/* Written 8:24 AM Jun 6, 1997 by nfnena in igc:nfn.tempforest */
/* ---------- "Moisie River Alert (Canada)" ---------- */
From: Native Forest Network-ENA <nfnena@igc.apc.org>
ALERT FROM FRIENDS OF NITASSINAN
POB 804 BURLINGTON VT 05402 USA
"Our people travelled up the Moisie into the interior. With this dam, the
port of entry to our culture will be closed. The diversions they have
planned will mean the annihilation of all the Creator has given us."--
Evelyn St. Onge, Innu from Mani Utenam
"The decision to go ahead with the diversions constitutes the
biggest experiment in the field of Atlantic salmon that has ever been
undertaken in the history of the world, with all of the risks inherent in
it.
If we are not able as a society to preserve the Moisie as it is,
what river in Quebec deserves to be so preserved?" --Association for the
Protection of the Moisie river
ACTION ALERT MISHTA SHIPU (MOISIE RIVER): KEEP IT WILD
Hydro Quebec is proceeding with its plans to divert the Pekan and
Carheil Rivers, tributaries of the Moisie River.
In 1994, HQ's proposal to divert the rivers into the St.
Marguerite as part of the St. Marguerite 3 (SM3) hydro-electric project,
was not approved by the government. HQ was told to conduct further studies
on the potential impacts of the river diversions on the Moisie Salmon.
HQ has completed its two-year studies and submitted them to a
government-appointed Commission. The Commission has concluded that the
diversions will not affect the salmon.
The SM3 project was the first HQ project to go through public
hearings. Now HQ is attempting to remove the debate from the public
sphere, to confine it to a team of government-appointed "experts" behind
closed doors, and to secret negotiations with the Mani Utneam /Uashat Band
Council.
The government's authorization is imminent. Meanwhile HQ has begun
negotiations with the Uashat/Mani Utenam Band Council for the "completion
of the SM3 project which has already been approved."
The Band Council is conducting these negotiations in spite the
opposition from the community. This is the same Band Council who placed a
thirty-year injunction over the community, prohibiting any form of
opposition to its own power or to the SM3 project.
HQ expects the negotiations to be completed within 45 days of the
government's authorization for the diversions.
Meanwhile, construction of the SM3 project--including the river
diversions-- is proceeding on schedule.
The Deadline for comments regarding the Moisie Salmon Study is
JUNE 15. Enclosed is a copy of our letter to the Quebec government.
Please use it as a sample letter; FAX your letters right away to:
Environmental Assessment of Industrial and HydroSystem Projects 675 Rene
Levesque Blvd. East Marie-Guyart Building Quebec City Quebec G1R 547 (tel:
418-521-3933) fax: 418-644-8222
June 4,
1997 M. Minister,
We are writing to express our alarm and indignation over Hydro
Quebec's intentions to divert the Pekan and Carheil rivers, tributaries of
the world famous Moisie River. A decision by the Province of Quebec to
approve this diversion scheme would go against world opinion and would
subvert the Environmental Assessment process--the first in HQ's history--
in which all sectors of the public condemned the proposal.
In 1995 Hydro Quebec agreed to modify the SM3 project, in response
to the public's opposition to the diversion scheme. At the time, the
Quebec government claimed that this modification alone would bring the SM3
project into compliance with public opinion and particularly, with the
conclusions of the environmental review board (BAPE). While the BAPE
recommended that the Pekan and Carheil rivers not be diverted, HQ's
compliance with this recommendation was the only concession to the Board's
many criticisms of the SM3 proposal. Other concerns, and they are by no
means minor, have been ignored.
First, HQ's energy demand forecasting was judged to be faulty; HQ
has failed to prove that there is any need for yet another giant
electric-producing facility. Furthermore, the Board concluded that HQ's
EIS was incomplete, and that before the project is authorized , HQ should
conduct a number of additional studies. Among them: studies on the
cumulative effects of all existing dam projects in the North shore region
as a whole; studies of the effects of transmission lines; and further
studies on the impacts on the natural environment, on human health and on
the social fabric. The Board also noted HQ's Moisie salmon studies were
grossly inadequate and recommended that the Moisie diversions not be
approved.
HQ recently submitted a new short-sighted, two-year study of the
Moisie salmon impacts to the government-appointed Moisie Salmon
Commission. The Commission has concluded the impacts would be
insignificant. We would like to challenge these conclusions.
First, how can changing the habitat that begun with the last ice
age not have significant impacts on creatures as sensitive to changes in
their particular water way as the majestic Atlantic Salmon?
HQ has still not conducted a proper study. The life cycle of the
salmon is seven years, not two. Any study on the life-cycle of the Moisie
salmon short of a seven-year study is inadequate.
Third, HQ has used the Snake River in Idaho as a model for
"regulated flow" management. The historic salmon runs of the Snake River
are a thing of the past. As a model, it is a model of failure, not
success. In fact, the Snake River Sockeye has recently been declared
endangered by the US Fish and Wildlife-- primary cause: hydro-electric
dams.
And finally, the Innu people, who have never signed a treaty or
ceded their land to any government, are inctricatly connected to the
Moisie and its salmon. It is the Innu's "Great River" and to risk the
return of the Salmon to the river is to gamble away the survival of the
Innu's unique and age-old culture.
The SM3 project was the first Hydro Quebec project to go through
public hearings. Now HQ is attempting to remove the debate from the public
sphere and to confine it to a team of government- appointed "experts"
behind closed doors, and to secret negotiations with the Mani Utneam
/Uashat Band Council. The 352-page BAPE report, in which the testimony of
Innu, recreationists, biologists, environmentalists and other sectors of
the public, as well as the government-appointed review panel, thoroughly
critiqued HQ's claims that the Moisie salmon would remian undisturbed by
the diversions, has apparently been tossed aside.
We urge you to suspend authorization of the SM3 project, as the
BAPE recommended, until the impact studies suggested by the Board have
been completed, and until the modified proposal has been subject to public
review. We also urge you to deny, once and for all, authorization of any
diversions of the Moisie or its tributaries and declare the Moisie a World
Heritage Site.
To tamper with this great river -- the jewel of the province-- for
a mere 250 megawatts would be worse than folly. Keep it wild. Let it be.
We look forward to your reply. Sincerely,
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For more info contact the FRIENDS OF NITASSINAN POB 804
Burlington VT 05402 USA
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Information transferred via--
Native Forest Network (NFN)
Eastern North American Resource Center
POB 57
Burlington, VT 05402 USA
Telephone: (802)863-0571
Fax: (802)863-2532
Email: nfnena@igc.apc.org