{"id":66283,"date":"2024-04-18T09:41:44","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T13:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/?page_id=66283"},"modified":"2024-04-23T16:12:36","modified_gmt":"2024-04-23T20:12:36","slug":"25-rivieres-sauvages-nunavik","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/25-rivieres-sauvages-nunavik\/","title":{"rendered":"25 rivi\u00e8res sauvages menac\u00e9es – Nunavik"},"content":{"rendered":"
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25 large wild rivers under threat<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Nunavik's last great wild rivers <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Endangered Rivers: Arnaud, Aux Feuilles, Aux M\u00e9l\u00e8zes, Koaksoak, \u00c0 la Baleine, Georges, De Povungnituk, Innuksuac, Nastapoka, Petite rivi\u00e8re de la Baleine and Grande rivi\u00e8re de la Baleine<\/span><\/i><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The permafrost time bomb<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The rivers in Nunavik have very high flows, but low gradients. As a result, huge swathes of territory would have to be flooded if we wanted to obtain enough power to make it worthwhile. A perverse effect of such flooding would be to accelerate the thawing process of the permafrost, which contains a lot of frozen organic matter. Once thawed and released into the atmosphere, this matter would be released in the form of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. It's the equivalent of a veritable <\/span>climate bomb<\/span><\/a>. It would be completely irresponsible to consider the development of such areas, which could accelerate the release of very large quantities of greenhouse gases in the event of flooding.<\/span><\/p>

What's more, it would be exorbitantly expensive to get there, given the great distance and lack of road access. For example, the Georges River is a 9.40-hour flight from Montreal, and presents a major logistical challenge; all equipment would have to be transported by boat.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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The Koksoak River meanders through the Arctic tundra, amid rocky, treeless peaks dotted with moss and lichen. Its river basin is covered by permafrost. - Photo credit: David D\u00e9silets<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tTake action to protect our last great wild rivers\t\t\t\t\t<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tTell your elected representatives that you care about river protection\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Rivi\u00e8re Nastapoka and Rivi\u00e8re \u00e0 la Baleine: unique in the world<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Nastapoka River<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec once wanted to divert the exceptional Nastapoka River, which runs 402 km and constitutes <\/span>one of the largest rivers in Northern Quebec, with a watershed covering 13,400 km<\/span>2. <\/span>This river, t<\/span>ributary on the east coast of <\/span>Hudson Bay, was<\/span><\/a> be diverted <\/span>to James Bay's Grande-Baleine River, a project abandoned in 1994 in the process of creating the <\/span>National Park <\/span>Tursujuq<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>This <\/span>habitat is unique<\/span><\/a> in the world, home to beluga whales, freshwater seals and Atlantic salmon at its mouth.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rivi\u00e8re \u00e0 la Baleine is also exceptional. <\/span>It is a tributary of the southern shore of Ungava Bay. <\/span>Naniwau Sipi<\/span><\/a>or Naniwausipi, is the Naskapi name for the Whale River. <\/span>Qikirtajuaq Island, 17.3 km long, obstructs the mouth of the Rivi\u00e8re \u00e0 la Baleine, extending up to 20.2 km at low tide due to its long beaches. <\/span>At its mouth is a summer concentration area for beluga whales. Protecting this river is a matter of course, given its great ecological value. <\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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The Battle of the Cree<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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We have\u00a0already flooded vast territories<\/a>\u00a0and Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec's last attempt to build a hydroelectric plant there, the Grande-Baleine project, was cancelled in 1994.\u00a0in the face of opposition from Cree and Inuit villagers<\/a>. Fort de\u00a0la paix des Braves<\/a>signed between Quebec and the Grand Council of the Crees in 2002, the Grand Council of the Crees launched a $4.7 billion, 30-year economic development plan in 2020.\u00a0The Grand Alliance<\/a>. This is a nation-to-nation agreement for the planning and execution of a 30-year infrastructure program to potentially extend the transportation network (rail, road, port and airport), improve living standards (housing, electricity and Internet) and ensure long-term protection of the territory (protected areas). The project is the subject of debate within the community, with the Eeyou Istchee Youth Council expressing concern that the project would not provide a fair and equitable opportunity for young people to participate in community life.\u00a0fairly extensive protection of the territory<\/a>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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List of Nunavik's threatened wild rivers<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n <\/colgroup>\n \n\n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n
Name of the river<\/th>Modulus flow (m3\/s)<\/th>Length (km)<\/th>Height difference (m)<\/th>Catchment area (km2)<\/th>Potential MW* (in MW)<\/th><\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Koaksoak<\/td>2096<\/td>134<\/td>15<\/td>137010<\/td><\/td> <\/tr>\n
George<\/td>871<\/td>475<\/td>463<\/td>41699<\/td>3100<\/td> <\/tr>\n
Baleine (Grande riv. de la)<\/td>701<\/td>418<\/td>427<\/td>42735<\/td>3000<\/td> <\/tr>\n
Baleine (\u00e0 la)<\/td>589<\/td>400<\/td>600<\/td>31857<\/td>1100<\/td> <\/tr>\n
Arnaud (Payne) and Pelletier (Hamelin)<\/td>568<\/td>262<\/td>158<\/td>49469<\/td>460<\/td> <\/tr>\n
Leaves<\/td>556<\/td>386<\/td>183<\/td>42476<\/td>700<\/td> <\/tr>\n
Decoumte (Povungnituk 0973)<\/td>149<\/td>290<\/td>378<\/td>13701<\/td><\/td> <\/tr>\n
Innuksuac<\/td>102<\/td>396<\/td>236<\/td>10280<\/td><\/td> <\/tr>\n
Larch (aux)<\/td>654<\/td>272<\/td>258<\/td>42735<\/td>380<\/td> <\/tr>\n
Nastapoka<\/td>175<\/td>402<\/td>366<\/td>13364<\/td>500<\/td> <\/tr>\n
Petite riv. \u00e0 la Baleine<\/td>225<\/td>290<\/td>427<\/td>15851<\/td>670<\/td> <\/tr>\n <\/tbody>\n <\/table>\n \n \n \n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Les rivi\u00e8res sauvages qui se trouvent au Nunavik ont un tr\u00e8s grand d\u00e9bit, mais un d\u00e9nivel\u00e9 faible. En cons\u00e9quence, il faudrait inonder d\u2019immenses portions de territoire si on souhaite obtenir suffisamment de puissance pour que \u00e7a vaille la peine. Ces inondations auraient un effet pervers, celui d\u2019acc\u00e9l\u00e9rer le processus de d\u00e9gel du perg\u00e9lisol qui contient beaucoup de mati\u00e8re organique gel\u00e9e. Une fois d\u00e9congel\u00e9e et lib\u00e9r\u00e9e dans l\u2019atmosph\u00e8re, cette mati\u00e8re se d\u00e9gagerait sous la forme de m\u00e9thane, un puissant gaz \u00e0 effet de serre. C\u2019est l\u2019\u00e9quivalent d\u2019une v\u00e9ritable bombe climatique. Il serait compl\u00e8tement irresponsable de consid\u00e9rer le d\u00e9veloppement de telles zones, qui pourrait acc\u00e9l\u00e9rer la lib\u00e9ration de tr\u00e8s importantes quantit\u00e9s de gaz \u00e0 effet de serre en cas d’inondations.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":66250,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-66283","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/66283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66283"}],"version-history":[{"count":85,"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/66283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67242,"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/66283\/revisions\/67242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}