Eastmain River

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The Eastmain River, formerly written East Main, is a river in west central Quebec. It rises in central Quebec and flows 800 km (500 mi) west to James Bay, draining an area of 46,400 km (17,900 sq mi). The First Nations Cree village of Eastmain is located beside the mouth. Eastmain is a compounding of the river's former name East Main, which was taken from the former Hudson's Bay Company outpost at its mouth. This post controlled company trading operations in the East Main District on the eastern side of James Bay. 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 950 square kilometres (370 sq mi), and into the Robert-Bourassa Reservoir of Hydro-Québec'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 and Inuit peoples who live along the Eastmain River and James Bay coast, making it more difficult for them to travel in winter and reducing their access to fish in the river. In 2005, a further hydroelectric project on the upper Eastmain River was under construction. The project was part of the original hydroelectric project provided for by the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement of 1975.