The Seine River Diversion is a river

River

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...

 diversion in Rainy River District

Rainy River District, Ontario

Rainy River District is a district and census division in Northwestern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. It was created in 1885. It is the only division in Ontario that lies completely in the Central time zone. Its seat is Fort Frances...

 in northwestern

Northwestern Ontario

Northwestern Ontario is the region within the Canadian province of Ontario which lies north and west of Lake Superior, and west of Hudson Bay and James Bay. It includes most of subarctic Ontario. Its western boundary is the Canadian province of Manitoba, which disputed Ontario's claim to the...

 Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 located near Atikokan

Atikokan, Ontario

Atikokan is a township in the District of Rainy River in Northwestern Ontario, Canada. In 2006, the population was 3,293. The town is one of the main entry points into Quetico Provincial Park and promotes itself as the "Canoeing Capital of Canada"...

. It was built to divert water around open-pit

Open-pit mining

Open-pit mining or opencast mining refers to a method of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by their removal from an open pit or borrow....

 hematite

Hematite

Hematite, also spelled as haematite, is the mineral form of iron oxide , one of several iron oxides. Hematite crystallizes in the rhombohedral system, and it has the same crystal structure as ilmenite and corundum...

 iron ore mining at Steep Rock Lake beginning in .

The Seine River near the town of Atikokan originally flowed into Steep Rock Lake from Moose Lake over Moose Falls on the Steep Rock Moraine, where a hydroelectric

Hydroelectricity

Hydroelectricity is the term referring to electricity generated by hydropower; the production of electrical power through the use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water. It is the most widely used form of renewable energy...

 generating station was built in 1926. The building of the dam created the Marmion Lake reservoir, which then acted as the main method for regulating water flow to the Moose generating station, and to the Calm and Sturgeon Falls generating stations further downstream built at the same time.

In 1943, the Seine River Diversion was undertaken to enable the open pit mining of a high-grade body of iron ore under the middle arm of Steep Rock Lake by Inland Steel Company

Inland Steel Company

The Inland Steel Company was a U.S. steel company active in 1893-1998. Its history as an independent firm thus spanned much of the 20th century. It was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois at the landmark Inland Steel Building....

 and its subsidiary Caland Ore Canada. The diversion had several elements:

• the Moose generating station was dismantled and the waterflow stopped up
• a channel was cut through the height of land at the northwest of the Marmion Lake reservoir from Raft Lake to Finlayson Lake and the Raft Lake Dam was constructed at (see source coordinates in information box at right) to control the flow The water flowed downstream through a natural channel to Little Falls Lake
• Wagita Bay Dam was built at at 48°49′29"N 91°40′15"W to separate the diversion water flowing through Little Falls Lake from Wagita Bay at the northwest of Steeprock Lake
• the water then flowed through Colin Lake and over Valerie Falls to

In 1952, several additions were undertaken:

• dredged material and overburden
  Overburden
  Overburden is the material that lies above an area of economic or scientific interest in mining and archaeology; most commonly the rock, soil, and ecosystem that lies above a coal seam or ore body. It is also known as 'waste' or 'spoil'...
  
   from the mining operations were used to create several dams to split Marmion Lake into Upper Marmion Lake (5525 hectares (13,653 acre)), which connected to the Raft Lake Dam outflow, and Lower Marmion Lake (3960 hectares (9,785 acre)). The Marmion Sluiceway was built to regular water flow into the lower lake from the upper lake, and allowed Lower Marmion Lake to be used as a settling basin
  Settling basin
  A settling basin, settling pond or decant pond are devices used to treat turbidity in industrial wastewater. The basins are used to control water pollution in diverse industries such as agriculture, aquaculture, and mining....
  
  , reducing the opportunity for the overburden to enter the Seine River system
• the height of the Wagita Bay Dam was increased

There is one named tributary on the diversion: Hardtack Creek enters Finlayson Lake as a right tributary of the Seine River.

External Links

• "River Takes a Detour To Bare Iron Ore Bed" November 1943, Popular Science -- illustration showing diversion of Seine River