Kemano, British Columbia

Kemano is a settlement situated 75 km (47 mi) southeast of Kitimat in the province of British Columbia in Canada. It was built to service a hydroelectric power station, built to provide energy for Alcan to smelt aluminium (aluminum) from its ore. The powerhouse is built 427 m (1,400 ft) inside the base of Mt Dubose in a blasted cavern. It produces 896,000 kW of power from its eight generators, each of which has a capacity of 112MW.

The plant comprises a 16 km (10 mi) tunnel, the width of a two-lane highway, drilled and blasted through the coastal mountains to carry water to the penstocks of the Kemano powerhouse. The water plunges 800 m (2,600 ft), nearly 16 times the height of Niagara Falls - to drive the generators. The power transmission lines travel 82 km (51 mi) from Kemano to Kitimat across some of the most rugged mountain territory in British Columbia, along the Kildala Pass, about 1,500 m (5,000 ft) above sea-level.

The 1st Kemano Project, known as Kemano 1, resulted in the flooding of convert|120000|acre|km2 of the Upper-Nechako, within the Cheslatta Territory. This reputedly removed approximately 75% of the flow of the Nechako, which is the largest tributary to the largest salmon-producing river in the world. Expansion on the project has been contested in the Canadian courts by members of the Cheslatta Carrier Nation with a group of Elders who have filed a Statement of Claim with the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

Kemano itself is a name for a tribal subdivision of the Hanaksiala, part of the Haisla group, and was a community in its own right after many of the coastal tribes withdrew during the influx of colonists post-1780, to remove themselves from the threat of diseases and the alien culture.

Kemano settlement was originally built in the 1950s and is home to a thriving small community, featuring a guesthouse, a shop which sold everything from candy to guns to socks to hats, a golf course and a church. It eventually closed its doors as a community in 2000, the residents were moved out, and the majority of houses (including the school) were burnt down as a training exercise for selected fire departments from all of BC. The plant still exists and is operational on a shift system.
* [http://irc.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/pubs/fulltext/prac/nrcc45664/nrcc45664.pdf PDF] - Article about the burning of the town