Rutherford Creek is a tributary of the
Green River,
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...
, entering that river a few miles above
Nairn Falls Provincial Park
Nairn Falls Provincial Park ( Ucwalmícwts: Skweskwistqw7am, ) is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada located on the Green River adjacent to British Columbia Highway 99 and the Canadian National Railway line just south of Pemberton and ...
, near the village of
Pemberton. The creek's headwaters are on the eastern side of the
Pemberton Icefield, from where it flows southeast for the first half of its course, then generally east for the remainder. It is approximately in length. The mouth is at 50° 16' 3" N, 122° 57' 41" W.
Whitewater kayaking course
Rutherford Creek is the location of one of only two artificial
whitewater kayaking
Whitewater kayaking is an adventure sport where a river is navigated in a decked kayak. Whitewater kayaking includes several styles. River running; where the paddler follows a river and paddles rapids as they travel. Creeking usually involving sm ...
courses in Canada, the other being in
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
. The course was built as a part of a
run-of-the-river hydroelectric facility built by the private Rutherford Creek Power Ltd. in cooperation with the
Squamish-Lillooet Regional District
The Squamish-Lillooet Regional District is a quasi-municipal administrative area in British Columbia, Canada. It stretches from Britannia Beach in the south to Pavilion in the north. Lillooet, Pemberton, Whistler and Squamish are the four ...
, the BC Whitewater Kayaking Association and the Pemberton Snowmobile Club. It includes a channel with weirs, boulders, baffle walls, anchor pads and a classroom.
Hydroelecric plant
Rutherford Creek Power was built in 2004 by a partnership between
Cloudworks Energy,
Innergex Renewable Energy
Innergex Renewable Energy () is a developer, owner and operator of run-of-river hydroelectric facilities, wind energy, and solar farms in North America, France and South America. While many of the firm's operational assets are located in its hom ...
and the
Lil'wat First Nation
The Lil'wat First Nation ( lil, líl̓watǝmx), a.k.a. the Lil'wat Nation or the Mount Currie Indian Band, is a First Nation band government located in the southern Coast Mountains region of the Interior of the Canadian province of British Co ...
. The plant uses a
penstock
A penstock is a sluice or gate or intake structure that controls water flow, or an enclosed pipe that delivers water to hydro turbines and sewerage systems. The term is inherited from the earlier technology of mill ponds and watermills. ...
leading to a power house with two 25 MW
pelton wheel
The Pelton wheel or Pelton Turbine is an Impulse (physics), impulse-type water turbine invented by American inventor Lester Allan Pelton in the 1870s. The Pelton wheel extracts energy from the impulse of moving water, as opposed to water's dead w ...
s. The plant has an
IPP agreement to sell electricity to BC Hydro.
2003 washout/flooding
Rutherford Creek became the focus of disaster relief when a
Pineapple Express
Pineapple Express is a non-technical term for a meteorological phenomenon characterized by a strong and persistent large-scale flow of warm moist air, and the associated heavy precipitation both in the waters immediately northeast of the Hawaii ...
bearing more rain than has ever been recorded before reached the area, and was made worse because the freezing line was well above the elevation of the
Pemberton Icecap, which began to melt in torrential fashion. Rutherford Creek is one of the main streams leading from that icecap, and the torrent which came down it wiped out the bridges used to cross it by
BC Highway 99 and the
BC Rail
BC Rail is a railway in the Canadian province of British Columbia.
Chartered as a private company in 1912 as the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE), it was acquired by the provincial government in 1918. In 1972 it was renamed to the Britis ...
line.
Pemberton Museum video gallery page
/ref>
See also
*List of generating stations in British Columbia
This is a list of electrical generating stations in British Columbia, Canada.
Hydroelectric
List of most of the hydroelectric generating stations in British Columbia.
Hydroelectric stations owned by BC Hydro
A list of all grid-tied ...
* Independent power producers in British Columbia
References
BCGNIS listing "Rutherford Creek"
{{authority control
Rivers of British Columbia
Sea-to-Sky Corridor
Artificial whitewater courses
Hydroelectric power stations in British Columbia
Run-of-the-river power stations
Lillooet Land District