Science Response 2016/015
Review of Mercury Bioaccumulation in the Biota of Lake Melville
Context
In 2009, the Joint Review Panel that carried out the environmental assessment of the Lower Churchill Hydroelectric Generation Project considered methylmercury bioaccumulation as a potential impact. Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and other federal and provincial authorities, as well as Aboriginal groups, provided advice to the Joint Review Panel on the extent of downstream bioaccumulation. As a result of this advice, the Panel concluded that methylmercury bioaccumulation in downstream areas could be greater than that predicted by the project proponent, Nalcor Energy. In response to this conclusion and related Panel recommendations, the Government of Canada required Nalcor Energy to carry out additional baseline and post-project monitoring of methylmercury in fish and seals including in areas downstream of the project and into Lake Melville. This monitoring was formally prescribed as a condition of the authorization the Department issued to Nalcor Energy in 2013 under section 35(2) of the Fisheries Act, for impacts on fish and fish habitat from the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric dam and reservoir creation.
New information presented in a recently published scientific paper (Schartup et al. 2015) may change the understanding of methylmercury transport and bioaccumulation, and as a result, changes to the downstream methylmercury monitoring program may be required. Consequently, in January 2016, the Fisheries Protection Program (FPP) of the Ecosystems Management Branch in the Newfoundland and Labrador Region requested that DFO Science undertake a review of this and other relevant documents with the objectives of providing advice with respect to the following context:
- To provide advice on whether information in the Schartup et al. 2015) paper significantly changes the overall predictions about the potential for bioaccumulation of mercury in fish and seals in Lake Melville as presented by DFO and recognized by the Joint Review Panel during the environmental assessment of the Lower Churchill Hydroelectric Generation Project; and
- To advise whether methylmercury monitoring measures prescribed by DFO downstream of the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric dam should be changed in response to information in the Schartup et al. (2015) paper.
This Science Response Report results from the Science Response Process of February 17, 2016 on the Review of Mercury Bioaccumulation in the Biota of Lake Melville.
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