Hydro Quebec, Kipawa River, Les Amis and Things in General

The plan has been to divert the Kipawa through an entirely new channel/outflow to capture the entire potential between the height of Lake Kipawa and Lake Temiskaming.

I'm not sure about the 132 MW figure. Some have said that it would require the diversion of water from the Dumoine river as well.

As for the EA, it is proponent driven, and I don't know of any cases recently where the EA has stopped development of projects like this.

I do remember seeing a paper abstract that was to be presented at the International Impact Assessment Association by two Hydro Quebec engineers of which Rougon was one. They said that calculating the "reserve flow" was the main issue associated with the Tabaret project. Reserve Flow concerns the minimum amount of water they could leave in the Kipawa and I think that was around 11 cfs and in any case the Laniel Dam was designed specifically to release that amount of water.

The process will involve an EA but my prediction is that the EA will suggest no significant environmental effect... I predict that the province will assign water rights to Quebec Hydro, that they will grant all the necessary permits. I also predict that, most people will never hear about this or have very little input into it, but we may see some protests from the Algonquins. The media may cover it cursorily. Naturally the MRC in Temiskaming will be fully supportive as they have been waiting for their $400,000 a year payments as promised since 1998.

Laniel have their new renovated dam, I assume they will be happy about this project as well as they will see any residual/spin off construction dollars as "good" for Laniel.

It may be useful to have Les Amis submit letters to Hydro Quebec, the Quebec Minsitry of Natural Resources to be put on the mailing list for any announcements or notices concerning public meetings and mailings - they'll do that but everything will be in French.

I think we need other ideas about how to proceed strategically on this file. Fondation Rivieres (FR), the Montreal based river preservation group has been notably mute about the Kipawa. when they did their magazine spread on River Preservation with Roy Dupuis they didn't mention the Kipawa at all. But they may be able to assist us now that Tabaret is back on the Strategic Plan.

I know that the Montreal Paddling Club is our major supporter on this file. We should try to support their efforts as much as possible, to alert the Quebec Media to at least ensure that the process is kept open to public input even if we think the end result is assured.

People will ask years from now, "what did you do while all this was happening?" Our consciences should be clear.

“Les Ami(e)s de la rivière Kipawa” (sic!) is a published link on the FR site. It rather appears that the organization went dormant in May 2008 based on the lack of activity.

The Montreal Club does have many other good whitewater destinations within easy reach of Montreal but the Club gave Les Ami’s 3k for the first crack at the legal challenge of the environmental assessment for the Laniel dam refurbishment.

The Hydro Quebec plan is that the annual energy to be generated at Tabaret is 0.7 TWh. Compare that to the proposed 132 MW generating capacity. The generating capacity can be as much as HQ chooses to install but the annual energy out is strictly a function of the potential (head) and the volume of water passed through the station. The apparent average utilization of the proposed 132MW station is 22%

The potential Dumoine watershed diversion is not far fetched. HQ provided for diverting part of the Moise watershed into their Sainte-Marguerite project. And they seem to be about to do just that.