WSP has been named Top Employer by the Environmental Careers Organization (ECO) Canada at the annual 2021 ECO Impacts Award for demonstrating “leadership, commitment and innovation in the continuous advancements of the environmental sector.”
Created in 2017, the ECO Impact Awards focus on recognizing the efforts of certified industry professionals contributing “to the innovation, sustainability, and growth of the environmental sector.” Submissions for the Top Employer “must be able to demonstrate that the employer is a leader in providing innovative, impactful and productive solutions to further the environmental sector, or have created/supported environmental awareness within their organization.”
A ‘Complex’ Project
Part of the submission criteria required information on the company’s involvement in a project that show these solutions in the field. For the WSP submission, the team included its work on the $6.5-billion Romaine Complex energy project in Quebec— a project that the environment team has been involved with for a decade.
The Romaine Complex is a 1,550-Megawatt hydroelectric power project on the Romaine River, spanning 150 kilometres in the Cote-Nord region of Quebec. The project includes four hydropower generating stations, each consisting of a rockfill dam, two generators, and a spillway. The complex, upon completion, is expected to reach an annual average output of 8.0 TWh.
For the project, Hydro-Quebec hired WSP to use an internally-developed technology for counting fish in rivers. Recognizing that the construction of the Complex would impact aquatic species, Hydro-Quebec agreed to identify and mitigate these impacts, as well as monitor the impacts for 40 years.
One of the key fish populations being monitored is the Atlantic Salmon, a highly-valued resource for local and Indigenous populations. As part of the contract with Hydro-Quebec, WSP provided proactive procedures to ensure optimal river conditions remain stabilized, including multiple measures to help monitor fish populations, sediment dynamics assessments, designs of salmon spawning areas, and additional activities to fully appreciate all potential impacts to the aquatic life in the Romaine River.
To learn more about the 2021 ECO Impact Awards, click here.
