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For the first time in 100 years, Hydro Ottawa welcomed the public Saturday to view its brand-new generating station at Chaudière Falls as part of the weekend-long Green Energy Open Doors event.

The utility boasts that the expanded Chaudière Falls generating station will have “minimal to zero impact on the visual, natural and aquatic environments.”

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The state-of-the-art facility also includes a number of heritage elements celebrating Canada’s First Nations and Ottawa’s industrialist past.

Hydro Ottawa has installed several measures at the site to help two endangered fish species: the American eel and the lake sturgeon.

Photo by Ashley Fraser / Postmedia

The utility has improved eel spawning grounds above the falls and built two “tubes” to enable the fish to bypass the dam turbines. The tubes will be monitored with underwater cameras.

They have also built new spawning territories for the sturgeon below the falls.

Visitors will be able to get close to the falls on a viewing platform located near two existing heritage buildings. The design also includes several other outlooks for better observing the falls and the Ottawa River.