Twenty-five years after construction started on the dams, residents of Chisasibi met with Hydro-Quebec for the first time to talk about the safety of the dams.

Elders had questions about the land and the rivers. They asked what would happen if a dam ruptured. How much time does the community have to evacuate?

Margaret Fireman, deputy chief, called the meeting “reassuring.”

“They never came to our community to give information sessions on anything (before),” she said. “We don’t want to worry people, but at the same time we have to be prepared. It makes people more aware. It’s the not knowing.”

About 60 Chisasibi residents attended the invitation-only meeting, many expecting to see an evacuation plan. There was disappointment when Hydro produced only a safety report. The Cree Regional Authority had already received most of this report last summer.

Hydro-Quebec says it can’t release any evacuation plans for the moment. An evacuation plan can’t be prepared only by HQ, the utility says. Chisasibi, the feds and the Quebec government must be involved.

One of the Hydro officials said the evacuation plan is being updated. He promised that it will be released to the community.

Hydro has possessed an evacuation study has existed for 10 years, according to a letter from Hydro-Quebec received by The Nation on August 11.

“A study was completed in 1989 of the possible rupture of the dams in the LG-2 reservoir (for the community of Chisasibi),” says the letter from Francine Beaudry, Hydro’s chief of corporate affairs.

“On the other hand, there does not exist such a study for the EOL diversion (for the community of Eastmain). This is foreseen for 1998.”

The Nation asked for the 1989 emergency plan and safety reports from Hydro-Quebec under the Access to Information Act. Hydro rejected our request, so we appealed to the Access Commission.

The Grand Council of the Crees decided at the last minute not to intervene and pulled a lawyer who had been assigned to the case. Without the lawyer, a postponement had to be requested. The hearing was postponed from Feb. 13 to June 1.

Chisasibi Chief Charles Bobbish said the band doesn’t want to spread p^nic in the community with misleading inrormation. He will request more information from Hydro-Quebec himself.

But Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come said the courts may be the only way to get any information out of the utility. “How many documents have we asked for from Hydro-Quebec? They’ll only release what they think you should see,” he said.

“There was always a concern about what would happen if the dam breaks. Who wouldn’t be concerned?”

The NASA Files Cont’d…

Chisasibi residents also asked Hydro officials about the mysterious NASA facility at LG-1. Residents were surprised when a Hydro official said NASA was not there: “They never came up here.”

What could it all mean? Do we have to put the photo in again?