Water-Power Resources*

The North Pacific Region embraces a vast area in
northwestern Canada including, for the purpose of this
report, that part of British Columbia north of a line from
Bute Inlet to Yellowhead Pass, all of the Peace River
drainage and that part of the Athabaska drainage north of
Township 70 in northern Alberta, the portion of the
Northwest Territories lying to the west of the 110th
Meridian, and the Yukon Territory.

This great area is characterized by three principal
geological formations, the Cordilleran Region of mountains
and elevated plateaux embracing most of British Columbia
and the Yukon Territory, the Great Plains Region which
extends an arm northerly from Alberta down the Mackenzie
River Valley, and the Canadian Shield lying east of the
Slave River, Great Slave Lake, and Great Bear Lake. These
geological formations, with their superimposed topographical
features, play a vital part in the initiation and subsequent
distribution of precipitation; in the gathering of the resultant
run-off into river systems and in the concentration of the

river flow into usable power heads and reservoirs capable
of economic development.

In this report, the water-power resources of the North
Pacific Region are discussed under four main drainage
systems as follows: Coastal Drainage, Upper Fraser River

Drainage, Mackenzie River and Arctic Drainage, and
Yukon River Drainage.

Investigations of the power possibilities of the Coastal
Drainage south of the Nass River and of the Upper Fraser
River Drainage have been made in considerable detail by
the Water Rights Branch of the Department of Lands,
British Columbia, and certain private interests, with the
co-operation of the Dominion Water and Power Bureau,
Department of Mines and Resources in the matter of
obtaining flow records. In the Mackenzie River and
Yukon River Drainages preliminary power investigations
of a number of the principal rivers have been made, over a
period of years, by the Dominion Water and Power Bureau.
Officers of the Bureau also made an air reconnaissance in
September, 1943, of territory in northern British Columbia
and the Yukon with a view to initiating investigations of
water resources in this hitherto inaccessible area.

Based on data available from the above-mentioned
investigations and on meagre information from the more
remote parts, estimates have been made of the potential
water-power resources of the region.
tabulated as follows:

These estimates are

* Contributed by the Dominion Water and Power Bureau.

Estimated Horse-Power
Available at

Drainage

Ordinary Ordinary
Minimum | Six-Months
Flow Flow
Goastaleeien sens Meera amore: 931,915 1,969,390
WppembrasersRivensse same ie ieteeee 2,550,335 3,031,675
Mackenzie River and Arctic............. 1,194,400 3,398,500
YukoniRiverssstice rina tenon rains 19,740 41,520
TRotalRer won reopcte in coc came ete re 4,696,390 8,441,085

The power possibilities in the several drainages are
described in some detail hereafter, and individual power
sites are designated on the attached lists of developed and
undeveloped powers (Tables I and II). The locations of
the various sites are indicated also on the attached map.

A broad survey of the Region indicates that the greatest
concentration of power possibilities is found in the Coastal
and Upper Fraser River Drainage systems. This con-
centration is brought about by the particularly favourable
conditions of topography and precipitation. Of special
interest and. significance are projects which contemplate
the diversion of the headwaters of tributaries of the Upper
Fraser through the Coastal Divide and the utilization of
these waters under high heads at three great power develop-
ments close to tidewater with installations totalling
2,155,000 horse-power. Conditions in the westerly Mac-
kenzie and in the Yukon Drainages are quite different.
Here the great rivers and their many tributaries present
few abrupt changes in gradient, except where they descend
from their mountain sources or from one plateau to another.
Opportunities for the development of power at relatively
small sites are offered in the headwater reaches of these
rivers, and large opportunities exist at a number of canyons
and rapids on the main streams where head could be con-
centrated by the construction of dams. In the easterly
Mackenzie Drainage lying in the Canadian Shield, conditions
are favourable to power development, with river courses
broken by many rapids and falls and the territory studded
with innumerable lakes. These favourable conditions, how-
ever, are modified by light annual precipitation throughout
the area.

Power development in the Region has taken place to
a very limited extent; installations total only a little more
than 68,000 horsepower. These are chiefly in the coastal
area of British Columbia for use in connection with mining,

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