A front-page story in today’s Ottawa Citizen reports that the Montreal Economic Institute is proposing a plan “to allow $20 billion in annual water sales to the US” in a new paper titled ‘Northern Waters: A realistic, sustainable and profitable plan to exploit Quebec’s blue gold’.
Stating that “(northern) Quebec gets rid of 40,000 cubic metres of fresh water each second” into the Arctic Ocean, the proposal’s author “(Pierre) Gingras said Quebec would need to build six pumping stations to bring water uphill, south along the Bell River, ending up in Val d’Or. From there it would be pumped overland to the upper Ottawa River, which begins in Quebec and flows west to the Ontario border before turning south to Lake Timiskaming.”
“The plan to export water south from the upper lakes such as Michigan and Huron would be taking water from above the level of Niagara Falls. The St. Lawrence, where the proposed new water supply would arrive, is hundreds of feet lower in elevation, and thousands of kilometres away.”
“(The) plan has been sent to Hydro-Québec and the federal and provincial governments, but with no response so far.”
“Environmentalists have not been persuaded the plan is ecologically benign” and it has been criticized by Great Lakes United and Ottawa Riverkeeper Meredith Brown.
The full article is at http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Massive+water+plan+involves+Ottawa+River/2052465/story.html.
