Whitesail Lake Map-Area

The power-plant is located underground in huge chambers excavated
in Mount DuBose. Perhaps the most difficult of the various integrated
projects was the design and construction of the 50-mile long, high tension
power-line from the generating plant at Kemano, across rugged Coast
Mountains to Kitimat where the smelter and townsite are located.

The whole project was divided into several smaller projects all of which
were completed on a schedule that permitted the production of aluminum
by the autumn of 1954. ;

Surveying and engineering were under the direction of B.C. International
Engineers, and Morrison Knudsen Company of Boise, Idaho, U.S.A. were
contractors for the dam, power-line and tunnel. Though the power potential
of the fully developed project is 1,695,000 horsepower, the initial installation
was for a capacity of 425,000 horsepower. Additional installations can be
made when required.

These great man-made alterations in the drainage and topography of
the area will undoubtedly bring changes to the life and character of the region.
Many of the feeding and nesting grounds of the wild game and birds were
flooded, necessitating an adjustment on their part, and of course all those
people living within the area were forced to move. It is within the realm
of possibility that industries based on either mineral or forest products will
locate on the shores of the vast lake produced by this project. Flooding
in some areas widened the waterways considerably, but where the channels
were confined between steep mountains there has been little change.

The salmon do not run in this basin and there has been no damage to
the fishing industry; in fact a lake so large could support a small inland
freshwater fishing industry if stocked with the proper fish. Transportation
is much easier and it is possible to use larger and more comfortable vessels.
However, all the changes this project will bring to the area cannot be
assessed at this time.

The field work on which the geology of this report is based was com-
pleted before the flooding, the geology was therefore mapped down to the
old shorelines. This information is shown on the accompanying map and
the new position of the water level indicated.

Glaciation

Features due to glaciation are widespread in Whitesail Lake map-area
and glacial debris is everywhere. All of this part of British Columbia was
at some time covered by ice. Even today alpine glaciation is active in the
higher mountains and nearly every peak of 7,000 feet has its cirque glacier

2D,