Plan mapped out to sell water to U.S.

Quebec could raise as much as $9.5 billion a year by reversing the flow of three northern rivers to generate power and export water to the United States, according to a report made public yesterday.

The Montreal Economic Institute said Quebec could divert floodwaters from the three rivers in the spring, pumping the excess water higher, and then letting it flow south through the Ottawa River to the St. Lawrence.

The rivers - the Broadback, Waswanipi and Bell - currently flow into James Bay and then into Hudson Bay.

But environmental group Great Lakes United said a project like Northern Waters could be devastating to the environment.

"The seasonal runoff is not surplus water. The rising and lowering of the rivers and lakes is critical to protecting the marsh which is home to so much wildlife," program director John Jackson said.

He said the project was contrary to legislation that forbids the bulk export of Canadian water from any of the five major basins, including the Hudson Bay Basin.