Power from the North: Territory, Identity, and the Culture of Hydroelectricity in Quebec

摘要

In 1971 Quebec premier Robert Bourassa announced a massive hydroelectric development on the La Grande River that flowed into the eastern side of James Bay. Over the next fifteen years, a series of dams diverted the waters of the Eastmain and Opinaca Rivers from the south and the Caniapiscau from the northeast to create a watershed of over 175,000 square kilometers that included five large reservoirs covering over 11,000 square kilometers, doubling the La Grande's flow to allow production of 10,800 megawatts of electricity at stations named LG-2, LG-3, and LG-4. Five 735-kilovolt transmission lines carried the power southward to the Hydro-Quebec grid and created a surplus of 450 kilovolts that could be sold to the northeastern United States. Later LG-1, a great run-of-the-river station, was built near the mouth of the La Grande. The most monumental features of the project, blasted out of the granite of the Shield, were the huge "Underground Cathedral" machine room at LG-2, five football fields long, and the great twelve-step "Giant's Staircase" spillway to carry away the surplus water. The very size and grandeur of these structures seemed to speak of pharaonic ambitions.