THE KITIMAT STORY — CROOME 357 



Lake, at the end of a 150-mile lake chain, is only some 15 miles from 

 sea level (Kemano) on the other side of the mountains. 



The engineers' plan had a magnificent simplicity. The outflow of 

 the system of lakes would be stopped at the eastern end. Then, when 

 the narrow boat-shaped vessel of water thus formed was full enough 

 it would be forced back over its opposite "lip," through the mountains 

 to the seaward side. Here, the fall of water would be turned into 

 power. Then the electric power in turn would be transmitted to 

 Kitimat itself, some 50 miles away at the head of a navigable channel 

 where the Jamaican oxide could arrive in ships. The power would 

 be used to make aluminum at Kitimat and this would then leave for 

 the markets of the world by water through the same sea channel. 

 Eight hundred and seventy-three billion cubic feet of water would 

 thus be turned into 550,000 tons of aluminum each year. 



The successful execution of four unconventional construction jobs 

 was fundamental to the whole plan. The dam necessary to hold back 

 a 150-mile stretch of water from its accustomed canyon outlet would 

 be the largest rock-fill dam in the world. A tumiel running 10 miles 

 through the solid rock of the mountain barrier would bring water in 

 two 2,600-foot-head, 11-foot-diameter pressure conduits (the largest 

 pressure conduits known) to turbines on the other side. At the foot 

 of the mountain a powerhouse containing ultimately 16 of the world's 

 most powerful generators had likewise to be excavated and installed 

 inside the mountain. And, finally, to bring the power to the aluminum 

 smelter, a power line carrying the largest conductors ever made must 

 be flung over 50 miles of ferocious snow-clad mountains. At one point 

 the chain of pylons rises 2,000 feet above the tree line to a 5,300-foot 

 pass, where 80-mile-an-hour gales rage in winter and the snow lies 

 20 feet thick. 



The smelter alone in the project was of conventional design. It was 

 simply to be the largest ever built. 



Of course these five main construction features of the total develop- 

 ment were not begun in sequence. But it is convenient to treat them 

 here consecutively, beginning at the stage farthest from the aluminum, 

 at the Nechako Canyon through which the lakes had previously been 

 drained to join the Fraser River. In fact the work on the eastward 

 dam (now to be called Kenney Dam) and the clearing of the foreshore 

 at Kitimat in preparation for the smelter, the building of port facilities 

 and a city, began almost simultaneously during the summer of 1951. 



THE DAM AND STORAGE RESERVOIR 



Rainfall over the watersheds draining into the long lake chain above 

 Nechako Canyon varies from 100 inches a year at the western end to 

 about 20 inches at the lower eastern end. The watershed area above 



