METHYLMERCURY - Muskrat Falls Dam & beyond . . .

METHYLMERCURY - Muskrat Falls Dam & beyond . . .

Postby Oscar » Sun Jan 15, 2017 9:45 am

Land protectors shut down government office in Labrador

[ http://theindependent.ca/2017/01/13/lan ... -labrador/ ]

By: Justin Brake | January 13, 2017

EXCERPT

On Monday a group of about 20 land protectors occupied the same government office for about three hours and demanded Trimper’s resignation and the resignation of Premier Ball as minister of Labrador and Aboriginal affairs.

The two ministers who like to call this office home, who are never here, they have not listened to our demands. — Land Protector Denise Cole

Cole said in a live stream of Friday morning’s protest that government never responded to the land protectors, who have maintained throughout the ongoing protests that they are acting in self-defense to protect their traditional food supply and way of life.

In September and October hundreds of Innu, Inuit and settler Labradorians united in an attempt to halt Muskrat Falls before the first phase of reservoir flooding began because, they have said, the government did not adequately address the projections outlined in a peer-reviewed scientific study that flooding the dam’s reservoir would poison fish, seals and other country foods Indigenous people have depended on in the region for thousands of years.

The study projected increases in methylmercury in the downstream Lake Melville estuary, where thousands of people harvest food in a northern region where grocery prices are high and where hunting, trapping and fishing are crucial practices to locals’ Indigenous and Labrador identities.

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Not just Muskrat Falls: Harvard study identifies higher health risk in 11 other hydro projects (See MAP)

[ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundl ... -1.2879212 ]

Muskrat Falls not the only concern when it comes to methylmercury, according to paper published Wednesday

By Marilyn Boone, CBC News Posted: Nov 09, 2016 11:21 AM NT| Last Updated: Nov 09, 2016 6:25 PM NT

Muskrat Falls is just one of nearly two dozen hydro projects that will increase methylmercury levels and put Indigenous people at risk, according to a Harvard study published Wednesday.

Muskrat Falls is just one of nearly two dozen hydro projects that will increase methylmercury levels and put Indigenous people at risk, according to a Harvard study published Wednesday. (Nalcor Energy)

A scientific paper published Wednesday by researchers at Harvard University says 11 other proposed hydroelectric sites in Canada would have even higher levels of methylmercury than Muskrat Falls in Labrador.

The paper, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, is based on research carried out between 2012 and 2015 on samples of organic material taken from the Lake Melville area, and country food eaten in the region.

MAP: Harvard hydro electric sites - A map from the Harvard study shows planned hydroprojects across the country, including one at Muskrat Falls, Labrador. (Harvard University)

The research involved hundreds of Inuit people living downstream of the controversial hydro project — in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, North West River and Rigolet — who provided hair samples for testing and answered questions about their daily diet.

The Harvard team concluded that, on average, exposure to methylmercury will double after flooding for the Muskrat Falls project, and that people who eat locally-caught wildlife nearly every day — especially river fish — are at highest risk.

It said projected increases are greatest in Rigolet, where people eat the most trout, seal, birds and other wildlife, with over half the women of childbearing age and young children projected to exceed levels approved by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

MORE:

[ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundl ... -1.2879212 ]


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Poison in Arctic and human cost of ‘clean’ energy

[ http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2 ... an-energy/ ]

Hydroelectric energy may be more damaging to northern ecosystems than climate change

September 7, 2015 | Editor's Pick

EXCERPT:

To mitigate global warming, many governments are turning to hydroelectric power. But, the research also suggests that methylmercury concentrations from flooding for hydroelectric development will be far greater than those expected from climate change.

The research, published in PNAS, began as a review of the environmental impact assessment for the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric dam in Labrador, Canada. In 2017, the dam will flood a large region upstream from an estuarine fjord called Lake Melville.

The communities along the shores of Lake Melville are predominantly Indigenous and rely on the lake as a primary source of food. One of these communities — and two-thirds of Lake Melville — is part of Nunatsiavut, the first autonomous region in Canada governed by Inuit. When the impact report predicted no adverse downstream effects on Lake Melville, the Nunatsiavut Government reached out to Elsie Sunderland, associate professor of environmental engineering and environmental health, for help.

Four years later, that initial review has morphed into a multi-pronged investigation that has led to important scientific discoveries about how methylmercury accumulates in the ecosystem and how it will impact communities who rely on the ecosystem for food and resources.
Oscar
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