Photo credit: Bill Seeley
Go to your wall. Flick the light off. Flick it on. Amazing stuff.
Where did that electricity come from? Could be from the several nuclear and coal power plants in your state, or perhaps from a wind farm somewhere, but probably not that. If you live on the eastern seaboard, there is a good chance it came from a place very far away to the north, in Canada.
Go get in your car and drive due north. Drive until the trees become short and sparse, and the sky immense. You are now alone on the Route de la Baie James. Continue driving until you need to sleep. Pull over near a truck stop-helicopter landing pad-cafeteria and sleep. Wake up and keep driving. Overhead is a chain of power lines that guide you north. You drive to where the lines and the road terminate. You are have arrived in the town of Radisson, Quebec, 1000 miles north of the U.S border.
Photo Credit: wikipedia.org
Congratulations, you have left planet earth, and are now on planet Hydro Quebec.
Radisson is home to around 500 people most of whom work for Hydro Quebec, a state-controlled power company. Right outside town is a fifty-three storey dam and behind that dam is an inland sea stretching for 1,095 square miles- the Robert-Bourassa Reservoir . The Robert-Bourassa Generating Facility, also known as LG2, maintains a capacity of 5600 megawatts of energy, enough juice for around 5 million homes. Hydro Quebec is helping to keep the lights on in your apartment, many miles away.
What you find around Radisson is simply awe-inspiring. The scale of the infrastructure, the diluvial wake of its construction and the iron clad determinism of it, eclipse all life. The spillway maybe the most jarring and impressive sight in the facility. Acting as a release valve for the dam, the spillway is a colossal series of stairs cut out of the limestone leading from the reservoir back to the river below the dam. Its size is put into perspective when the school bus parked in front of it looks no bigger than a go-cart. The right angles, concrete, wires and giant machines that make up Radisson, frame what feels like a lunar set from Buck Rogers. All of it is found at the end of one road, in the middle of the wilderness.
Photo Credit: wikipedia.org
The project, as with all other large public works, stands as a pure hubris against the landscape. Behind Hydro Quebec is an embolden mission to provide electricity to a growing province that had once envisioned a future separate from the rest of Canada. Former premier Robert Bourassa, a "Canadian New Deal " style populist, initiated the hydro works with his James Bay Project in the 1970's employing thousands and readying the province for a modern era.
Photo Credit: John Lehrman
My notes prior to boarding our plane:
The project, as with all other large public works, stands as a pure hubris against the landscape. Behind Hydro Quebec is an embolden mission to provide electricity to a growing province that had once envisioned a future separate from the rest of Canada. Former premier Robert Bourassa, a "Canadian New Deal " style populist, initiated the hydro works with his James Bay Project in the 1970's employing thousands and readying the province for a modern era.
The on going legacy of the James Bay Project is and will always be defined through its complicated and difficult compact with the Cree and Inuit Nations that live here. Hydro development has brought jobs and financial compensation to the nations. But it is unclear how much these groups have directly benefited from this agreement, especially in relation to what is the incalculable cost of permanently altering their traditional waterways and hunting grounds. These first nations continue to modernize as they take stock in their natural patrimony. In the late 80's and early 90's the Cree took a stand and successfully suspended plans for hydro development on the river and watershed to the north of the La Grande. Those rivers, The Great Whale and The Denys, are among the few intact wild regions in Quebec.
A few years ago, I had the fortune to visit that region with three other companions. It is from Radisson, the seat of the James Bay Project, that the traveler steps off the grid into this land.
I remember waiting at the airport for our plane. I looked around the hanger at the gear and the float planes. This is a place on the edge of something big and challanging. When we met our pilot, I became excited and nervous at the prospect of what lay out there, so separate and beyond.
I remember waiting at the airport for our plane. I looked around the hanger at the gear and the float planes. This is a place on the edge of something big and challanging. When we met our pilot, I became excited and nervous at the prospect of what lay out there, so separate and beyond.
Photo Credit: John Lehrman
My notes prior to boarding our plane:
After a 22 hour car ride we have arrived at Radisson. After visiting the dike and overflow channel we waited for our flight into the bush. As we waited, Jean-Marie of Wamidigi Air told us about his expedition to the South Pole. An experienced pilot and certified bad ass, he regaled us with stories of backcountry danger. He feels even after visiting all the continents of the world and their most extreme locales, Northern Quebec holds the most excitement, expeditions and wonder.
Photo C redit: Bill Seeley
Next Installment: "10 days to the Bay on the footsteps of A.P Low"
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