Alert from Friends of Nitassinan
6/6/96
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/* Written 8:24 AM Jun 6, 1997 by nfnena in igc:nfn.tempforest */
/* ---------- "Moisie River Alert (Canada)" ---------- */
From: Native Forest Network-ENA
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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