Churchill River (Atlantic)
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| Churchill River | |
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| Origin | Smallwood Reservoir, Labrador |
| Mouth | Atlantic Ocean |
| Basin countries | Canada |
| Length | 856 km (532 mi) |
| Source elevation | 1,550 m (5,086 ft) |
| Avg. discharge | 7,000 m³/s (247,240 ft³/s) |
| Basin area | 79,800 km² (30,811 mi²) |
The Churchill River (French: fleuve Churchill) is a river in Newfoundland and Labrador which flows east from the Smallwood Reservoir in Labrador into the Atlantic Ocean via Lake Melville. The river is 856 km long and drains an area of 79,800 km². It was named Hamilton River until 1965.
Churchill Falls is the site of a major hydroelectric project, which has a rated capacity of 5,428 MW. Other hydroelectric plants on the river are planned bringing the total to over 9,200 MW. The Churchill Falls development has become a source of friction between two Canadian provinces. The province of Newfoundland and Labrador believes that, although the project is located in Labrador, Hydro-Québec, which provided a major part of the financing and access to the North American power grid, has taken an unfair share of the profits from this development. Hydro-Québec buys power from the Churchill Falls project at rates established in 1969.
This river was originally known as "Mishtashipu" or "Grand River", by the Innu. In 1839, John MacLean named it the Hamilton River after Sir Charles Hamilton, who was Governor of Newfoundland from 1818 to 1825. In 1965, it was renamed to honour former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Sir Winston Churchill on February 1, 1965.
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