Hydro-electric
power plants have many environmental impacts, some of
which are just beginning to be understood. These impacts,
however, must be weighed against the environmental impacts
of alternative sources of electricity. Until recently
there was an almost universal belief that hydro power
was a clean and environmentally safe method of producing
electricity. Hydro-electric power plants do not emit
any of the standard atmospheric pollutants such as carbon
dioxide or sulfur dioxide given off by fossil fuel fired
power plants. In this respect, hydro power is better
than burning coal, oil or natural gas to produce electricity,
as it does not contribute to global warming or acid rain.
Similarly, hydro-electric power plants do not result
in the risks of radioactive contamination associated
with nuclear power plants.
A few recent studies of large reservoirs created behind hydro dams
have suggested that decaying vegetation, submerged by flooding, may
give off quantities of greenhouse gases equivalent to those from other
sources of electricity. If this turns out to be true, hydro-electric
facilities such as the James Bay project in Quebec that flood large
areas of land might be significant contributors to global warming.
Run of the river hydro plants without dams and reservoirs would not
be a source of these greenhouse gases. The most obvious impact of hydro-electric
dams is the flooding of vast areas of land, much of it previously forested
or used for agriculture. The size of reservoirs created can be extremely
large. The La Grande project in the James Bay region of Quebec has
already submerged over 10,000 square kilometers of land; and if future
plans are carried out, the eventual area of flooding in northern Quebec
will be larger than the country of Switzerland. Reservoirs can be used
for ensuring adequate water supplies, providing irrigation, and recreation;
but in several cases they have flooded the homelands of native peoples,
whose way of life has then been destroyed. Many rare ecosystems are
also threatened by hydro-electric development. Large dams and reservoirs
can have other impacts on a watershed. Damming a river can alter the
amount and quality of water in the river downstream of the dam, as
well as preventing fish from migrating upstream to spawn.
These impacts can be reduced by requiring minimum flows downstream
of a dam, and by creating fish ladders which allow fish to move upstream
past the dam. Silt, normally carried downstream to the lower reaches
of a river, is trapped by a dam and deposited on the bed of the reservoir.
This silt can slowly fill up a reservoir, decreasing the amount of
water which can be stored and used for electrical generation. The river
downstream of the dam is also deprived of silt which fertilizes the
river's flood-plain during high water periods. Bacteria present in
decaying vegetation can also change mercury, present in rocks underlying
a reservoir, into a form which is soluble in water. The mercury accumulates
in the bodies of fish and poses a health hazard to those who depend
on these fish for food. The water quality of many reservoirs also poses
a health hazard due to new forms of bacteria which grow in many of
the hydro rivers. Therefore, run of the river type hydro plants generally
have a smaller impact on the environment.
