I attended the forum by "Western Canada Wilderness Committee" and "Save our Rivers" at the Sea to Sky Hotel on March 31st and am concerned that much of the information presented was inaccurate. While focussing on keeping our rivers pristine, the presenters delivered a backlash against renewable energy and did not seriously address the greater issue of global warming.
It would be best if we could all just reduce our consumption of electricity and eliminate the need for more generation by conservation. While conservation is important, there is little evidence that we can reduce consumption sufficiently to avoid the need for more power.
Run-of-river projects were the focus of the wrath of the presenters at the forum. Unfortunately, science does not support the wrath. The permitting process is arduous and expensive and each project requires about 50 permits, licence approvals and reviews from agencies at all levels of government. If a project is approved by BC Hydro, the developers of the project are given a temporary water lease for 40 years. Each leases is for generating power only and the power can only be sold to BC Hydro.
Most of the electric power in the world is generated from coal, oil and gas, which are the worst polluters. We need to maximize our use of renewable energy and run-of-river hydro has the lowest life cycle carbon footprint of all energy sources.
The area disturbed by these projects is relatively small and most of the disturbed area is returned to its natural state after construction.
Salmon are not impacted by run-of-river projects as it is nearly impossible to develop a run-of-river project in a section of river where salmon spawn, feed or migrate.
Most IPPs work closely with First Nations communities who are usually the strongest supporters of run-of-river projects.
I urge all people who are involved in the debate on run-of-river developments to enter into an open, honest discussion on the pros and cons of these projects and avoid joining the backlash which is using inaccurate environmental arguments to score political points.
Richard Humphries
Squamish
