~ ~ ""!1 fl ,_, "-""! ~ r'"' G""' o·~~ Ht1='\\l~~~~-t=-~, :~i~:.; Susitna Joint Venture Document Number 87;;.._____ _ PJeaso Return To DOCUMENT CONTROL The Destruction of ~·1anito1)il: ..,; Last Great Riv~.:r by: R. Xewbury & G. ~alaher '···"·· i: . .• ., tts;.,__... m ·ir'Cr a· •z ... NOTICE: This M~t~ri~ may be protected by copyright iaw (TitJa 17 U.S. Code)~ The Destruction of .I! i: i ~ -1 f Manitoba's Last·Great River .': ! ..I _i by R. NEWBURY and G. W. MALAHER ... water is an integral part aj the land, responsible to a large extent for its physical form and the life found in or near it - including man. The land and water are indivisible, and those who would treat a river as so much plumbing to be manipulated, and its water as a commodity to be bought and sold like carloads of wheat, have simply not comprehended this fundamental fact. Richard C. Backing -• I' Two great rivers, the Nelson and the Churchill, cut com­ in midsummer when normal high water would overtop the I I pletely through the Precambrian Shield of northern Mani­ proposed Missi Falls dam. The stopped-up waters of thf I' I! toba bringing water from the interior of Canada to Hudson Churchili would head southward through Notigi and Spli1 i ' l' Bay. \Vaters flowing to the Nelson begin their journey on Lakes toward the Nelson River some 200 miles to the south : the eastern slope of the Rockies, crossing the three Prairie The reservoir would raise lake levels from ten feet or ._,. J i' Provinces via the Saskatchewan River. The Saskatchewan South~rn Indian Lake to 60 feet or more in the diversior ,I enters Lake \Vinnipeg at Grand Rapids. All rivers that area, and the diverted water would increase the flows of tht dr.ain into Lake \'Vinnipeg, including many beginning in Rat-Burntwood sy:.;tem by o\·er 500%. norlhwesteru Ontario, contribute to the flow of the Nelson. \Vhethcr or not this enormous proposed scheme shoul( In total, this vast watershed covers some 414,000 square become fact is a question that has beleaguered the presen miles. government as well as form~r governments of Manitoba The headwaters of the Churchill likewise begin far to the These governments have doggedly backed ~1anitobc \Vest at Be: aver Lake ncar Lac la Biche, northeast of Ed man­ Hydro's diversion plans, even though there is no doubt tha ton. Its waters flow eastward acro~s the ·northern plains of the scheme could create a nightmare for many other huma1 Alberta and Saskatchewan to Lac Ile-a-la-Crosse, there and resource values in the region. The essential question is meeting the Precambrian Shield. From the Manitoba­ Is the power that would be generated really worth more t: Saskatchewan border, the river flows northeastward through ~Ianitobans and to Canada than the many values tha \I a magnificent chain oflakcs, roughly paralleling the Nelson l: I' to the south. The Churchill watershed covers an area of Dr. Newbury is a professor of Civil Engineering and Earth Scienus, Um"vewt . ! i of Afanitoba, Wirmipeg. He hasfirst hand knowledge rif Afanitoba'ssub-arct; l' about 115,000 square miles. I • rivtrs as wrll as of developmmt schemes for the region. I'L Though these rivers lie several hundred miles apart, the height of land separating the Churchill at the Southern Mr. Malaher is a former director rif the 1\-fanitoba Wildlijt Branch. fl~ 1 ·.. I Indian Lake area from waters. flowing southward to the currently rttired from gov"nment service. f., Nelson is low and very short-so short, in fact, that the idea ' ! would be compromised or destroyed? The utilization of a1 .· ~ of diverting the Churchill to increase the volume flow of the -·I entire river by diversion rather than in st~p~ or stages alon· ! t Nelson. for power purposes is an "engineer's dream." In the ; its own channel has never been done before in Manitoba late 1960s and the first two years of the present decade, this or anywhere else in Canada. Even the governments recog dream has come closer to reality because of government­ nized the possible size and immensity of the scheme in 1971 apptoved plans of Manitoba Hydro to build a dam on the Churchill at its outlet from Southern Indian Lake. The dam " 1/zere has never been a thorough appraz'sal of environmmt would create an enormous reservoir stretching some 11 0 and resource use preceding a diversion project anywhere m miles southward to the headwaters of a small tributary to North America. The Churchill divtrsion promises to be the the Nelson-the Rat-Burntwood system (see map). The_ largest ingle diversion ever undertaken by man on this lower 250 milt's of the Churchill River valley would be continen/. 1 t . almost completely cut off and receive significant flows only The "need" for development on the scale of the Churchi 1. I Editor's nott: This paper has been published separately as Canadian diversion lies mainly in the minds of power developers wh I. 1 Nature Federation Special Publication No. 2, January, 1S73. have projected provincial power needs geometrically to th '1 Available from the C.N.F. qffice for $1.00. year 1994. The projected geometric increase in "need" ca .....__, -·~ -.......... _ ·~ ........ - J y of q .;:.• . ! • j l { ! Valley of the lower Churchill. If the propoud divmz'on is approved h)' the Manitoba government this portion of tlze Churchill would cease lo exist. R. Newbury 5 - . ,.. • :. • ..q, '~ .,. ' • • • ' 5,000 Mw cif power would be available by damming the be visualized by imagining a lily pond in which lily pads are Nelson at eight to ten places (Table II). The feasibility of growing and multiplying at such a rate that the number of developing Nelson sites had been proven with an initial pads doubles each day. The daily increment of pads wouid plant, the Kelsey Station, located _just upriver from Split Lake. The Kelsey plant was constructed primarily to supply TABLE 1 'the International Nickel Company mine at Thompson~ GENERATING STATIONS AND CAPACITIES li'< MANITOBA t Manitoba. Construction of the first Nelson River plant fc5r STATION ToTAL STATIO:'-< C.t.PACITY INSTALLED the southern system began at Kettle Rapids in 1968 and (Mw) (Mw) now nears completion. This plant's capacity of over 1,200 28 1906 Pinawa 28 Mw will be transmitted southward by a federally assisted Point du Bois 72 100 1911 232 DC transmission line to meet the demand for an additional 1923 Great Falls 132 Sla\'e Falls 68 300 1931 425 six years. Exploration for the construction of a second plant 1931"' Seven Sisters Falls 150 Pine Falls 86 536 on the Lower Nelson at Long Spruce Rapids has now 1951* 592 1954 McArthur Falls 56 commenced. 1957 .... Selkirk and Brandon 244 836 1961*** Keh\ey 224 1028 As indicated by the projected load growth curve, plants 1965 Grand Rapids 472 1500 of over 1,000 Mw must be added every five to six years to Kettle Rapids (partially completed) 300 1800 1971 meet the increasing demand in the 1970s. To improve the *Seven Sisters was not completed until 1949. In 1951 the Pinawa Station was abandoned in favour of Seven Sisters. efficiency of these future Nelson plants, works to regulate the uThis date is approximate as the introduction of these stations was a flow of the Nelson from Lake Winnipeg are now under con­ progrcssh·e affair. struction. The Churchill River diversion would dramatically **'"Kelsey was built only to service the town of Thompson and the International :Nickel Company mine and as such did not satisfy the increase the size of the Nelson flows (by about 30%). normal growth of demand in the Southern system. Now, in the 1970s, according to 1vianitoba Hydro, the tThese figures are approximate and do not allow for the commis­ supply of hydro-electric power has reached the lily pond's sioning of indh·idual units except where noted. 29th day of growth, where entire rivers must be developed in a single project to meet the projected demands. The grow geometrically. If we start with two Iiiies the first day, Churchill is the last great river capable of sustaining such four the next, and so forth, by the 30th day of growth lhe growth for even a few years in 1vfanitoba. po~1d surface would be totally covered with pads. On the If the remaining potential of the Nelson River is applied 29th day enough lily pads must grow to co\·er half the pond in only· one day. This is the kind of "need,' that the power developers sfly must be met in the near future. HUDSON BAY :i DEVELOPING HYDRO PO\YER IN ~iANITOBA ·I Th~ slow early growth of power demand in Manitoba, I ' starting over 60 years ago, is analagous to the early days of ·I the pond. As indicated by the projected need (load growth) ! curve for I\fanitoba, the first hydro-electric plants needed to satisfy the demands were small and y;idcly spaced in years. The initial plants were located on the \ \'innipeg River starting with the 28 megawatt (Mw) installation at Pinawa. It was not until the late fifties that all of the a\·ailable drop in the vVinnipcg River had been utilized by the additional six dams listed in Table I. B· the mid-sixties, however, the increments of power needc j to satisfy the demand were in the order of hundreds of Mw, and the installation of new plants took place every few years. The solution to satisfying the geometrically growing demand was to dam the next large river to the north, the Saskatchewan.