Bighorn Dam (or ''Bighorn Hydro Plant'') is an

embankment dam An embankment dam is a large artificial dam. It is typically created by the placement and compaction of a complex semi-plastic mound of various compositions of soil or rock. It has a semi-pervious waterproof natural covering for its surface ...

in Clearwater County in west-

central Alberta Central Alberta is a region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. Central Alberta is the most densely populated rural area in the province. Agriculture and energy are important to the area's economy. Geography Central Alberta is bordered ...

, Canada. It was built by Calgary Power in 1972, and led to the creation of Lake Abraham,

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

's largest

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

. The dam and associated hydroelectric plant are managed by TransAlta. Planning of the dam involved no evaluation of the social and environmental effects it may have caused, and no public hearings were held prior to the construction either. The construction of the Bighorn dam flooded the Kootenay Plains and stopped the livelihood (hunting and fur trapping) of the Bighorn Stoney Indigenous that had lived in that area. It had flooded their cabins, graves and pastures. The Bighorn Plant is the second largest hydro facility owned by TransAlta (the largest being Brazeau Dam), with a capacity of 120

megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s (MW). However, it has an available water supply that allows it to be the largest producer of hydroelectric energy in Alberta, with an average of each year. The plant is one of two TransAlta hydroelectric plants on the

North Saskatchewan River The North Saskatchewan River is a glacier-fed river that flows from the Canadian Rockies continental divide east to central Saskatchewan, where it joins with the South Saskatchewan River to make up the Saskatchewan River. Its water flows event ...

system in Alberta. The dam was built in 1972 in the mountain gap at Windy Point, in the Front Ranges of the

Canadian Rockies The Canadian Rockies () or Canadian Rocky Mountains, comprising both the Alberta Rockies and the British Columbian Rockies, is the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains. It is the easternmost part of the Canadian Cordillera, w ...

, west of the confluence of the North Saskatchewan River and the Bighorn River.

Climate

References

{{coord, 52, 18, 31.64, N, 116, 19, 44.98, W, type:landmark_region:CA-AB, name=Bighorn Dam, display=title Clearwater County, Alberta Dams in Alberta Hydroelectric power stations in Alberta 1972 establishments in Alberta North Saskatchewan River Dams completed in 1972 Dams in the Saskatchewan River basin