Williston Lake

Williston Lake
Location British Columbia
Coordinates 56°N 124°W / 56°N 124°W / 56; -124Coordinates: 56°N 124°W / 56°N 124°W / 56; -124
Type Reservoir
Primary inflows Peace River
Primary outflows Peace River
Basin countries Canada
Max. length 251 km (156 mi)
Max. width 155 km (96 mi)
Surface area 1,761 km2 (680 sq mi)[1]
Water volume 74,000,000,000,000 litres (60,000,000 acre·ft)
Surface elevation 671 m (2,201 ft)[2]
(level varies by 18 m)
References [1][2]

Williston Lake is a reservoir created by the W. A. C. Bennett Dam and is located in the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada.

Geography

The lake fills the basin of the upper Peace River, backing into the Rocky Mountain Trench which is where the Parsnip and Finlay met at Finlay Forks to form the Peace. The lake includes three reaches, the Peace Reach (formerly the Peace Canyon), and the Parsnip and Finlay Reaches, which are the lowermost basins of those rivers, and covers a total area of 1,761 km2 (680 sq mi),[1] being the largest lake in British Columbia and the seventh largest reservoir (by volume) in the world.

The reservoir is fed by the Finlay, Omineca, Ingenika, Ospika, Parsnip, Manson, Nation and Nabesche Rivers and by Clearwater Creek, Carbon Creek, and other smaller creeks.

Several provincial parks are maintained on the shore of the lake, including Muscovite Lakes Provincial Park, Butler Ridge Provincial Park, Heather-Dina Lakes Provincial Park and Ed Bird-Estella Provincial Park.

Tributaries

The following rivers empty into the Williston Reservoir:

History

Williston Lake was created in 1968 by the building of the W. A. C. Bennett Dam on the Peace River, which flooded the aboriginal-territorial home of the Tsay Keh Dene First Nation.[3]

The reservoir was named after the Honourable Ray Gillis Williston, at the time the Minister of Lands, Forests and Water Resources.

Barge on Williston Lake

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Williston Lake.


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/12/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.