Caniapiscau Reservoir

Caniapiscau reservoir ; Réservoir de Caniapiscau
	Panorama view of the Caniapiscau reservoir
Location:	Côte-Nord , Québec (Canada)
Tributaries:	Rivière René-Lévesque
Drain:	Rivière Laforge → La Grande Rivière and ; Rivière Caniapiscau → Rivière Koksoak
	Quebec , Canada
Coordinates	54 ° 10 ′ 0 ″ N , 69 ° 50 ′ 0 ″ W Coordinates: 54 ° 10 ′ 0 ″ N , 69 ° 50 ′ 0 ″ W.
	Data on the structure
Construction time:	1976-1981 / 85
Height above foundation level :	56 m
Building volume:	11.654 million m³
Crown length:	3 333 m
Operator:	Hydro Quebec
	Data on the reservoir
Altitude (at congestion destination )	535 m
Water surface	4th 318 km²
Storage space	53,790 million m³
Catchment area	36 800 km²
Design flood :	3 681 m³ / s

The Caniapiscau Reservoir ( French Réservoir de Caniapiscau ) is a reservoir in the Canadian province of Quebec , in the regional county municipality of Caniapiscau in the administrative region of Côte-Nord . With an area of 4,318 km², it is the largest stagnant body of water in Québec and the second largest reservoir in Canada. The reservoir is located on the (former) upper reaches of the Rivière Caniapiscau (the river above the reservoir was renamed Rivière René-Lévesque ). Construction work on the dam began in 1981 and was completed in 1984. The reservoir forms part of the Baie James hydropower project run by the state-owned utility Hydro-Québec .

history

The natural lakes in this region formed around 9,000 years ago when the glaciers that had abraded the Canadian shield for 90,000 years retreated. The lakes were created by the damming of ice dams and were drained southward into the Gulf of St. Lawrence as long as the northern areas ( Nunavik ) were still glaciated. When the southern part of the Canadian shield rose faster than the northern part as a result of the post-glacial uplift , the water began to flow north into the Rivière Caniapiscau and from there into the Rivière Koksoak and finally into the Ungava Bay .

Before the flooding, Lac Caniapiscau covered an area of 470 km². In the 19th century, hunters and fur traders regularly visited the lake. In 1834 the Hudson's Bay Company opened the Kaniapiskau Outpost to connect its facilities in the James Bay area with those in Ungava Bay. However, in 1870 she closed the outpost.

The name of the lake comes from the Cree expression kaniapiskau or kaneapiskak , which can be translated as "rocky place" or "place with a rocky place". The geologist Albert Peter Low had noticed in 1895 that "a high rocky headland protrudes into the lake". He was probably referring to a peninsula facing northwest, which gives today's reservoir its arc shape.

In October 1981, the Société d'Énergie de la Baie James (a subsidiary of Hydro-Québec) began building the dams for the Caniapiscau reservoir. The damming lasted until August 1984. Numerous smaller lakes such as Lac Caniapiscau, Lac Delorme, Lac Brisay, Lac Tournon and Lac Vermouille were flooded. The project was part of the 16 billion CAD expensive development project Complexe La Grande, Phase 1 .

description

The reservoir covers 4318 km², an area about four times the size of the natural lakes that were flooded, with a length of the shoreline of 4850 km. This makes the Caniapiscau reservoir the tenth largest artificial lake on earth. It lies in a depression in the highest part of the Canadian Shield . The catchment area is approximately 36,800 km². The water level fluctuates depending on the season by 12.9 meters. The greatest depth of the lake is 49 m, the average retention time of the water in the reservoir 2.2 years.

Since August 1985, a large part of the water has been directed westward from the Ouvrage régulateur Brisay control structure into the Rivière Laforge , which belongs to the catchment area of La Grande Rivière . There are several large hydropower plants that are also fed by other rivers. Since the Caniapiscau reservoir is the highest reservoir, it regulates the entire complex as an annual and multi-year reservoir. The Brisay hydropower plant, which has been in operation since 1993, was built on a receiving waterway at the western end of the reservoir .

Excess water is discharged into the Rivière Caniapiscau via the Duplanter flood relief . The capacity of the flood relief of the dam is given as 3681 m³ / s. It consists of two openings on the northern side of the reservoir on the western arm of the river. The openings are 12 meters wide and 16.5 meters high.

Surroundings

The Caniapiscau Reservoir lies in a zone of discontinuous permafrost . The area around the reservoir is completely covered by boreal coniferous forest. Characteristic are the widely spaced black spruce trees and a dense layer of yellow-gray lichen , interspersed with moors and swamps.

Usually the area can only be reached by small aircraft. The Route Transtaïga has existed since 1981 , a gravel road leading to the Route de la Baie James, over 600 kilometers in length, which connects several hydropower plants. At the end of this street at the Duplanter flood relief is the former Camp Caniapiscau of the Société d'Énergie de la Baie James . From 1977 there were accommodations there for the workers who worked on the dam. Otherwise there is no human settlement in the vicinity of the reservoir, apart from some seasonal facilities for hunters and anglers.

literature

Gaëtan Hayeur: Summary of Knowledge Acquired in Northern Environments from 1970 to 2000. Hydro-Québec, Montreal 2001.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c Reservoir de Caniapiscau. Commission de toponymie du Québec, accessed on March 22, 2012 (French).
^ Ouvrage régulateur Brisay. Commission de toponymie du Québec, accessed on March 22, 2012 (French).
↑ Central Brisay. Commission de toponymie du Québec, accessed on March 22, 2012 (French).

[caniapiscau-1] Reservoir de Caniapiscau. Commission de toponymie du Québec, accessed on March 22, 2012 (French).

[2] Ouvrage régulateur Brisay. Commission de toponymie du Québec, accessed on March 22, 2012 (French).

[3] Central Brisay. Commission de toponymie du Québec, accessed on March 22, 2012 (French).