If any one thing could account for
the past successes of the Western New York economy, it’s water.
When the Erie Canal opened in 1825
it made the region the gateway to the West, offering a navigable trade route
connecting the Atlantic Ocean to Great Lakes. It was an engineering wonder that
cut transportation costs by 95% and improved delivery times by weeks. WNY
became a commercial hub and Buffalo one of the most important cities in the
United States.
But, the golden years of the Canal
lasted about a half-century. It was made almost useless by the advent of the
United States’ vast rail network that, by 1869, connected coast to coast.
It wasn’t long after that, though,
that the area experienced yet another economic boom driven by water. In the
late 1800s power plants began to develop along the Niagara River, including the
world’s first large-scale power plant to produce the alternating current so
important to the efficient delivery of electricity and, therefore, industry.
That technology harnessed the limitless power of the River to create vast
amounts of electricity and whereas many other cities saw electricity as a
luxury, Niagara Falls was able to take it for granted. This brought manufacturers
by the droves to the Falls, which became an industrial Mecca for the first half
of the twentieth century.
But, after World War II, things
changed. Affordable electricity was no longer specific to WNY. Vast
hydroelectric projects popped up all over the country and power generation
technologies that used coal were refined in the 1920s and again in the 1940s,
making that an accessible and cost-efficient means to power homes and
businesses. Niagara Falls lost its edge. Then, it lost its businesses and residents.
Now, the corridor along the River looks like a manufacturing ghost town. The
City itself is similarly unattractive, its population one half what it was in
1960.
But, there is hope, hope in that
substance which boosted our economy in days gone by: Water. It’s time again
that we leveraged that asset to bring about a new age of prosperity to WNY.
Later this century – and right now for that matter - water has a very good
chance of being the new oil, a substance so rare and necessary that governments
(even neighboring municipalities) will compete for it and sell it at a premium.
We’re fortunate here in WNY that
water abounds. We have the Great Lakes, the mighty Niagara River, and hundreds
of streams, ponds and lakes filling our landscape. Other places, including
those where Niagara’s businesses and people migrated to, aren’t so lucky.
There, water is at a premium. There’s barely enough now and, as those
communities expand, they are guaranteed to be lacking in the future. Georgia,
Texas, and California are just a few of the states that have experienced absolutely
frightening water woes over the past decade.
This puts the Niagara region in a
unique position to profit from other people’s despair. Corporations and people
need certainty when it comes to water supply and you can’t get much more
certain than our backyard.
Over a half-dozen years ago the
Niagara County Center for Economic Development began marketing the region to water-intensive
industries in hopes of attracting new businesses. It’s something that they
continue to this day – the March newsletter of the IDA made mention of their
marketing efforts to water starved states.
Until only recently, very few
development agencies in the Great Lakes had followed suit – despite the
seriousness and scale of the growing water shortages and how water could be a
silver bullet for ruined economies like Detroit’s. This has put Niagara County
in the lead based on both moxie and available natural resources.
It is hoped that their continued
efforts and the frustrations of southerners and westerners combine to bring
companies both big and small back to the region. We definitely have the
resources and we must use them (intelligently, though, with an emphasis on the state
of the environment) to recreate a robust WNY economy for this and future
generations.
From the 16 March 2015 Lockport Union Sun & Journal
From the 16 March 2015 Lockport Union Sun & Journal
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