River Churchill (Hudson Bay)

See also: Churchill

The river Churchill crosses the Saskatchewan and the Manitoba, Canada, and pours its water in the Hudson Bay. Long of 1 600 km, Churchill run in a series of big lakes (Churchill, Highrock, Granville, Southern Indian and Grauer) to town of Churchill, on Western bank of Hudson Bay. Its natural area catchment extends on 283 000 km ² and his medium flow, amputee of 60% of his volume by the hydroelectric development, rises now to 510 m ³ /s with his mouth.

The river, known by the Cries of the area like the Missinippi (" large rivière" in language shouts), bears the name Churchill since the beginning of the XVIIIe century in honor of the former governor of the Compagnie of Hudson Bay, John Churchill. The members of the Nation Shouts Mathias Colomb , established in Pukatawagan, close to the border with Saskatchewan, are also known like the Cris of Missinippi . Their ancestors lived along the river, of the Pukatawagan village to the modern city of Churchill.

Since 1977, the major part of water of Churchill is derived towards the hydroelectric complex from the river Nelson, to approximately 150 km in the south. The flow with the mouth of Churchill thus passed from 1 270 m ³ /s with envron 510 m ³ /s and the Nelson river receive some 760 m ³ /s lake Southern Indian, which was raised of approximately 3 meters, via diversion canals binding the lake to the Burntwood river. An ecological flow from 14 to 43 m ³ /s is maintained in any time by the company of State Manitoba to the Missi stopping, with the site of old the old natural discharge system of the lake Southern Indian.

The preliminary draft of Manitoba Hydro envisaged to raise the lake Southern Indian (surface: 2 000 km ²) of 10,6 meters, but that would have required the displacement of the village Southern Indian Lake of the Nation shouts O-Pipon-Na-Piwin and the project was finally isolated. The diversion canal and the levels created also involved the flood of the grounds of the Nation shouts Nisichawayasihk with Nelson House, on the Burntwood river, to some 80 km in the west of the town of Thompson.

References

Dérivation of the river Churchill (site of Hydro-Manitoba)
Canadian Encyclopédie (toponymy)
Cris of Missinippi (profile of the Nation Shouts of Pukatawagan)
Nation Shouts Nisichawayasihk (impact of the derivation of the Churchill river)

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