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The Northern Waters Complex: A dream come true?

The Montreal Economic Institute announced a plan to divert the spring runoff of three Northern Quebec Rivers down to the St. Lawrence River. According to the proposal, the plan would make 70 million cubic meters of freshwater newly available, provide 14 terawatt-hours of energy each year through hydroelectric generation, and generate $7.5 billion to $20 billion of revenue from water sales annually and another $2.3 billion of revenue annually from energy sales.

And, the author argues, all without any environmental damage.

The plan involves building dams across three rivers that drain into James Bay, collecting the spring runoff and storing it behind a newly flooded area of 1,100 square kilometres. Throughout the year the water would be pumped over the divide between James Bay and the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River basin and into the Ottawa River, which drains into the St. Lawrence River.

The proposal suggests that this water could ’save’ Great lakes water by introducing 800 cubic metres per second of water to meet the needs of users downstream of Lake Ontario. This would also help raise water levels in the Great Lakes and counteract climate change. The author also suggests this new water could be sold to the Midwest and southern U.S. states by sending it through the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.

At first glance this scheme may seem to be a joke. But such grand schemes to exploit the waters of Northern Quebec to solve the problems of the Great Lakes – and make a fortune at the same time – have a way of gaining traction. The most famous of these was the Grand Canal Project. This $100 billion project, which first came forward in 1959, proposed a dike across James Bay, separating it from Hudson Bay, and collecting the freshwaters from northern Quebec and Ontario. Having turned a saltwater bay into a freshwater bay, the water would be diverted to the Great Lakes to help stabilize water levels in the Great Lakes and to pipe water to the southern U.S. A side benefit was that it would flush pollutants out of the Great Lakes. The enormous price tag meant the project was never built, but it still has political powerhouses behind it who bring it forth periodically.

The author of the Northern Waters Complex proposal describes it as much more modest and realistic than the “grandiose” Grand Canal Project. How modest is it really? The estimated construction cost is $15 billion – money that they figure they could recover very quickly through the sales of energy and water.

But how realistic is this? First, the legal barriers are gigantic. The economic viability of the project depends on making a fortune by selling water to the southern U.S. by shipping it through the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. The movement of water at Chicago is strictly controlled by a U.S. Supreme Court decree. It would take gigantic efforts to make changes to this. Also, there is a question of whose water it is that would be sold from the Great Lakes since the Quebec water would not be diverted into the Great Lakes.

Secondly, the political barriers are huge. There could be powerful political forces behind the project, e.g., Hydro-Québec, and possibly the Quebec government. But likewise, there could be huge political forces opposed to the concept. For example, the New York State Power Authority and Ontario Power Generation are likely to be opposed to the idea. Afterall, reducing the amount of water flowing through their power plant at Cornwall-Massena would reduce their ability to generate power and would cut into their revenues.

Thirdly, the environmental consequences are probably impossible to fully assess. The first obvious tragedy would be the damming of the last three free-flowing rivers in the Quebec part of the James Bay watershed.

This project is still in the dream stage, but we must now show our disdain for it and remain vigilant to make sure that it never gains traction.

© 2009 Great Lakes News.