Steve Carey, Times Colonist, July 25, 2010
Flooding a valley of farmland for B.C. Hydro's Peace River Valley project is an environmental shame, critics say
The proposed Site C hydro dam on the Peace River in northern B.C. will flood top-notch farmland but increase the province's power reserves. Though it's in an area most Islanders will never visit, we'll all use its power. So what's more important? A region's food security, First Nations sacred sites and the rights of landowners, or a projected powerhouse?
The proposed dam -- the third on the river outside Hudson's Hope -- will provide B.C. Hydro customers across the province with power for more than 100 years. But flooding a valley full of farms in exchange for hydro electric power is too much of a sacrifice, some B.C. residents say.
Site C is in its environmental assessment phase. The dam is expected to be built by 2020, and its cost is projected at $6.6 billion.
The Peace River Valley has a unique microclimate and Class 1 and 2 soil, which allows for diverse crops, from corn to potatoes to cantaloupe, to be grown in an area of B.C. that is further north than Moscow.
If the Site C dam goes ahead, at least 2,600 hectares of arable land would be lost.
"I've heard people say 'It's already wrecked, there are two dams already,' " says Diane Culling, a biologist and spokeswoman for the Peace Valley Environment Association. "But you take a look at this valley, and I'm sure you'd agree it wasn't wrecked. I truly believe that if most people in the province could see, they would say 'Absolutely not.' Where in B.C. do you see a valley like this?"
The Peace River Valley is northern B.C.'s 100-Mile Diet, Culling says. Many farmers in the valley only farm hay because the threat of flooding is too great to invest in infrastructure needed for food production.
"We've seen over the last 35 years that Hydro has had ownership of this valley, they've just squelched any improvement and development," says Doug Summer, whose family came to farm the Peace Valley in 1919. "They've got a public to whom they can say 'Nobody's doing anything with that valley.' But back in the '60s, there was all kinds of commercial vegetable production, and there were big hopes for what the Peace Valley would produce."
In the 1960s, Larry Peterson owned a 735-hectare farm in the valley. Originally from Idaho, Larry and his wife farmed three varieties of potatoes on 40.5 hectares, producing 2,000 tonnes a year, 25 per cent of the local market, and had plans for expansion.
In the 1970s, he and several other landowners were approached by B.C. Hydro and asked to sell their land.
Peterson says they were threatened with expropriation, and told that if they didn't sell there would be blackouts and brownouts. After a long fight, most landowners sold to Hydro, with the proviso that they could buy the land back if the dam was cancelled.
Not everyone sold their land, and since 1983, there has been a passive acquisition process, through which Hydro buys property only if sellers approach the company. Provided the dam is approved for construction, the remaining land can be expropriated if a reasonable offer is refused by a landowner.
In the past, Site C has been rejected by the B.C. Utilities Commission, an independent agency of the provincial government that regulates electricity utilities. But the Clean Energy Act, passed in April, now excludes the agency from reviewing Site C, as well as a number of other B.C. Hydro projects. The new act leaves the final decision to build the dam with the government.
A utilities commission review would be professional, impartial and autonomous, says Tom Hackney, vice-president of policy at the B.C. Sustainable Energy Association.
"Failing that, we believe that government should provide an equivalent. They owe it to the people of B.C. to demonstrate that it really is a necessary project and is beneficial," he says.
The rumour that B.C. Hydro just wants Site C so it can sell more power outside B.C. is not true, says David Conway, the utility's spokesman in charge of Site C. In fact, he says, for nine of the last 11 years, B.C. has been a net power importer. Insufficient power generation in the winter means that B.C. must import it at higher rates.
The water behind a hydro plant acts as a giant battery, storing power until it is needed. If the power that B.C. can import is cheaper than the power it can generate, B.C. Hydro can purchase power from elsewhere, then later sell its hydro power to customers outside B.C. at a higher rate. The money made from this trade reduces each power bill in the province by $100 per person per year, Conway says.
Even though B.C. is slated to conserve more power than Site C will generate by the time it is built in 2020, Hydro still expects the power from Site C to be necessary, Conway says. The project is also expected to create 35,000 jobs.
The project's current environmental assessment phase will be performed by the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.
But critics say the assessment won't take into account the impact on wildlife or climate, and is a "rubber-stamp" since the B.C. government has announced the project will move forward.
Site C will flood more than 9,500 hectares, increasing the width of the river in places by two to three times and creating a reservoir more than 80 kilometres long. By taking advantage of the upstream dams' reservoirs, it can generate one-third the power of the W.A.C. Bennett Dam with a reservoir one-20th the size, Conway says. If it were built on another river without nearby dams, it would require a larger storage reservoir to generate that much power.
This flood area will include large sections of the Halfway and Moberly rivers. Both have significance to Treaty 8 First Nations peoples.
The flood will also affect the remaining area of the Peace River Break, an important migration route for moose, deer, bull trout and other wildlife species, further restricting animal movement.
Wendy Francis, director of conservation for the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, says the Peace arm of the Williston reservoir is already a barrier to wildlife movement.
"The Site C dam will flood the valley bottom, preventing wildlife movement and [causing] loss of habitat," she says. "We need to look at the cumulative effects of the new dam, not just the dam in isolation."
There are other energy options for the area. A collection of towering wind turbines sits on a hill outside Dawson Creek. The Bear Mountain Wind project generates 102 megawatts of power per year. It's a project of Aeolis, a privately owned B.C. power-generation company.
Aeolis plans another wind farm called Thunder Mountain. It could rival Site C for power generation and cost, says Aeolis spokeswoman Colleen Brown. The wind farm is to be built on land not suitable for agriculture, 40 km from Tumbler Ridge. Thanks to the quality and quantity of sustained wind in the Peace, it is expected to generate 1,400 megawatts per year and more than 4,500 gigawatt hours, comparable to Site C's 900 megawatts and 4,600 gigawatt hours.
Though B.C. Hydro has not expressed an interest in purchasing power from Aeolis at this time, other governments have, and letters of interest have been signed, Brown says, though she would not provide details. Wind power is viable in the Peace, she says, and there are financial benefits in taxes and royalties to the province.
"Water and wind are a perfect pair. When the wind is blowing, the grid can draw on the wind energy. And when the wind isn't blowing, you can use the generators in the hydro dam," she says. "There's tremendous synergy between the intermittent power created by wind farms and the energy created by the existing dams."
At a recent Paddle for the Peace protest against the proposed dam, participants were vocal about their cause. However, most are not optimistic that the provincial government or B.C. Hydro will consider what's at stake in this project.
But Culling says she is hopeful people across the province will take an interest in keeping the Peace.
"You hear people say 'Sacrifices have to be made.' But you only hear that from people not making the sacrifices. The problem with the Peace is that it's too remote for the majority of B.C., the Lower Mainland and the Island to have a connection with it."
Read Steve Carey's blog at timescolonist.com/rethink
rethink@tc.canwest.com
