Columbia
| Area Facilities | ||
| Aberfeldie Duncan Elko Keenleyside | Kootenay Canal Mica Revelstoke Seven Mile | Shuswap Spillimacheen Walter Hardman Whatshan |
Overview
Power developments on the Columbia River or its tributaries are directly affected by the Columbia River Treaty signed by Canada and the United States in 1964. The treaty was signed to prevent periodic and sometimes devastating floods, and to meet the need for additional power. In return for building the Mica, Keenleyside and Duncan dams, B.C. is entitled to half the additional power generated in the U.S. that resulted from storage operations in Canada. The three dams in B.C. were developed to provide water storage for power generation in the U.S.
Mica Dam, which forms Kinbasket Reservoir, is the only installation of the three to have a powerhouse. The dam was built higher than required to provide water storage under the Columbia River Treaty. The Revelstoke Dam and Generating Stations, located 130 kilometres downstream from Mica, was not built under the terms of the Columbia River Treaty, but benefits from the storage in the Mica reservoir. Duncan Dam is located on the Duncan River, north of Kootenay Lake.
Downstream from Revelstoke, the Arrow Reservoir is formed by the Hugh Hugh Keenleyside Dam. Keenleyside Dam does not contain a powerhouse and at present provides only storage under the Treaty. Water stored by Mica Dam can be released to increase the level of Arrow Reservoir. However, this action results in immediate use of the water for generation at Mica and Revelstoke, rather than storing it for future use. This additional power generation must be used in the BC Hydro system or be exported.
FortisBC has four generating stations on the Kootenay River: Corra Linn; Upper Bonnington; Lower Bonnington; and South Slocan. Each operates as a run-of-river generating station. Under the Columbia River Treaty, the additional potential in this part of the river was captured by the construction of the 580 MW Kootenay Canal generating station. Under the Kootenay Canal Agreement, the operations of these generating stations are coordinated to produce the most power overall (Kootenay Canal generating station is more efficient than the FortisBC stations). FortisBC receives the amount of power their generating stations would have produced without the Columbia River Treaty and the Kootenay Canal development.
BC Hydro also operates Seven Mile Dam generating station on the Pend d'Oreille River. Seven Mile is located between Seattle City Light's Boundary Dam generating station and Teck Cominco's Waneta generating station. It captures the previously unused head between those two generating stations.
There are four small hydroelectric generating stations in the Columbia Region. The 5 MW Aberfeldie generating station on the Bull River is essentially a run-of-river facility, with water flowing over the spillway much of the year. The 12 MW Elko generating station is located on the Elk River, approximately 26 kilometres from its mouth on Lake Koocanusa. The 4 MW Spillimacheen generating station is on the Spillimacheen River, a tributary of the Columbia River upstream from Kinbasket Lake. The 8 MW Walter Hardman generating station is located on the shore of Arrow Lake.
Find out about recreational opportunities available in this region.
Last Modified: Jul 7, 2005
