{"id":213827,"date":"2016-11-14T08:25:57","date_gmt":"2016-11-14T13:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/?p=213827"},"modified":"2019-03-04T17:45:55","modified_gmt":"2019-03-04T22:45:55","slug":"human-health-risks-from-hydroelectric-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2016\/11\/human-health-risks-from-hydroelectric-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Human health risks from hydroelectric projects"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t
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Lake Melville, downstream of the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric facility, is a source of food for the indigenous communities who live along its shores. Harvard researchers estimate that after the upstream region is flooded for the hydroelectric facility, average exposure to methylmercury in those communities will double. <\/p>

Credit: Prentiss Balcom\/Harvard SEAS<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t

\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tScience & Tech\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t

\n\t\tHuman health risks from hydroelectric projects\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t
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\n\t\tLeah Burrows\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tSEAS Communications\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t

\n\t\t\t90 percent of proposed Canadian hydroelectric projects may expose local indigenous communities to methylmercury\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n
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In a new study, Harvard University researchers find that more than 90 percent of potential new Canadian hydroelectric projects are likely to increase concentrations of the neurotoxin methylmercury in food webs near indigenous communities.<\/p>\n

The research forecasts potential human health impacts of hydroelectric projects and identifies areas where mitigation efforts, such as removing the top layer of soil before flooding, would be most helpful. The works uses factors such as soil carbon and reservoir design to forecast methylmercury increases for 22 hydroelectric reservoirs under consideration or construction in Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe human and ecological impacts associated with increased methylmercury exposures from flooding for hydroelectric projects have only been understood retrospectively, after the damage is done,\u201d said Elsie Sunderland<\/a>, the Thomas D. Cabot Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences<\/a> (SEAS) and the Harvard T.H. Chan School for Public Health<\/a> and senior author of the study. \u201cThis paper establishes a prospective framework for forecasting the impacts of proposed hydroelectric development on local communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The research is published in Environmental Science & Technology<\/a>.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t

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Muskrat Falls in Labrador, Canada, is the site of the upcoming Muskrat Falls hydroelectric facility. Credit: Prentiss Balcom\/Harvard SEAS\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n

Microbes convert naturally occurring mercury in soils into potent methylmercury when land is flooded, such as when dams are built for hydroelectric projects. The methylmercury moves into the water and animals, magnifying as it moves up the food chain. This makes the toxin especially dangerous for indigenous communities living near hydroelectric projects because they tend to have diets rich in local fish, birds, and marine mammals such as seals.<\/p>\n

To understand how methylmercury impacts human populations, the Harvard team studied three Inuit communities downstream from the proposed Muskrat Falls hydroelectric facility in Labrador. The project will require the flooding of land bordering the Churchill River, upstream from an estuarine fjord called Lake Melville.<\/p>\n\r\n

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