A local Ashlu run of river power project critic lashed out against allegations printed in last week's Chief that a photo allegedly depicting a dry Ashlu River was actually a side channel.
"There is no side channel to the Ashlu," said Tom Rankin, a Squamish Valley resident and Save Our Rivers member.
Rankin sent photos taken by Will Koop of the BC Tapwater Association about two months ago of the facility blocking the Ashlu to Raif Mair, a high profile Independent Power Project (IPP) opponent, columnist, radio talk show personality and former cabinet minister. Photos showed a small pipe jutting out of the facility spewing what remained of the once mighty whitewater river.
Mair responded by launching an email campaign with the photos attached decrying the state of the once mighty whitewater river, and denouncing provincial assertions that such power projects don't adversely affect watersheds.
Richard Blanchet of Ashlu power purveyors Innergex said the images showed a side channel and called the photos and allegations "unfair." The Ministry of Environment had received Koop's photo and followed up with a call, said Blanchet, adding the company is respecting the province's in stream flow release regulations.
The ministry sent an emailed response to requests for an interview Wednesday (April 14), which read: "The plant is required to release a minimum flow for fisheries values, under both the provincial water licence and Fisheries and Oceans Canada's authorization.The Ministry of Environment followed-up and determined that actual in-stream flow data indicates the plant has been meeting its obligations to release the minimum required flows for fisheries values, as required by the water licence and DFO authorization. The photo provided (by the Squamish Chief) only shows a portion of the stream channel, in the vicinity of the intake structure, and not the whole channel or where water is actually released (via a pipe) into the stream."
Rankin was out of the country last week when attempts to contact him were unsuccessful. He responded this week with a strongly-worded rejection of Blanchet's assertion.
The photo Blanchet provided to The Chief showing a side channel running parallel to a narrow river is actually the result of the project's construction and not the natural state of the river, he said.
Wider shots of what he calls the dam shows that the only remaining flow to the river is out of a narrow pipe. Rankin points to photos of the river before the IPP's interference, which shows high, powerfully rushing, whitewater.
In the 10 years Rankin has lived near the Ashlu, he said he's never seen the water disappear to the point where what used to be rock tips jutting out of cresting waves are now revealed to be boulders several feet tall.
The trickle appearing in the photo is what's left when the rest of the river was diverted into the run of river project's tunnel, said Rankin, leaving the watershed essentially dry for about five kilometres until just before it merges with the Squamish River.
Rankin uses the Ashlu as an example of the destructive nature of such projects, and said it's "too late" for the river.
"A dry watershed is a dead watershed," he said.
Mair reiterated the sentiment of futility in his email campaign.
"You cannot take away five kilometres of a river without, in essence, destroying the ecology it supports."
