Mackenzie River down the spread of essential nutrients which builds up in the form of sediments, thus causing the river to become more polluted. Other smaller hydroelectric plants are located along the Snare and Taltson River tributaries, providing power to mines in the Great Slave Lake region. There have been many proposals to dam the tributaries of the Mackenzie River which would lead to further impacts on water quality and seasonal flow patterns. The Site C Dam on the Peace River, which would generate enough power for about 460,000 households, has been controversial since the 1970s, and a final decision on the
Mackenzie River Ocean on 14 July 1789. The river he named "Disappointment River" would later be renamed in his honor. No European reached its mouth again until Sir John Franklin on 16 August 1825. The following year he traced the coast west until blocked by ice while John Richardson followed the coast east to the Coppermine River. In 1849 William Pullen reached the Mackenzie from the Bering Strait. In the following decades the North West Company established forts on the river, the precursors of present-day settlements such as Fort Simpson (formerly Fort of the Forks). A lucrative fur trade was carried out,