Katie Findlay, Revelstoke Times Review, June 12, 2010
“Let’s look after our backyard,” said James Knoop at an event hosted by the North Columbia Environmental Society on Monday, June 7.
Pictured above the Columbia River at Revelstoke from left are Rachel Durvill of Wildsight, James Knoop of the Council of Canadians and Sarah Newton of the North Columbia Environmental Society. |
The president of the Golden chapter of the Council of Canadians teamed up with Rachel Durvill, program manager for Wildsight in the north Columbia region, to discuss independent power projects (so-called 'IPP' projects) in the Revelstoke area with community members.
The gathering at the community centre highlighted the complex and environmentally problematic issues surrounding IPPs, first through presentations by the two Golden-based visitors, then through the short film called Wood River Wild.
“It’s like a gold rush in British Columbia,” said Durvill, referring to the speed at which IPPs are being proposed in the province. Since Bill-30 was passed in 2006, which took away the opportunity for local input to be considered in decisions to approve or reject IPPs, the number of IPP applications has spiked – over 800 rivers in B.C. are now staked with claims to produce power, the audience heard.
“Decisions are being made in Victoria but the resources are coming from our backyard,” Knoop said. Durvill said 53 IPPs are proposed in the Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD), some of which would affect totally pristine drainages – like the Wood River.
Located northeast of Mica and draining into the Columbia River via Kinbasket Lake, the Wood River valley is home to giant cedar and hemlock, wolves, grizzly bears, cougars, wolverines, lynx and mountain caribou. It provides a key migration corridor between the Columbia valley and Jasper national park for many species, most notably the mountain caribou.
The speakers said the upper Wood River valley, as part of the unique inland temperate rainforest that stretches from the West Kootenay to the North Columbia, houses several plant and animal species that are uncommon, endangered or have never been studied. Diverting long stretches of the river would change the surrounding ecosystems and potentially change the habitat of some species enough that they could no longer survive there.
The audience heard that in addition to its ecological significance, the Wood River has great historical importance as well. In 1811 David Thompson first used Athabasca pass as a fur trading route to the Pacific coast. It became an important trading route and is now a national historic site.
Vancouver’s Atla Energy Corporation (http://www.atlaenergy.com/) plans to eventually build three run-of-river projects on the Wood River. According to the film, that would mean about 10 kilometres of the river would be diverted, 76 kilometres of transmission lines and 20 kilometres of new roads, all in what is now a virtually untouched wilderness.
“The maximum amount of diverted flow for the lower Wood River project will be around 44 cubic metres per second,” said Rachel Durvill in the film.
“That would leave only around ten percent of the mean annual flow in the Wood river for fish.”
The proposed projects would bring power to an existing transmission line at Mica, and according to the film, would only create one permanent job.
Because the Wood River projects would generate less than 50 megawatts, they are not subject to any federal or provincial environmental assessment.
“Essentially you have private interests that are given a public river, public land, and are subsidized by a publicly held BC Hydro,” said MLA Norm Macdonald in the film. “You have to ask yourself, is that in the public good?”
The makers of the film as well as the presenters at the event recommend a mandatory environmental assessment process for every run-of-river project proposal within B.C. that would also measure cumulative impacts. Until those assessments are in place, and pending their results, the speakers call for a moratorium on all run-of-river hydro project permits and water licenses.
They also speak of the need for a reversal of Bill-30 rulings to give back to municipalities a say in whether and how local IPPs will move forward.
If you’re concerned about the proposed Wood River IPPs or other related issues you can write to your MLA, the premier, as well as letters to the editor of local and provincial newspapers. You can also contact the North Columbia Environmental Society (http://www.northcolumbia.org/)for more information. 'Wood River Wild' can be viewed at: http://www.vimeo.com/10541655.)
