Like many issues, run of river power projects in BC have stirred up the passion of many residents in the province. Two sides however that many would consider opposed to each other, are seeing the government mandated “Green” light for BC Hydro’s rush to Run of River Power Projects, an issue they can see eye to eye on.
I really don’t need to say much on the matter as there have already been many many people that have touched on it, including David Suzuki who I honestly have to say spreads far too much doom and gloom. But this time … I’m not so sure … read on …
CBC NEWS (May 2009)
… a forestry official involved wrote, "I am becoming increasingly nervous about the lack of attention to the projects." Last fall, inspectors from the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Forests and Range — who dubbed themselves "strike teams" — dropped in on the construction sites of several private run-of-river hydro projects.
The eventual reports by the strike team obtained by CBC News through a Freedom of Information Act request noted at four sites, the inspectors found several violations of the expected best management practices and the construction environmental management plan, including:
- Sloppy construction that could damage streams.
- Overcutting old-growth forest.
- Inadequate sewage treatment at work camps.
- Construction during bird breeding season.
- Replanting with non-native species.
No one was charged or fined for the violations.
John Cummins (Radio interview AM 1070 Victoria
“There’s some huge concerns there that people have about putting these projects on isolated rivers throughout British Columbia because they need roads to service them; there’s hydro transmission lines that are going to have to flow from them to the grid, and the reality is that they’re not environmentally friendly, and I think that, again, those are issues that needed to be discussed during this election campaign, and they certainly weren’t in the mainstream media, and… so I think the public is going to have to be very, very careful.
….. I think all British Columbians are going to have to be very vigilant to ensure that our province and the province that we want to leave our kids is not going to be damaged by Mr. Cam pbell’s ambitions here.”
John Cummins (May 2009)·
I am a free enterpriser, a federal Conservative with deep roots in the Reform movement. I cannot support Gordon Cam pbell’s Liberals in this provincial election because of their complete indifference to quality of life issues here in South Delta … run of the River Hydro projects which will destroy the remaining wilderness areas in British Columbia and commits us to higher than market prices for the power generated.
David Suzuki (March 2009)
But the rush to develop new sources of clean energy has created surprising division among groups that should be allies in the fight against global warming: “tree-huggers” who focus on the need to protect wildlife and wilderness and “smokestack pluggers” who advocate for a rapid and massive increase in renewable-power production.
It’s ludicrous to think that we must sacrifice all environmental considerations to get green energy onto the grid. It’s not green if it causes negative ecological impacts. In British Columbia
What we need, in B.C. and elsewhere, is to guide development toward areas that have high energy potential but are less susceptible to environmental damage. Governments must also act quickly to ensure that renewable-energy options are considered as a whole rather than in isolation. An individual project may appear to be environmentally benign, but the cumulative impact of many could be detrimental.
John Cummins (Oct 2010)
"British Columbians believe there is a role for government," he said, extolling the actions of former Social Credit premier W.A.C. Bennett in nationalizing BC Electric to create publicly-owned BC Hydro and creating BC Ferries as a Crown Corporation.
But the BC Liberals have removed the role of government and ignored environmental concerns with their controversial independent power projects across the province, Cummins said, a mistake the BC Conservatives must not repeat.
"People are environmentally conscious -- this party has to be seen as a protector of the environment -- if not, we're not going to make it to government," he said.
Vancouver Sun (
Four private run-of-river projects proposed near Harrison Lake Ryan Bayes of Western Canoeing and Kayaking in Abbotsford)
Rafe Mair (Feb 2011)
“It is the run-of-rivers [power generation projects], no question about it. The issue is agreements the Liberals made with independent power generation companies. These are not mom and pop operations; they are huge international companies like GE, Ledcor, and DuPont. They do not let the water bubble along freely. In some cases they take away up to 90 per cent of the water. The ecology that depends on that river is damaged; add that to the trees that are taken down for roads …
Point two is that BC Hydro is forced to pay double the export price to IPPs, and they have to take it or pay it. Because of energy created privately during spring run-off when BC Hydro doesn’t need it, it must be used or exported instead of using what they can generate themselves for a twelfth of the price.
The so-called run-of-rivers are hugely destructive of fish. They say they don’t put weirs in pace where there are significant values of fish to be hurt. This is just nonsense. There isn’t a single river in B.C. without significant fish values.”
Kamloops This Week (Letter to the Editor from resident of Barriere, February 2, 2011)
Since its election in 2001, the B.C. Liberal government has moved to deregulate and privatize BC’s electricity system while integrating it with the U.S.-dominated energy market in the Pacific Northwest .
The core of that policy was laid out in the 2002 Energy Plan, which prevented BC Hydro from building new generation assets, and transformed the Crown corporation from not only a generator of publicly owned electricity, but also to a part-time purchaser of energy from independent private power (IPP) facilities……
… the BC Utilities Commission ruled that this private power is unnecessary and not in the public interest, the Gordon Cam pbell government overruled the public watchdog and forced BC Hydro to proceed with more private-power purchase contracts, bringing the total liabilities for public purchases of private power to an estimated $40 or 50 billion.
BC Hydro will have to drastically increase rates or face the inevitable — a declaration of insolvency, with the possibility its assets would then be sold to private interests, at whose mercy we will forever be. At the end of the fiscal year, March 2010, BC Hydro had a loss of $249 million … should be outraged at the negligent energy policy of the Cam pbell
In conclusion; the late WAC Bennett, the man who spearheaded and pushed the development of British Columbia
"We are a young country; we must build on the solid rock of sound economic policies and balanced budgets. But, we must be prepared, as a nation, to step from the solid rock onto new ground.”
Somehow I don’t think that if he were alive in this day and age, he would consider these run of river power projects to be new rock and new ground to be stepped on. I’m Alan Forseth in Kamloops
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