Iqaluit (Jun 26/06) - Qulliq Energy has launched its study of five watercourses around Iqaluit to help the utility decide where a proposed hydroelectric dam will go.

Consulting firm Knight Pieshold of Vancouver is contracted to carry out the study, and crews are travelling to sites around the capital by helicopter.

Qulliq Energy vice-president Jamie Flaherty inspects a hydroelectric dam during a trip to Greenland in February. Qulliq has narrowed the number of rivers it's looking at near Iqaluit for a similar project to five. - NNSL file photo

Researchers will check water flow and fish and bird habitat and numbers in each river system to determine the environmental impact of a hydroelectric dam.

According to documents obtained by News/North, the watercourses are the Armshow River, the McKeand River, and three unnamed rivers that flow into Jaynes Inlet, Cantley Bay and Anna Maria Port.

The Armshow River flows through Katannilik Territorial Park. Qulliq spokeswoman Yasmina Pepa wouldn't rule out the Armshow as a site for the dam, but said the company isn't close to a final decision on the project.

"It's too soon (to say)," she said. "You need a lot more data to figure that out."

Qulliq also has to conduct land use and Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ) studies before it can win any approvals from the Nunavut Impact Review Board.

The company has already begun to interview elders and hunters in Kimmirut and Pangnirtung, where hunting grounds could be affected depending on which river Qulliq chooses to dam.

"It's a big project so we want to have people understand," Pepa said.

Qulliq president Jamie Flaherty has said the project will not "get in the way of cultural use" of rivers.

Qulliq is looking to produce between four and 30 megawatt hours of electricity to supply booming energy demand in the capital and cut diesel costs. Earlier this month, Energy Minister Ed Picco said the government could save 13 million litres of diesel with a hydroelectric dam.

The environmental studies on the five rivers is expected to wrap up in mid-October. Qulliq would then choose the one or two best sites for further study.

Calls to area hunters and trappers groups weren't returned by deadline.

- with files from John Curran