Lake Koocanusa | |
---|---|
Location | Montana / British Columbia |
Coordinates | 48°55′N115°11′W / 48.92°N 115.18°W |
Lake type | reservoir |
Primary inflows | Kootenay River (Canada) |
Primary outflows | Kootenai River (USA) |
Basin countries | United States, Canada |
Surface elevation | 2,459 feet (750 m) |
Lake Koocanusa (KUU-KAN-U-S-A) is a reservoir in British Columbia (Canada) and Montana (United States) formed by the damming of the Kootenai River by the Libby Dam in 1972. The Dam was formally dedicated by President Gerald Ford on August 24, 1975. [1]
The lake is formed north of the dam, reaching 48 miles (77 km) to the Canada–United States border and 42 miles (68 km) further into British Columbia. The lake holds 13% of the water in the Columbia River system. The town of Rexford was moved, as well as the Great Northern Railway line. The town of Waldo, British Columbia is now covered by the lake. What was once a barrier to river travel, Jennings Canyon is now inundated by the lake. [2] The Elk River joins the Kootenay River in the northern part of Lake Koocanusa, within Canadian territory.
Lake Koocanusa was named in a contest won by Alice Beers of Rexford, Montana. [1] The name is made from the first three letters of the Kootenay (alternately, Kootenai) River, Canada, and USA. Some confusion around the pronunciation of the lake exists [3] and in an effort to acknowledge truth and reconciliation, locals have been urging people to pronounce the USA portion of the name the same way that you would pronounce the abbreviation.
Lake Koocanusa was built as a joint project of the U.S. and Canada. It is 26 km (16 mi) from Libby, Montana, also on the Kootenai River, from which the dam gets its name. Libby Dam has a Visitors Center and can be accessed by the Lake Koocanusa Scenic Byway which begins in the nearby town of Libby, Montana.
The Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail follows Highway 37 along the east side of the lake before crossing over the Lake Koocanusa Bridge and climbing up Webb Mountain.
According to a March 8, 2021 article in The Narwhal , concerns have been raised about selenium pollution leaching from Teck Resources' Elk Valley open pit coal mines' waste rock, which is upstream from the lake system. [4] A September 24, 2020 Montana Department of Environmental Quality presentation to the Board of Environmental Review Meeting, reported that the 95% of the selenium coming into Lake Koocanusa originates from the Elk River—"which has been contaminated by current and historic coal mining in the Elk Valley." The average selenium levels in Lake Koocanusa were 1 part per billion. Montana has established new standards for selenium—0.8 parts per billion. [4] [5] Because of the high bioaccumulation of selenium in fish, excessive levels of selenium in an aquatic ecosystem has implications for human health. [6] [7] In the spring of 2020, Teck Resources, had "reported a dramatic decline in adult westslope cutthroat trout in Elk Valley waterways closest to its mines". [4] Since 2015, British Columbia and Montana have agreed to adopt aligned standards for selenium levels by 2020. [8] Montana's has been in force since the fall of 2020, but British Columbia has not aligned their standards yet. [8]
The lake supports a wide variety of fish species. Below is a table detailing the various fish species which may be encountered on the lake. [9]
Species | Family | Native to MT |
---|---|---|
Brook Trout | Trout | Introduced |
Bull Trout | Trout | Native |
Burbot | Codfish | Native |
Kokanee | Trout | Introduced |
Largemouth Bass | Sunfish | Introduced |
Largescale Sucker | Sucker | Native |
Longnose Dace | Minnow | Native |
Longnose Sucker | Sucker | Native |
Mountain Whitefish | Trout | Native |
Northern Pike | Pike | Introduced |
Northern Pike Minnow | Minnow | Native |
Peamouth | Minnow | Native |
Pumpkinseed | Sunfish | Introduced |
Rainbow Trout | Trout | Introduced |
Redside Shiner | Minnow | Native |
Westslope Cutthroat Trout | Trout | Native |
Yellow Perch | Perch | Introduced |
Lincoln County is a county located in the U.S. state of Montana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 19,677. Its county seat is Libby. The county was founded in 1909 and named for President Abraham Lincoln. The county lies on Montana's north border and thus shares the US-Canadian border with the Canadian province of British Columbia.
The Elk River is a 220-kilometre (140 mi) long river, in the southeastern Kootenay district of the Canadian province of British Columbia. Its drainage basin is 4,450 square kilometres (1,720 sq mi) in area. Its mean discharge is approximately 60 cubic metres per second (2,100 cu ft/s), with a maximum recorded discharge of 818 cubic metres per second (28,900 cu ft/s). It is a tributary of the Kootenay River, and falls within the basin of the Columbia River.
The Kootenay River or Kootenai River is a major river of the Northwest Plateau in southeastern British Columbia, Canada, and northern Montana and Idaho in the United States. It is one of the uppermost major tributaries of the Columbia River, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Kootenay River runs 781 kilometres (485 mi) from its headwaters in the Kootenay Ranges of the Canadian Rockies, flowing from British Columbia's East Kootenay region into northwestern Montana, then west into the northernmost Idaho Panhandle and returning to British Columbia in the West Kootenay region, where it joins the Columbia at Castlegar.
The Kutenai, also known as the Ktunaxa, Ksanka, Kootenay and Kootenai, are an indigenous people of Canada and the United States. Kutenai bands live in southeastern British Columbia, northern Idaho, and western Montana. The Kutenai language is a language isolate, thus unrelated to the languages of neighboring peoples or any other known language.
Kootenay Lake is a lake located in British Columbia, Canada. It is part of the Kootenay River. The lake has been raised by the Corra Linn Dam and has a dike system at the southern end, which, along with industry in the 1950s–70s, has changed the ecosystem in and around the water. The Kootenay Lake ferry is a year-round toll-free ferry that crosses between Kootenay Bay and Balfour. The lake is a popular summer tourist destination.
The Columbia River Treaty is a 1961 agreement between Canada and the United States on the development and operation of dams in the upper Columbia River basin for power and flood control benefits in both countries. Four dams were constructed under this treaty: three in the Canadian province of British Columbia and one in the U.S. state of Montana.
Teck Resources Limited, known as Teck Cominco until late 2008, is a diversified natural resources company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, that is engaged in mining and mineral development, including coal for the steelmaking industry, copper, zinc, and energy. Secondary products include lead, silver, gold, molybdenum, germanium, indium and cadmium. Teck Resources was formed from the amalgamation of Teck and Cominco in 2001.
The Purcell Mountains are a mountain range in southeastern British Columbia, Canada. They are a subrange of the Columbia Mountains, which includes the Selkirk, Monashee, and Cariboo Mountains. They are located on the west side of the Rocky Mountain Trench in the area of the Columbia Valley, and on the east side of the valley of Kootenay Lake and the Duncan River. The only large settlements in the mountains are the Panorama Ski Resort and Kicking Horse Resort, adjacent to the Columbia Valley towns of Invermere and Golden, though there are small settlements, such as Yahk and Moyie along the Crowsnest Highway, and residential rural areas dependent on the cities of Creston, Kimberley and Cranbrook, which are located adjacent to the range.
The Kootenai National Forest is a national forest located in the far northwestern section of Montana and the northeasternmost lands in the Idaho panhandle in the United States, along the Canada–US border. Of the 2.2 million acres (8,900 km2) administered by the forest, less than 3 percent is located in the state of Idaho. Forest headquarters are located in Libby, Montana. There are local ranger district offices in Eureka, Fortine, Libby, Trout Creek, and Troy, Montana. About 53 percent of the 94,272-acre (381.51 km2) Cabinet Mountains Wilderness is located within the forest, with the balance lying in neighboring Kaniksu National Forest.
Libby Dam is a concrete gravity dam in the northwestern United States, on the Kootenai River in northwestern Montana. Dedicated on August 24, 1975, it is west of the continental divide, seventeen miles (27 km) upstream from the town of Libby.
The Rocky Mountain Trench, also known as the Valley of a Thousand Peaks or simply the Trench, is a large valley on the western side of the northern part of North America's Rocky Mountains. The Trench is both visually and cartographically a striking physiographic feature extending approximately 1,600 km (1,000 mi) from Flathead Lake, Montana, to the Liard River, just south of the British Columbia–Yukon border near Watson Lake, Yukon. The trench bottom is 3–16 km (1.9–9.9 mi) wide and is 600–900 m (2,000–3,000 ft) above sea level. The general orientation of the Trench is an almost straight 150/330° geographic north vector and has become convenient as a visual guide for aviators heading north or south.
Montana State Highway 37 is a 67.048-mile-long (107.903 km) state highway in the US state of Montana. It begins in downtown Libby, Montana at US 2 and takes a meandering course northeastwards upstream along the Kootenai River and the eastern shore of Lake Koocanusa before terminating at U.S. Route 93 at the northern end of Eureka, Montana. Previously, MT 37 also followed US 93 from Eureka into Whitefish and turned down what is now MT 40 towards US 2 and Glacier National Park until at least 1942.
The Elk Valley is a valley in the southeastern Kootenay region of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the heart of the Canadian Rockies, the Elk Valley is approximately 60 kilometres from the Alberta and Montana borders.
Baynes Lake is an unincorporated rural community on the east shore of Lake Koocanusa, just north of the mouth of the Elk River, in the East Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia. Off BC Highway 93, the locality is by road about 65 kilometres (40 mi) southEAST of Cranbrook and 44 kilometres (27 mi) southWEST of Fernie.
Eureka station was a station on the Great Northern Railway's Empire Builder in Eureka, Montana. It closed in 1970 when Lake Koocanusa was made, flooding The Kootenai River as well as Rexford, MT, where the lines used to run from Eureka to Libby. Around Stryker, the Flathead Tunnel was constructed to bypass Eureka and go to Libby.
From 1886 to 1920, steamboats ran on the upper reaches of the Columbia and Kootenay in the Rocky Mountain Trench, in western North America. The circumstances of the rivers in the area, and the construction of transcontinental railways across the trench from east to west made steamboat navigation possible.
The Kootenay Canal is a hydroelectric power station, located 19 km downstream of Nelson, British Columbia, Canada. Where the Kootenay River flows out of the reservoir formed by the Corra Linn Dam on Kootenay Lake., a canal diverts water to BC Hydro's Kootenay Canal Generating Station. Its construction was a result of the Duncan Dam and Libby Dam providing year round flows into Kootenay Lake. The powerhouse was completed in 1976.
Waldo is a ghost town in the East Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia. About 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) north of Krag, the remnants are submerged beside the east shore of Lake Koocanusa, just north of the mouth of the Elk River. Off BC Highway 93, the site is by road about 69 kilometres (43 mi) southwest of Cranbrook and 48 kilometres (30 mi) southeast of Fernie.
West Kootenai is a census-designated place (CDP) in Lincoln County, Montana, United States. The population was 365 at the 2010 census.
Coal in Alberta is found in the Coalspur Formation in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in the foothills of southwestern Alberta. The Coalspur Formation, which has large quantities of high-quality coal, runs from south of the Wapiti River to the North Saskatchewan River. The Coalspur coal zone is about 120 metres (390 ft) to 200 metres (660 ft) thick.