N.L. premier, aboriginal leaders make progress after marathon Muskrat Falls meeting
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Indigenous leaders and the Newfoundland and Labrador provincial government came out of a marathon meeting early Wednesday touting significant progress made on the Muskrat Falls project.
Premier Dwight Ball announced in the early hours of the morning that an independent expert advisory committee — made up of provincial, federal, municipal and indigenous groups — will be created to monitor the mutli-billion-dollar hydroelectric project in Labrador and look at ways to reduce possible methylmercury contamination.
The project is upstream from 2,000 Inuit and other residents in the Lake Melville region, and critics are worried about methylmercury contamination if too many trees are left to rot at the bottom of the reservoir when the 41-square-kilometre area is flooded.
The provincial government also is agreeing to consider further clearing of the Muskrat Falls reservoir if needed.