Quebec Proposes 36 Hydroelectric Dams on 24 Rivers
By Martin Stone
MONTREAL, Quebec, Canada, July 25, 2001 (ENS) - A boon to regional development and small business, or an ecological disaster in the making? These questions are being raised by a Hydro Quebec proposal to build 36 new dams on 24 rivers across the province.
But before the scheme, known as small hydro, has even left the drawing board, critics are calling it a blueprint for eco-disaster.
Environmental, tourism and recreational groups are accusing the provincial government, and its majority owned crown corporation, Hydro Quebec, of sacrificing some of Quebec's most pristine rivers and wilderness areas to score political points while generating minute amounts of electricity.
In May, Quebec Natural Resources Minister Jacques Brassard revealed that the government had identified 36 natural waterfalls and rapids as candidates for possible damming by private companies. News reports noted that if all 36 projects were completed, they would produce 425 megawatts of power, equal to about one percent of the Hydro-Quebec's present 37,000 megawatts of generating capacity.
Jean-Francois Blain, spokesman for the activist group Eau-Secours, said his organization is outraged the government is willing to allow dams on so many rivers for so little tangible benefit to the society as a whole. "They're spreading the environmental damage across the province," he complained to the "Montreal Gazette" newspaper.
A coalition of 25 environmental and tourism groups submitted a position paper asserting that at least six of the proposed dam sites are on rivers in which Atlantic salmon spawn. Many others host hundreds of canoeists, kayakers, rafters and hikers.
"The government is preparing, with no energy, economic or social justification, to sacrifice this public asset at an enormous environmental cost, essentially for the benefit of the private sector," the paper states.
Pierre Gaudreault, director of Aventure Ecotourisme Quebec, pointed out that many of the rivers targeted for damming have never before been impeded by artificial barriers. By damming the rivers, Quebec is damaging its natural heritage and tourism industry, which has much better potential for job creation than small-hydro production, he said,
With this scheme, Quebec is risking a public relations fiasco among environmentalists and ecotourists in the U.S. and Europe, Gaudreault warned.
The economic value of the project is also under fire from critics. Hydro Quebec currently generates electricity at an average cost of 2.5 to 3 Canadian cents per kilowatt/hour (kw/h) and estimates the cost of building new capacity at 4 to 4.5 cents per kw/h, according to published figures. But, the new small-hydro generators will produce electricity for between an estimated 4.5 cents to 6 cents per kw/h.
About two-thirds of the projected 36 dams are expected to eventually be built, at an estimated C$600 million in construction and other costs.
Hydro Quebec officials and spokespersons from the small hydro industry insist that existing policy provides ample protection for the environment and note that hydro electricity production does not contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.
They also assert that environmental and economic issues will be subject to full public scrutiny before individual dams are built.
Gilles Lefrancois, speaker for the private energy producers' trade association and president of Innergex, one of the firms planning to participate in the project, insists the small hydro sites will be able to produce electricity at competitive prices, and in an interview in "The Gazette," called his industry's critics socialists whose real concern is to keep the private sector out of the energy field. "It's a religion. I call them the Ayatollahs of nationalization. Anything that is not public is bad," the newspaper quoted him as saying.
Still, many Quebecers remain concerned that, generally, environmental impact studies have not adequately assessed the real hazards, and both the government of Quebec and Hydro Quebec have somewhat tarnished records in addressing environmental concerns.