INTRODUCTION 



Sask Power (formerly Saskatchewan Power Corporation) applied to the 

 Province of Saskatchewan in March 1972 for permission to store and use 

 water from the East Poplar River. In July 1972, the Province reserved 

 7,400 cubic decametres (dam 3 ) (6,000 acre feet) of water annually for a 

 period of five years for this purpose. In September 1974, Sask Power 

 announced plans for the construction of a coal-fired thermal-electric 

 generating station and ancillary facilities including a reservoir on the 

 East Poplar River and a lignite coal mine at Coronach, Saskatchewan near 

 the International Boundary. Subsequently, Morrison Dam (Cookson Reser- 

 voir impoundment) was completed in September 1976 and the first of two 

 300 megawatt generating units commenced commercial operation in June 1981 

 followed by the second unit in July 1983. 



The IJC, through the Souris-Red Rivers Engineering Board, was advised of 

 the proposal early in the process. The IJC advised the Governments of 

 the United States and Canada in February 1975 that it had asked its 

 International Souris-Red Rivers Engineering Board to review the proposal 

 in light of a 1948 Reference dealing with water apportionment. The 

 Commission also advised Governments that the project might adversely 

 affect air quality and the quality of Poplar River water crossing the 

 International Boundary and suggested that the Governments review the 

 matter in light of the provisions of Article IV of the Boundary Waters 

 Treaty. Water quantity, water quality, and air quality issues were 

 raised in early 1975 in a diplomatic note from the Government of the 

 United States to the Government of Canada. 



The Poplar River Task Force of the International Souris-Red Rivers 

 Engineering Board was formed in April 1975 to investigate the 

 apportionment question pursuant to the 1948 Reference dealing with water 



