The Angara River flows throughout Eastern Siberia. She is the only one flowing from Lake Baikal. It is also the largest tributary of the Yenisei. Its length is one thousand seven hundred seventy nine kilometers.
The catchment basin has an area of 1,040,000 square kilometers. The average water consumption is four thousand five hundred thirty cubic meters per second. Numerous reservoirs provide seasonal and multi-year flow regulation. In the basin, there are about forty thousand different rivers and rivers. Their total length is more than one hundred and sixty thousand kilometers.
The source of the Angara, as already mentioned, is in Lake Baikal. Here, in the middle of the channel, a stone shaman sticks out of the water. It blocks the channel, being a natural dam. There is a very beautiful legend about the emergence of the river. Baikal's daughter, having escaped from under his power, rushed to the Yenisei. The angry father tried to stop his daughter and threw a huge stone after her. Since that time, he stands in line with. It is believed that if you remove it, then Baikal will flood everything around.
Before flowing into the
Yenisei, the Angara
River flows through the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the
Irkutsk Region. First, it flows to the north mainly, then turns to the west (beyond Ust-Ilim). It flows into the Yenisei near Lesosibirsk.
Tributaries of the Angara: Oka, Irkut, Oia, Ilim, Taseeva. One can also take into account the Upper Angara, Barguzin, and Selenga flowing into Baikal.
Among the large cities on the coast, Angarsk, Usolye-Sibirskoye, Ust-Ilimsk, Bratsk, Boguchany and others should be noted.
The Angara River is characterized by significant elevations - up to three hundred and eighty meters. Moreover, it is quite full-flowing from the very beginning. Due to this, it has a huge hydropower potential. For its implementation, the Angarsk cascade of stations was built: Ust-Ilim, Bratsk, Irkutsk. The construction of the fourth station, the Boguchanskaya HPP, is nearing completion. The construction of the Lower Angarsk cascade of power plants is also planned. So, the entire pool can become one cascade of power plants. In addition to electric energy, the construction of stations will ensure the development of shipping along its entire length. It should be said that the reservoir from the Irkutsk power station in the upper reaches stretches for fifty-five kilometers.
It should be said that after the construction of the Irkutsk station in the river, the water level rose significantly. In this connection, only the top remained from the Shaman-stone, the height of which is a meter and a half. At one time, a project to undermine a stone was discussed quite seriously. In this case, the water would freely go to the turbines from Lake Baikal. However, the project was not implemented due to the fact that, according to environmentalists, this would entail a geological displacement due to the destruction of the stone.
It must also be said that the Angara River is characterized by a relatively unfavorable environmental situation. A huge amount of
wastewater is sent to it
. By their number, the basin is second only to the Volga basin. Water quality after the first large city of Irkutsk is assessed, ranging from moderately to very dirty.