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The Eastmain River, formerly written East Main, is a
A further hydroelectric project on the upper Eastmain River was under construction in 2005. The project was part of the original hydroelectric project provided for by the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement of 1975. The Eastmain Reservoir will eventually have a surface area of about , and the Eastmain-1 power plant will generate a maximum of 900 MW.
river
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of ...
in west central Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...
. It rises in central Quebec and flows west to James Bay
James Bay (french: Baie James; cr, ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, Wînipekw, dirty water) is a large body of water located on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. Both bodies of water extend from the Arctic Ocean, of which James Bay is the southernmost p ...
, draining an area of . The First Nations Cree
The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations.
In Canada, over 350,000 people are Cree o ...
village of Eastmain
Eastmain ( ; cr, ᐄᔅᒣᐃᓐ/Îsmein) is a Cree community located on east coast of James Bay at the mouth of the Eastmain River, Quebec, Canada. It is a small coastal Cree village with a population of 924 people in the 2021 Canadian Censu ...
is located beside the mouth.
Name
Eastmain is acompounding
In the field of pharmacy, compounding (performed in compounding pharmacies) is preparation of a custom formulation of a medication to fit a unique need of a patient that cannot be met with commercially available products. This may be done for me ...
of the river's former name East Main, which was taken from the former Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...
outpost at its mouth, which controlled the its operations in the East Main District on the eastern side of James Bay
James Bay (french: Baie James; cr, ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, Wînipekw, dirty water) is a large body of water located on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. Both bodies of water extend from the Arctic Ocean, of which James Bay is the southernmost p ...
.
Geography
Since the late 1980s, most of the waters of the Eastmain River have been diverted and flow northwards through the Opinaca Reservoir, with a surface area of about , and into the Robert-Bourassa Reservoir ofHydro-Québec
Hydro-Québec is a public utility that manages the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in the Canadian province of Quebec, as well as the export of power to portions of the Northeast United States.
It was established by t ...
's La Grande Complex. The remainder of the Eastmain River contains only about 10 percent of the volume of its former flow, and is now subject to freeze-up in winter (see photo). These changes have affected the Cree
The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations.
In Canada, over 350,000 people are Cree o ...
and Inuit
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territorie ...
peoples who live along the Eastmain River and James Bay coast.
A further hydroelectric project on the upper Eastmain River was under construction in 2005. The project was part of the original hydroelectric project provided for by the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement of 1975. The Eastmain Reservoir will eventually have a surface area of about , and the Eastmain-1 power plant will generate a maximum of 900 MW.
History
The mouth of the Eastmain was a centre of the Hudson Bay Company fur trade. Charles Bayly reached it from Rupert House in the 1670s. After Rupert House was destroyed in 1686, the area was visited by a ship fromYork Factory
York Factory was a settlement and Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) factory (trading post) located on the southwestern shore of Hudson Bay in northeastern Manitoba, Canada, at the mouth of the Hayes River, approximately south-southeast of Churchill. ...
. In 1723 to 1724, Joseph Myatt of the Hudson's Bay Company built a post.Arthur S Morton, ''A History of the Canadian West to 1870-71'', no date, circa 1950
See also
* Centrale Eastmain-1 *James Bay Project
The James Bay Project (french: projet de la Baie-James) refers to the construction of a series of hydroelectric power stations on the La Grande River in northwestern Quebec, Canada by state-owned utility Hydro-Québec, and the diversion of neighb ...
*Jamésie
Jamésie is a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (TE) of Nord-du-Québec, Canada.
Its geographical code is 991 and together with Kativik TE and Eeyou Istchee TE it forms the administrative région and census division (CD) ...
*List of rivers of Quebec
This is a list of rivers of Quebec. Quebec has about:
*one million lakes of which 62279 have a toponymic designation (a name), plus 218 artificial lakes;
*15228 watercourses with an official toponymic designation, including 12094 streams and 3134 ...
* List of longest rivers of Canada
References
Rivers of Nord-du-Québec James Bay Project Tributaries of James Bay {{Quebec-river-stub