An environmental review of the proposed Site C hydroelectric dam on the Peace River is as murky as the river.
The Joint Review Panel said the benefits of BC Hydro’s proposed 1,100-megawatt hydroelectric generating station are clear. The project would provide large and long-term energy for future generations with the least greenhouse gas emissions of other power sources.
The $8 billion project would also provide local and regional economic benefits, but at “significant environmental and social costs.”
The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency and the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office released the Report of the Joint Review Panel for the proposed Site C project in British Columbia May 8.
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The panel’s mandate was not to make a decision on the dam, but to assess the project’s potential environmental, economic, social, heritage and health effects. Both levels of government will review the findings and each make a decision on the project within six months.
The report made 50 recommendations on the project, including a number of precautions.
If built, the Site C dam would be the third hydroelectric generating station on the Peace River. The Site C dam was first proposed as part of a series of dams on the Peace River in the 1950s. The W.A.C. Bennett dam was built in 1967. The Site B, or Peace Canyon Dam, was finished in 1980. The Site C dam has been rejected two previous times. A need for electricity generated from clean energy has refocused BC Hydro’s eyes once again on Site C.
Despite the expected economic benefits, the panel said creating a 83 kilometre reservoir behind the dam would cause significant adverse effects on fish and fish habitat and a number of bird, bats, smaller animals, rare plants and sensitive ecosystems.
It also said the project would significantly affect the current use of the land and traditional resources of aboriginal people.
Farmers who own land and farm along the river have long voiced their opposition to the project, which would flood their farmland.
“It would end agriculture on the Peace valley bottom lands and while that would not be significant in the context of B.C, or western Canadian agriculture production, it would highly impact the farmers who would bear the loss.”
The report said the Peace region is undergoing enormous stress from resource development and the project would result in “significant cumulative effects on fish, vegetation and ecological communities, wildlife, current use of lands and resources for traditional purposes and heritage.”
You can find the complete report online here.
