Environmental follow-up of activities and projects

An environmental follow-up has three objectives: to assess the real impacts of an activity or project, to compare them with the anticipated impacts, and to evaluate the effectiveness of mitigation and enhancement measures.

Listed below are some of the areas addressed by environmental follow-up programs implemented for recent projects.

  • Aquatic wildlife
  • Avian wildlife
  • Economic and sociocultural aspects
  • Hydrology and hydraulics
  • Ice monitoring
  • Land use
  • Mercury
  • Navigation
  • Recreation and tourism
  • Sedimentology
  • Terrestrial wildlife
  • Thermal regime
  • Vegetation
  • Water quality

Environmental follow-ups are part of every phase of a project. To continuously improve environmental impact assessments, the lessons learned from following up on previous projects need to be incorporated as early as possible in the process.

Hydro-Québec, Société d'énergie de la Baie James and Hydro-Québec Équipement et services partagés have been working together for over three decades to maintain and take measures at the stations that make up the Environmental Monitoring Network (EMN). This network covers several of Hydro-Québec's hydropower complexes, including the Baie James and Côte-Nord regions. The stations were set up in key locations to monitor changes in the modified aquatic environments.

Environmental follow-up program in the project cycle, from planning to operation
Environmental follow-up program in the project cycle, from planning to operation.

Objectives of the Environmental Monitoring Network:

  • Monitor changes in the physical and biological parameters of aquatic environments.
  • Monitor changes in the main wildlife species in the area and their habitats.
  • Monitor changes in components of the human environment:
    • land use
    • hunting and fishing
    • economic and sociocultural aspects
    • impacts on isolated communities related to building new access roads

Environmental follow-up at the La Grande complex

To date, environmental monitoring at the La Grande complex remains a long-term follow-up program rich in lessons and teachings. This section provides the bibliographic references for summary technical reports and their abstracts.