The last time the dam developers came north, it was to provide power to divert rivers flowing into Hudson's and James Bay and send the water south to the United States. The water plot was carried out in secret and was called the the North American Water and Power Alliance (NAWAPA). It was conceived by Bechtel Engineering in California and a study on hydraulic resources was carried out by the Northern Ontario Coordinating Committee on Water Resources. The studies were leaked to a group called Damn the Dams centred in Thunder Bay. Although PM Trudeau senior supported the project, by 1973, after protesters closed the border at Pigeon River and outrage nationally, the environmentally unacceptable project was killed.
Now the dam builders are back again. About 140 companies comprising the Ontario Water Power Association who are backing the request by Ken Hartwick, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ontario Power Generation (OPG) for a made-in-Ontario, northern hydroelectric opportunities approach to securing a clean energy future through hydro power development. They justify the need for electricity demand due to electric vehicles and increased population in Southern Ontario. The wording and method of securing participation of native communities is similar to that being used by the nuclear industry but a little more folksy where dams and reservoirs are portrayed as a natural evolution of the waterwheel (there were never any waterwheels further north). As with nuclear “learn more” education there is a green washing repetition of the word “clean”. However, damming is not clean!
After a century of industrial development many Northerners are getting fed-up with projects that present great opportunities without first examining the environmental and social costs. If barriers such as dams and impoundments are built in rivers there are certainly upstream and downstream affects.
The first choice of the dam builders are the rapids on the Little Jackfish River which flows south into the north end of Lake Nipigon. Presently, with well oxygenated, flowing water, it is a great source of pickerel (walleye) for native communities and fisherman alike. Of course, a dam will create a stratified, silting reservoir that leaches mercury from the soil banks as water is drawn down to produce electricity. The dried-up downstream of mostly rock is where the few remaining aquatic organisms are killed in winter by the freezing of the shallow water flow and mud. Cement only lasts so long and cement dams “creep” from the water pressure behind them. Sometimes they give way with catastrophic results.
Further downstream below Lake Nipigon, pickerel beds along Lake Helen were silted over by increased water flow from the Ogoki Diversion created in 1942 to replace water being withdrawn from the great Lakes by the Americans at Chicago and dumped into the Mississippi Watershed. Compensation was never paid. This time, the deal to native communities is, we'll share the profits with you so food can be bought. Importantly, water flow is regulated by agreement with the United States under the International Joint Commission.
As to proposed impoundments further north on the Albany, Attawapiskat Rivers, Severn and Windigo Rivers, the immense reservoir size covering the muskeg on the flat lowlands would not be welcome. Blocking the rapid ice flushing torrent of fresh water in the spring break-up that clears the estuaries of ice in the mouths of these rivers where there are native communities are is another unacceptable impact. Worse, the changes in salinity of waters in James and Hudson's Bay would affect the plankton, fish and mammal populations.
The OPG proposal that dams generating less than 200 megawatts such as the Little Jackfish only receive a sort of quick and dirty environmental assessment is unacceptable. Northerners should demand a a more formal joint, Comprehensive Environmental Assessment with the Federal Government, that would include intervenor funding, a Terms of Reference negotiated with a public citizens group, followed by an Environmental Assessment for all water projects in Northern Ontario. Importantly, we should have our own Northern Ontario Energy Board to plan our energy future. Moreover, renewables need inclusion.
Paul Filteau
