Water-power Possibilities. 1?

Most interesting of all big game in the Peace River district is a herd of
buffalo found ranging on that strip of prairie and park land lying between the
Peace and Slave rivers and the Caribou mountain lands. These majestic animals
constitute what is believed to be the last herd of their species roaming wild.
Their number is estimated to be in the neighbourhood of a thousand. They are
protected by a rigid close season and hopes are entertained for their perpetuation
and increase.

Water-powers*

Many misleading statements have been published relating to the vast
amount of power available on the Peace river. This river, from the canyon
in British Columbia to Vermilion chutes in Alberta, a distance of approximately
500 miles, is a wide swift, generally shallow, river flowing over a sand or gravel
bed and through a deep valley, with gently sloping sides. The river is a moun-
tain stream, as are many of its tributaries, and as a result the flow is very
irregular, varying as much as 50 to 1 between high and low water, with the
floods occurring during the summer months and the low during the winter.

On the Peace river there are two possible power sites: one in the headwaters
at the canyon, and the other at Vermilion chutes.

The canyon site has not yet been investigated by the Department’s power
engineers, and while the total fall through the canyon, which is about 18 miles
in length, is reported to be between 225 and 275 feet, it is not known how much
of the total head can be developed. In any event, a power development at
this site will be an expensive undertaking, and can only be accomplished when
a market for the power is available close at hand.

The Vermilion chutes site has been surveyed and investigated by the
Department’s power engineers. The river at this site averages one mile in
width, and takes a drop of 30 feet in two miles. The fall is concentrated chiefly
at two points; the first or upper fall being in the form of a rapid, half a mile in
length, with a total drop of 11 feet. The second drop is situated one and a
half miles below the rapid, and is an abrupt one of 13 feet over a limestone
ledge. It is commonly called the “chutes.”

At the “chutes”’ both river banks are low, and an effective head of 30 feet
is about all that can be obtained. The continuous 24-hour power available
based on one season’s discharge records, amounts to 19,100 horse power. For
nine months of the year possibly 27,300 horse power can be developed.

The possibility of developing small blocks of power on the tributaries of
the Peace has not been definitely investigated by the Department’s engineers.
Of these tributaries, the Pine, North Pine, and Smoky rivers have their sources
in the mountains and foothills and are fed by the melting snows in the moun-
tains during the summer months and have only a small run-off during the
winter. The Moberly, Pouce Coupé, and Bear Creek, together with the tribu-
taries below Peace River (Crossing), depend upon the precipitation, are subject
to floods during the spring and summer months, and have a very small flow

*Data for the section on water-power were prepared by C. H. Attwood, of the Dominion Water Power Branch,
Chief Engineer in charge of the Alberta and Saskatchewan power surveys

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