permit and, although on the restricted land, were located in an entirely different place. This line of cribs and booms extends beyond the lands of the company into waters of the State not included in the Reservation. Concerning the effect of these cribs and booms on the volume of water passing over the Falls, it may be observed in the first place that the amount of water diverted is limited to the capacity of the canals, of which the structures are adjuncts; and the capacity of the canals is limited by the charters of the corporations. To the limit of their charters, these companies are now lawfully entitled to divert water from the river, and any protest from this Commission against such diversion would be useless. But irrespective of that, it was not the design and is not the effect of these constructions to increase the amount of intake. They extend downstream and inward, not upstream and outward, and do not tend to direct more water into the canals than would have entered without their existence. Their purpose is to fend off the ice and floating debris into the stream and prevent its entering the canals. |