Spring 2007
Hydro-electric Projects Planned
on the Namakan River

Damming waters in the Rainy River Basin isn’t just the stuff of history.

Three planned hydro-electric projects on the Namakan River in Ontario show that the book on dams in the area didn’t close with the last pages of R. Newell Searle’s Saving Quetico Superior: A Land Set Apart.

Ojibway Power and Energy Group (OPEG), a partnership of the Lac La Croix First Nation and Chant Construction of Aurora, Ontario, hopes to build two dams on the Namakan River at High Falls and Hay Rapids, just west of Quetico Provincial Park. The projects, which OPEG hopes to follow later with a third installation at Myrtle Falls, are slated to produce 9.6 megawatts of power. OPEG hopes to complete the two initial projects by December 2009.

The proposed facilities would be “run of the river” operations, which would not involve large reservoirs or widely fluctuating seasonal water levels. According to documents filed by OPEG, the High Falls facility would include a 1.2 meter-high weir, a spillway, and a powerhouse at the crest of High Falls. Bill Lake would serve as a natural head pond and any change in river elevation would be contained below Quetico Rapids, located 2,500 meters upstream. A 2.2 kilometer transmission line would extend to the south to an existing line.

The Hay Rapids facility would include two 1.5 meter high “rubber-dam” weirs at the upstream crest of Hay Rapids, using Little Eva Lake as the head pond. An excavated intake channel would divert water to the powerhouse. The powerhouse would be constructed south of the rapids with the powerhouse tailrace situated near the bottom of the last rapids. A 1.4 kilometer transmission line would extend to the south to the existing line.

The projects come in response to the Ontario government’s call for increasing the share of renewable energy production in the province by 10 percent by 2010. The plan is also hailed by supporters for its economic benefits for the nearby Lac La Croix First Nation.

The Rainy Lake Conservancy, a critic of the proposal, acknowledges the need “to generate clean energy and to help first nations communities improve their quality of life through economic partnerships,” but is concerned about the environmental impact of the project on the area.

The Conservancy, in a letter to Ontario Minister of Natural Resources David Ramsay, called for inventories of the river ecosystem’s flora, fauna, and forest composition, studies to track the movement of sturgeon and other fish in the system, and an independent environmental assessment of the projects.

The Conservancy also pushed for a more comp-prehensive approach to renewable energy production in the province which would consider other renewable sources as well as weighing the benefits to the region of the river remaining in its present state versus the benefits of its being harnessed for electricity.

The projects are currently in the Ontario Ministry of the Environment’s Environmental Screening Process. You may address concerns and comments to the Honourable David Ramsay, Minister of Natural Resoures, Room 5540 Whitney Block, 9 Wellesley Street West, Toronto, ON M7A 1W3.