Moran Dam, also called High Moran Dam or Moran Canyon Dam, was a 1950s proposal to dam the

Fraser River The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of Vancouver. The river's annual d ...

in the Canadian province of

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

(BC). The structure was planned in the wake of devastating floods in a time of rapidly growing power demand, and if built, would have powered the largest

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...

facility in North America. After a protracted environmental battle, Moran Dam was defeated in 1972, mainly over concerns of its adverse impact on

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

populations in the Fraser River basin. The shelving of the project also influenced cancellation of other hydro developments along the river, and today the Fraser remains one of the most productive salmon fisheries on the continent.

Proposal

As early as 1934, the Moran Canyon site was identified as an excellent location for a large hydroelectric dam. During the dam-building era of the mid-20th century, up to five major hydropower projects were proposed on the

main stem In hydrology, a mainstem (or trunk) is "the primary downstream segment of a river, as contrasted to its tributaries". Water enters the mainstem from the river's drainage basin, the land area through which the mainstem and its tributaries flow.. A ...

of the Fraser River. The largest of these, a dam near the railway point of Moran, some upstream of

Lillooet Lillooet () is a district municipality in the Squamish-Lillooet region of southwestern British Columbia. The town is on the west shore of the Fraser River immediately north of the Seton River mouth. On BC Highway 99, the locality is by road abou ...

, was put forth by the Moran Development Corporation (MDC). This

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

firm put forth US$500 million in 1952 to finance the construction of the dam, which would have been the tallest in the world. The Fraser River was favoured over other large rivers in BC, such as the Columbia or

Peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

, because of its relative proximity to urban centres like

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

. The dam would have been high, generating as much power on average as

Grand Coulee Dam Grand Coulee Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation water. Constructed between 1933 and 1942, Grand Coulee originally had two powerhous ...

and two

Hoover Dam Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on Se ...

s combined. Much of this energy would have been sold to the northwestern United States. It would form a gigantic reservoir long, containing some of water at maximum pool,Evenden, p. 214 reaching almost to the city of

Quesnel Quesnel or Quesnell means "little oak" in the Picard dialect of French. It is used as a proper name and may refer to: Places * Le Quesnel, a commune the Somme department in France * Quesnel, British Columbia, a city in British Columbia, Canada ...

. A significant portion of this capacity would be reserved for flood control as the dam had been proposed in the wake of major floods that occurred just three years before then, in 1948. The BC government gave MDC clearance to begin preliminary work at the site in 1955. However, MDC lacked the funds to build such a gigantic dam and to acquire all the lands that would be flooded under the reservoir, and a rival company,

BC Electric The British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority, operating as BC Hydro, is a Canadian electric utility in the province of British Columbia. It is the main electricity distributor, serving more than 4 million customers in most areas, with the excep ...

(today part of

BC Hydro The British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority, operating as BC Hydro, is a Canadian electric utility in the province of British Columbia. It is the main electricity distributor, serving more than 4 million customers in most areas, with the excep ...

), acquired similar rights to the site that same year.

Controversy and defeat

Moran Dam's tremendous height would make artificial fish passage nearly impossible, and would thus cut off a large portion of the Fraser's prodigious runs of

Pacific salmon ''Oncorhynchus'' is a genus of fish in the family Salmonidae; it contains the Pacific salmon and Pacific trout. The name of the genus is derived from the Greek ὄγκος (ónkos, “lump, bend”) + ῥύγχος (rhúnkhos, “snout”), in r ...

and

steelhead trout Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the common name of the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or redband trout (O. m. gairdneri). Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific basin in Northeast Asia and N ...

. During the later 1950s and 1960s, determined opposition from environmentalists including

Roderick Haig-Brown Roderick Langmere Haig-Brown (February 21, 1908 – October 9, 1976) was a Canadian writer and conservationist. Early life Haig-Brown was born in Lancing, Sussex, England. His father, Alan Haig-Brown, was a teacher and a prolific writer ...

, fishermen and others stalled the project, citing that the dam would block access to over 70% of

anadromous fish Fish migration is mass relocation by fish from one area or body of water to another. Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annually or longer, and over distances ranging from a few metres to thousan ...

spawning habitat in the Fraser basin. In addition, it would cause losses of up to 50% of catches along the main stem Fraser and its

delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D ( NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also ...

below the dam because of

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand an ...

blockage, water temperature changes, and flow fluctuations. The defeat of the dam project, which had one of the largest power potentials of any in North America, uniquely occurred during the height of the continent's dam-building era, before determined environmentalist opposition towards dams such as at New Melones, twenty years later. In 1970, BC Hydro released a report that predicted annual provincial rises in power consumption of over 10 percent. As a result, the proposed dam project was briefly revived, to the point at which test bores were made at the site in May of that year. After continuing concern over what the dam would do to the Fraser's salmon runs, the Moran Dam was defeated again in 1972. The downfall of the Moran project led to decreased call for power generation on the Fraser River, as Moran would have been the key facility for that matter. If Moran Dam had been built, the vast construction could open much of the Fraser River for development, to the point where it might have even ended up like the dam-straitjacketed

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

. Today, despite its alluring hydroelectric potential, the Fraser River remains one of the longest undammed rivers in North America and one of the continent's most productive salmon fisheries.

Notes

Works cited

* * *

References

{{reflist, 2, refs= {{cite map , publisher = ACME Mapper , title = CTIO Topo Maps for Canada , year = , cartography =

Natural Resources Canada Natural Resources Canada (NRCan; french: Ressources naturelles Canada; french: RNCan, label=none)Natural Resources Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Natural Resources (). is the depa ...

Centre for Topographic Information , accessdate = 2011-06-26 , url = http://mapper.acme.com/ {{cite web, author = Bengeyfield, W., url = http://www.bchydro.com/bcrp/reports/docs/global_fish_passage.pdf, title = Evaluation of Restoring Historic Passage for Anadromous Fish at BC Hydro Facilities, publisher = BC Hydro, date = June 2001, accessdate = 2011-06-25, display-authors = etal, archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110612013439/http://www.bchydro.com/bcrp/reports/docs/global_fish_passage.pdf, archive-date = 2011-06-12, url-status = dead {{cite web , author = Nanton, Isabel , url = http://www.utubc.com/meeting/meeting22.htm , title = World's Biggest Dam Once Proposed for BC: The plan put forward by U.S. financiers in 1952 called for a 270-metre-high dam at Moran Canyon on the Fraser River. , work = Vancouver Sun , date = 1999-10-09 , accessdate = 2011-06-25 , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20080725032642/http://www.utubc.com/meeting/meeting22.htm , archivedate = 2008-07-25 {{cite web , author = Quinn, Frank , url = http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/dams-and-diversions/ , title = Dams and Diversions , publisher = The Canadian Encyclopedia , date = , accessdate = 2011-06-25 {{cite news , author = Mcintyre, Douglas , url = http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/03/23/how-to-pay-down-the-federal-deficit-sell-americas-icons-asset/ , title = How to Pay Down the Federal Deficit: Sell America's Icons, Assets and Gold? , work = DailyFinance , date = 2011-03-23, accessdate=2011-06-25 {{cite web , url = http://www.mrcmekong.org/Catch-Culture/vol15_1May09/Hydropower-fraser.htm , title = Hydropower in the Fraser and Columbia Rivers: a contrast in approaches to fisheries protection , publisher = Mekong River Commission For Sustainable Development , work = Fisheries Research and Development in the Mekong Region , accessdate = 2011-06-25 {{cite web , author1=Ferguson, John W. , author2=Healey, Michael , author3=Dugan, Patrick , author4=Barlow, Chris , url=http://www.cnr.uidaho.edu/fish510/PDF/Ferguson%20et%20al.%20Pacific%20vs%20Mekong.pdf , title=Potential Effects of Dams on Migratory Fish in the Mekong River: Lessons from Salmon in the Fraser and Columbia Rivers , publisher=University of Idaho , work=College of Natural Resources , date=2009-09-17 , accessdate=2011-06-25 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928120844/http://www.cnr.uidaho.edu/fish510/PDF/Ferguson%20et%20al.%20Pacific%20vs%20Mekong.pdf , archive-date=2011-09-28 , url-status=dead {{cite web , url = http://www.usbr.gov/projects/Powerplant.jsp?fac_Name=Grand+Coulee+Powerplant , title = Grand Coulee Powerplant , publisher = U.S. Bureau of Reclamation , work = Grand Coulee Dam , date = 2010-12-20, accessdate=2011-06-25 {{cite web , url = http://www.wsc.ec.gc.ca/applications/H2O/HydromatD-eng.cfm , title = HYDAT Database Text Search: Fraser River , publisher = Environment Canada , work = Water Survey of Canada , accessdate = 2011-06-26 , url-status = dead , archiveurl = https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20101224123010/http://www.wsc.ec.gc.ca/applications/H2O/HydromatD-eng.cfm , archivedate = 2010-12-24

External links