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 watershed, reaching up to deep in the Mackenzie Delta. As a whole, the Mackenzie basin receives only meager to moderate rainfall, averaging over the entire basin, though mountain areas experience much higher precipitation, and areas near and north of the Arctic Circle receive much lower precipitation. The Mackenzie drainage basin is bordered by multiple major North American watersheds. Much of the western edge of the Mackenzie basin runs along the Continental Divide. The divide separates the Mackenzie watershed from that of the Yukon River, which flows to the Bering Strait; and the Fraser River and Columbia River systems, both of