SCOTT SIMPSON, Vancouver Sun, April 23, 2010
Firm estimate of the hydroelectric megaproject's cost to be determined by
2011
BC Hydro has amassed 35 key technical reports, and expects to produce lots more, for an unprecedented push to get the Site C hydroelectric megaproject built on the Peace River.
Premier Gordon Campbell said this week that Site C, bearing a tentative
$6.6 billion price tag, is likely to be complete by 2020 -- if the project goes as planned.
Studies posted this week on the Crown corporation's web-site range from public consultation and dam and highway engineering reports to studies of fish species, recreation activity and water quality in the Peace -- and there are many more in the works.
Hydro will spend another year of study and research leading to an environmental assessment in 2011 that will last two years.
Hydro expects to have a firm estimate of the cost of the project -- including seismic improvements to the original design, by the time the assessment begins.
A seven-year period of detailed engineering work and construction would follow. That includes a 46-month diversion of the Peace River during excavation and dam construction, the filling of the reservoir and the 15-month commissioning and construction of a generating station.
The timeline is similar to those experienced by Hydro in construction of other large-scale hydroelectric reservoirs around the province -- typically six to 10 years -- starting with the W.A.C. Bennett Dam on the Peace River upstream of Site C in the 1960s.
Hydro still requires a substantially more detailed examination of the environmental impacts of the project, more intensive public consultations and a constitutional obligation to consult and accommodate first nations with a territorial interest in the area under development.
The work won't end with the opening of the assessment. A central aspect of the review process is to describe the nature of the work that needs to be done and get answers to any further questions the assessment office brings forward, said Siobhan Jackson, environment and social issues manager for Hydro's Site C team, in an interview Thursday.
Engineer John Nunn, the Site C technical project director, said it is "feasible" to build the project according to the original earth dam design that dates back to the 1980s, but that Hydro wants to ensure both community and environmental interests are considered.
That means consultation on the alignment of new highways above the level of the Site C reservoir, and reconciling safety concerns about potential sloughing of the slopes above the reservoir, with the interests of local residents.
Susan Yurkovich, BC Hydro senior vice-president of corporate affairs, said the need to incorporate community and aboriginal interests is an opportunity to be "creative."
"There are ways to make this project more sustainable, and to create opportunities for habitat, and conservation areas, and to look at how we can enhance wildlife. There are ways we can make terrific opportunities for first nations to participate in this project."
Hydro first nations consultant Jack Weisgerber, a former B.C. minister of aboriginal relations, has been in what he described as "an extensive and ... intensive consultation process" for two years with affected first nations.
"We've always stressed with all of the first nations that we are committed to consultation through all five stages of the project.
"When we were in stage two it was preliminary consultation. We are moving into stage three and I think there will be probably more focused consultation around the ... impacts and around the potential benefits that might flow from the project to first nations.
"If we move into stage four ... at that point we would be starting to talk more about the kind of business and employment opportunities that might be available for first nations both as individuals and companies: businesses and individual first nations-owned contractors, for example."
ssimpson@vancouversun.com
