Standing Waves DAM NEWS
CLOSING TIME Last call on the KIPAWA RIVER
When the last paddler flushed out of Hollywood Rapid and into placid Lake Temiskaming at this year’s Kipawa River Rally, there was good rea- son to think it was the end of a few eras—a 19- year era of increasing numbers of paddlers con- gregating for the rally, and a 12,000-year era of the Kipawa River draining Lake Kipawa. True, paddlers have proclaimed the Kipawa to be at death’s door before, but Peter Karwacki, an Ottawa paddler, engineer and the president of Les Amis de la Rivière Kipawa, believes two distinct forces aligning themselves against the river and the rally are poised to toll a death knell this autumn. The 16-kilometre river drains Quebec’s Lake Kipawa 80 kilometres north of North Bay, Ontario. Many of the river’s 16 named rapids are high-volume and technical. But if Hydro-Québec gets its way, Karwacki says, “All we’ll be left with is a rocky ditch where the river used to be.” Karwacki is referring to the Tabaret project, a $200-million proposal to dig a canal to drain Lake Kipawa, and perhaps eventually the Dumoine River watershed, through a new 132 MW generating station on Lake Temiskaming. Hydro-Québec is waiting for the green light from Quebec’s Ministry of Natural Resources, which Karwacki says could come as early as October. If it goes ahead, the project would mean the diversion of 80 per cent of the Kipawa River. But the worries of Kipawa paddlers don’t
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Even if the plan goes ahead, construction would take a few years and Karwacki is hopeful that Les Amis could negotiate at least some water releases for paddling the river. However, the federally-owned Laniel dam at the top of the river was built in 1909 and is scheduled to be replaced starting this fall. The new design concerns Karwacki because all five control gates are proposed to be bottom-release gates. He says the running of the Laniel flood- control sluiceway, and with it the running of the Kipawa from top to bottom, could be a thing of the past.
Karwacki is petitioning the federal Ministry of
Transport to ensure that the new structure is in some way navigable. “Minister Lapierre has an obligation, accord- ing to the Navigable Waterways Protection Act, to ensure that river remains navigable,” says Karwacki.
He admits it is difficult fighting the federal gov-
ernment and Hydro-Québec, a $60-billion-dollar behemoth. At the very least, he is hoping for a navigable channel at Laniel and scheduled releases should Hydro-Québec receive its cus- tomary acquiescent nod from the province. If those negotiations fail, Karwacki warns, “We’ll have to pursue them through the courts. We’re going to come after them like a swarm of hornets.” — Ian Merringer
Hollywood Rapid … Photo ROBERT FAUBERT
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