Smallwood Reservoir

The Smallwood Reservoir is a large reservoir located in the western part of Labrador in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The reservoir is the source of the Churchill River. Unlike other reservoirs, water is contained not by a single large dam, but by a series of 88 dikes that total 64 km (40 miles) in length. It is named in honour of Joseph Roberts Smallwood Created by damming the Churchill river, the Smallwood reservoir, with a... more

The Smallwood Reservoir is a large reservoir located in the western part of Labrador in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The reservoir is the source of the Churchill River. Unlike other reservoirs, water is contained not by a single large dam, but by a series of 88 dikes that total 64 km (40 miles) in length. It is named in honour of Joseph Roberts Smallwood Created by damming the Churchill river, the Smallwood reservoir, with an area of 6,527 km² (2,520 sq mi), is the largest body of freshwater in the province. It is at the head of the Churchill Falls hydroelectric project and is the second-largest reservoir in the world. The earliest evaluation of hydro potential of this vast reservoir was in 1942 when H.G. Acres Company carried out a study for the Aluminum Company of Canada (ALCAN). Due to the remoteness of the site then, it was considered too expensive to build and deemed not viable. With the development of technologies for transmission of electricity over long... less