Brazeau River

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Brazeau River
Brazeau River in Banff National Park

Brazeau River in Banff National Park

Data
location Alberta (Canada)
River system Nelson River
Drain over North Saskatchewan River  → Saskatchewan River  → Nelson River  → Hudson Bay
source Cataract Pass
52 ° 13 '57 "  N , 117 ° 3' 38"  W.
Source height 2240  m
muzzle North Saskatchewan River Coordinates: 52 ° 55 '3 "  N , 115 ° 13' 45"  W 52 ° 55 '3 "  N , 115 ° 13' 45"  W.
Mouth height 820  m
Height difference 1420 m
Bottom slope 6.8 ‰
length 210 km
Discharge at the level below the Brazeau Reservoir
A Eo : 5660 km² 		MQ 1957/2000
Mq 1957/2000
 		52 m³ / s
9.2 l / (s km²)
Left tributaries Southesk River , Cardinal River , Elk River
Right tributaries Blackstone River , Nordegg River
Flowing lakes Brazeau Lake
Reservoirs flowed through Brazeau Reservoir

The Brazeau River is a river in western Alberta , Canada . It is a major tributary of the North Saskatchewan River .

The river was named after Joseph Brazeau, a linguist on the Palliser expedition .

River course

The river has its origin in the high elevations of the Canadian Rocky Mountains in Brazeau Lake , which is fed by streams of the Coronet Glacier and the Queen Elisabeth Ranges. It flows through the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in an easterly direction and flows into the North Saskatchewan River between Drayton Valley and Rocky Mountain House at Brazeau Forks . The upper reaches of the Brazeau River runs from Jasper National Park to Brazeau Canyon Wildland Park. The O'Chiese Indian reservation is located on the tributary of the Nordegg River . The total length of the Brazeau River is 210 km.

Use of hydropower

The Brazeau River was selected for hydropower early on. In 1913 the first dam was built on the river. Brazeau Lake was intended as a water reservoir, but it turned out to be unsuitable due to underground drainage. The project to supply the Edmonton and Calgary metropolitan areas with electricity from the Brazeau River was abandoned.

The Brazeau Dam dams the river in the lower reaches of the 99 km² Brazeau Reservoir . The connected hydropower plant with a capacity of 355 MW and an annual output of around 394 GWh is the largest in Alberta.

A special feature of the hydraulic engineering project approved in 1965 is a pump system that is able to lift water from the reservoir into a 20 km long canal so that the connected hydropower plant can also be operated at low water levels.

Tributaries

  • Boulder Creek
  • Four Point Creek
  • Brazeau Lake
    • John-John Creek
  • Upper Longview Lake
  • Job Creek
    • Whisker Creek, Whisker Lakes, Job Lake, Leah Lake, Samson Lake
  • Isaac Creek
  • Race Creek
  • Southesk River
    • Southesk Lake
  • Thistle Creek
    • Chimney Creek
  • Marshybank Creek
    • Marshybank Lake
  • Canyon Creek
  • Moosehound Creek
  • Cardinal River
  • Blackstone River
  • Elk River
  • Nordegg River

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Brazeau River at the gauge below the Brazeau Reservoir - hydrographic data from R-ArcticNET
  2. ↑ a b TransAlta : Brazeau . Archived from the original on February 24, 2008. Retrieved March 5, 2008.
  3. ^ CH Attwood, Proposed Hydro-electric Development Scheme on the Brazeau River , (Ottawa: Water Power Branch, 1915).