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'Precious' river deserves second look, actor says |
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Friday, 12 January 2007 |
Montreal Gazette By: Michelle Lalonde
Environmental groups yesterday called for a one-year halt on Hydro-Quebec's Eastmain-1 power project and the diversion of the Rupert River, saying public consultation and environmental-impact studies were profoundly inadequate.
"We've said from the beginning that the process was not rigorous enough, that it was a charade," said Anne-Marie Saint-Cerny, a spokesperson for Fondation Rivieres, a group that works to conserve Quebec's northern rivers and their watersheds.
"We need to stop this project for a year and take a look at what alternatives exist, like windmills, and more dams on rivers that are already developed, and energy efficiency."
The Rupert is Quebec's largest unaltered river and is revered by outdoor enthusiasts as the most beautiful river in Canada, and one of the last great virgin rivers of the world.
The project would divert the river over 350 kilometres of its length and require the construction of four major dams, 75 dikes, a three-kilometre tunnel and 12 kilometres of canals. It would reroute 90 per cent of the river's flow toward the existing Eastmain-LaGrande hydro-electric complex.
Environmental groups say the project threatens the existence of fish species like the Giant Rupert River Trout and the Yellow Sturgeon, and that the river is a wilderness corridor serving 300 species of migratory birds and 44 species of mammals.
"Hydroelectricity is not as green as all that," said Quebec actor Roy Dupuis, co-president of Fondation Rivieres, at a news conference in Montreal yesterday. "People have to realize that the Rupert River is something extremely important and precious. We have to move slowly on this. We can't just destroy our natural heritage unless it is truly necessary."
One of the major environmental concerns is mercury, an element that is present - but stable - in the soil in northern Quebec because of atmospheric fallout from coal-fired energy plants, smelters and other industrial processes in the south.
The project would create more than 1,000 square kilometres of standing water and reduce the flow of the Rupert by more than 70 per cent, environmental groups contend.
When land is flooded, bacteria turn stable elementary mercury in the soil into methyl mercury, which can dissolve in water. The mercury accumulates in fish, which is consumed by residents in the north, a problem that came to light with Hydro-Quebec's earlier dam projects. The Crees have had to alter their diets, which has lead to unprecedented levels of diabetes in the Cree population.
"Also, when you play around with water flows, you affect coastal grasses," which are food for migratory birds, said Daniel Green, an adviser to the Sierra Club of Canada.
"Hydroelectricity is not 'green energy' if it has so much negative repercussions on flora and fauna and humans," said Nicolas Boisclair, of the Chibougamau-based Rupert Reverence, which promotes ecotourism on the river.
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Sponsors & Partners
NY City Friends of Clearwater
PROTECT
The Wittenberg Center for Alternative Resources
Solidarity Committee of the Capital District, N.Y. State
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