Christina River (Alberta)

Christina River
Country Canada
Province Alberta
Source Christina Lake
 - location 55°37′21″N 110°52′42″W / 55.62250°N 110.87833°W / 55.62250; -110.87833, Wood Buffalo, Alberta, Canada
Source confluence Jackfish River
Mouth Clearwater River (Saskatchewan)

Christina River is a river in the Wood Buffalo region of northern Alberta, Canada. It is a tributary of the Clearwater River. Christina River is part of Christina Lake's 1,250-square-kilometre (480 sq mi) drainage basin. Christina Lake's waters flow into the Jackson River, which flows 11 kilometres (7 mi) before it empties into the Christina River. Christina Lake and Christina River are named to honour Christine Gordon, originally from Scotland, who was the first white women to live permanently in the Fort McMurray area, where she remained until she died in the 1940s.[1][2][3][4]

Drainage basin

The source of the Christina River is Christina Lake (54°40'N 111°00'W), which is an elongated lake east of Conklin, between Lac La Biche and Fort McMurray, near Highway 881. The lake lies at an elevation of 556 m (1,824 ft) and has a total area of 21.3 km2 (8.2 sq mi). It has a mean depth of 17.3 m (57 ft) and reaches a maximum depth of 32.9 m (108 ft).[3]

Cenovus Energy operates a Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) project in the Christina Lake area, tapping bitumen from the McMurray Formation.[5] [notes 1]

Clearwater River

The Christina River is a tributary of the 295-kilometre (183 mi) Clearwater River. Clearwater River is designated a Canadian Heritage River by both Saskatchewan and Alberta.[notes 2] The waters of the Christina River flow into the Clearwater River which joins the Athabasca River at Fort McMurray. The Clearwater’s waters empty into the Athabaska which eventually reaches the Mackenzie River and later the Arctic Ocean.

The Clearwater River rises in northwestern Saskatchewan in the northern forest region of the Precambrian Shield. From its headwaters at Broach Lake it flows southeast through Saskatchewan before it turns southwest at Careen Lake. It continues 108 kilometres (67 mi) beyond the Alberta border before it joins the Athabasca River at Fort McMurray. This section of the river in Fort McMurray is also more affectionately referred to as The Chant. From there the Clearwater’s waters reach the Mackenzie River and later the Arctic Ocean.

From its headwaters in Broach Lake at 460 metres (1,510 ft) above sea level, the Clearwater drops about 150 metres (490 ft) to its junction with the Athabasca River. The upper part of the river flows over the Precambrian Shield, through rapids, over small waterfalls and through one gorge. More downstream, the river valley enters the Interior Plains and its channels are meandering along sandbars and small islands. The lower Clearwater in Alberta is characterized by high valley walls of limestone and dolomite gorges.

History

Christina Lake and Christina River were named to honour Christine Gordon, the first white women to live permanently in the Fort McMurray area where she remained until she died in the 1940s. She was highly respected by the community, including the First Nations and Metis.[6] Gordon, partly from knowledge gleaned from a Scottish home nursing book, made her own treatments for illnesses and injuries. She could "splint a broken arm, lower a fever, and mix herbal remedies." By 1914 she owned and operated a post in Fort McMurray, in competition with the Hudson's Bay Company.[1][2][3][4]

Conservation

Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program (RAMP)

The Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program (RAMP) uses the Clearwater River upriver of the Cenovus operations, as a "baseline river system" to provide "information on the variability and characteristics of natural systems" because of the "The lack of significant oil sands developments."[7] The Clearwater River[8] designated as part of the Canadian Heritage Rivers System, flows 187 kilometres (116 mi) from its headwaters in Lloyd Lake in northwestern Saskatchewan, through Saskatchewan and Alberta and joins the Athabasca River at Fort McMurray, eventually reaching the Mackenzie River and the Arctic Ocean.[7][8]

Notes

  1. ↑ SAGD is an enhanced oil recovery technology for producing heavy crude oil and bitumen. It is an advanced form of steam stimulation in which a pair of horizontal wells are drilled into the oil reservoir, one a few metres above the other. High pressure steam is continuously injected into the upper wellbore to heat the oil and reduce its viscosity, causing the heated oil to drain into the lower wellbore, where it is pumped out.
  2. ↑ Other tributaries of the Clearwater River are Descharme River and McLean River in Saskatchewan.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Eric J. Holmgren; Patricia M. Holmgren. 2,000 Place-names of Alberta (3 ed.). Saskatoon, Saskatchewan: Western Producer Prairie Books.
  2. 1 2 "Fort McMurray Before the Hospital". The Catholic Mission: The South of the North Pioneers. Fort McMurray, Alberta: Heritage Park. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 "Christina Lake". Atlas of Alberta Lakes. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  4. 1 2 Irwin Huberman (2004). The Place We Call Home: A History of Fort McMurray As Its People Remember. Fort McMurray: Historical Book Society of Fort McMurray. p. 284. ISBN 0968933904. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  5. ↑ "Operations - Oil - Christina Lake". Cenovus Energy. Retrieved 2010-09-06.
  6. ↑ Integrated Resource Plan - Christina Lake Management Plan (PDF) (Report). Land Use Planning. SRD Government of Alberta. 1991.
  7. 1 2 "Clearwater River Hydrological Profile". Hydrology of the Athabasca Oil Sands Region. Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program (RAMP). Retrieved 11 June 2013.
  8. 1 2 "Clearwater River". Canadian Heritage Rivers System. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
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