A legal notice in the Sept. 3, 2008, issue of the Revelstoke Times Review announcing a private company’s plan to divert water from the Illecillewaet River into pipes for the purpose of generating electricity has certainly raised eyebrows in Revelstoke.
The legal notice says the Chasm Power Corporation of Langley, B.C. is applying for a License of Occupation for land and water around the Illecillewaet River between Glacier National Park and Mount Revelstoke National Park. A search of the Integrated Land Management Bureau website shows a map outlining the area of claim, which includes the river and surrounding land stretching and abutting both national parks.
Although the amount or percentage of the water that will be diverted into pipes, the size of the dam structure that will block the river, nor the electrical generating capacity is known, the fees paid by the proponent indicate it is above the 20 MW threshold, and is therefore considered to be a larger project. Based on the size of the project, proponents pay separate application fees. Chasm Power Corporation has paid $3,300 for the Provincial Land Act application and $8,000 for the Provincial Water Act application, indicating the plan is for a 20 MW-plus project.
The notice raised flags for members of the North Columbia Environmental Society at their regular meeting on Aug. 5.
Sarah Newton, a director with the society, says the notice was the first they’d heard of the project and it is a concern. “To see that ad in the paper was a big surprise,” she said.
“We are definitely aware of it and planning some action,” says Newton, adding that they’ll be looking for public input from river stakeholders and others, as well as residents of Albert Canyon, where power lines, a switchyard, a powerhouse and a staging area are planned to be located according to the notice.
Newton encourages those with concerns about the projects to contact the society through their website (www.nces.northcolumbia.org) to get involved.
She says that stretch of the Illecillewaet River provides habitat for bull trout. The provincial Ministry of Environment says the bull trout is a blue-listed species because populations are declining throughout its global range. A Ministry of Environment website says decline in British Columbia is due to habitat degradation, disruption of migration patterns and over-fishing.
Newton says the pipes, new power lines, clearing of trees along the river corridor and other physical dam structures add up to a “major disruption of the area” that will also affect grizzly and mountain caribou populations.
Newton is critical of the lack of information available on applications, saying what’s available is too vague. At this point only a rudimentary map showing a sketch of the pipe and proposed locations of pipes, intakes, multiple “staging areas,” a switchyard, and the powerhouse are available. Further detailed information is not available through the ILMB. The route of the pipe seems to run mainly along the northern bank of the Illecillewaet River along the side of the Trans-Canada Highway. “The government policy and the way it is set up is very, very pro development,” says Newton. “The rate at which they’re giving out leases is astronomical. There’s 60 creeks up for grabs in this area.”
“We’ve asked all our members to contact the front desk in Cranbrook because they need to know that people are aware,” says Newton.
Columbia River-Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald (NDP) has been actively campaigning against the provincial government’s B.C. Energy Plan, which includes independent-power-projects, or IPPs. “I have deep, deep concerns about the direction the B.C. government is taking with the B.C. Energy Plan. You have these private power projects being put in place without an overall plan. In my constituency there are 26 proposed projects. Individually some of them may make sense, but as a whole it is a disastrous policy environmentally as well as economically. I think it is incredibly costly for questionable benefits, and I think it is fundamentally wrong that these projects go ahead without local government and people in rural areas being to make decisions on zoning -- whether they’re appropriate or not,” he says. “You need to test that by it going through a process so that it can be looked at and the area can decide whether it is a reasonable project.”
Macdonald says the level of awareness on the issues varies from community to community. “I would have to say that Revelstoke potentially is going to be heavily impacted. It has not been as big of an issue in Revelstoke as in other communities,” he says, noting that about 1,000 people signed a petition in Golden demanding a moratorium on the projects and that in Invermere there was also a greater level of awareness due to the proposed Glacier/Howser mega-project, which includes over 12 kilometres of tunnels and a 90-kilometre transmission line from the West to East Kootenay that will cut through relatively untouched wilderness in the Selkirk Mountains.
He said that groups including hunters, backcountry lodge operators, foresters and environmental groups have expressed their concerns to him on the issue of IPP projects. “People are aware of it and concerned. They understand it is public land and that BC Hydro is a public utility.”
Macdonald says that at this stage community members need to raise their level of awareness about IPPs. He recommends reading books and other information prepared on IPPs in B.C. One of them is John Calvert’s Liquid Gold, a book that explores the topic. The other is an analysis done by consultants Marvin Shaffer and Associates Ltd. titled Self-Sufficiency and Insurance: Exaggerating the Need for New Sources of Electricity Supply. The report, which is available online for free, was commissioned by the Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union (COPE) local 378. The union represents BC Hydro workers, amongst others, and has actively led a campaign against IPP projects in B.C. “The wider policy is a real disaster and what I would ask people to do again is really look at this issue and understand it,” said Macdonald. “We’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars of public assets and our rivers.”
In his experience, he says that the reaction to the plans to divert many local rivers is fairly uniform across the board. “As people come to understand it, almost each and every person rejects it. As people become informed, they first are very often surprised that the B.C. government would be doing this, and secondly they become angry and active about it,” he says. “It has to be stopped and we need to fully understand the implications of what’s going on. As it stands there is no sign of any logical planning.”
Macdonald says some of the projects are in the midst of areas where a tremendous amount of work is and has been done by forest companies, the Ministry of Forests, snowmobile groups and others to plan for the land base, “And in the midst of all of that planning you have one of these projects just dropped in there.”
Macdonald says the recent announcement of a $3.7 million federal subsidy for the Cranberry Creek IPP project was a surprise to him, but said that he avoids entering into aspects of federal politics but is certainly critical of provincial policies relating to IPPs.
When questioned whether he feels the federal subsidies amount to a de facto undermining of BC Hydro, he also registers his reluctance to venture into federal territory. “Certainly it raises that question. That’s something that I would want the federal government to speak to and explain. I would be very interested in the rationale.”
CSRD Area B director Loni Parker says she hasn’t received any consultation on the project and that she doesn’t usually get referrals on IPP projects. She says each project should be assessed on its individual merits. “Certainly I am not opposed to the run of the river hydro plants. I think each one has to be looked at for its merits and each one will have to go through an environmental process and will have to go through all of the government hoops and vetting with the public,” she says. “I think we have a history here of run of the river type plants and we’ve had some really good experiences with it.”
She mentions the Akolkolex River and Pingston Creek (near Shelter Bay) projects as successes, saying the proponents worked with community groups and the North Columbia Resource Council to deal with environmental and forestry issues. “They did a really good job of working with the community and they changed their project substantially with the input they got from the community and they made a really good project,” she says.
“I think that clearly whoever is putting a project on whatever river has to address those concerns, and if those concerns can’t be addressed to satisfaction of the people who are concerned -- like the tour operators, the community and or the province -- then they have to find a way to address the problem or perhaps that not a good spot to put it.”
She says we should reserve judgement until all of the details are on the table. The legal notice in the Revelstoke Times Review, and the information on the Integrated Land Management Bureau’s (ILMB) website, is limited to rudimentary details, yet it is soliciting input on the project. Parker said that more information should be available through the provincial government if input is being solicited. “Well, that’s clearly not acceptable,” she said. “They have to have that information available ... and the province should be ensuring it’s available through their system [and] if the proponents aren’t making it available then it shouldn’t be getting as far as it is, it shouldn’t even be in the paper.”
Murray McPhail, Senior Land Officer with the ILMB’s Cranbrook Region Office, says that some information in the legal notice was erroneous. The notice states: “Comments will be received by ILMB until October 10, 2008.” McPhail says that there is no such deadline at this stage, and said he’d contact the proponent about the error.
ILMB provided the contact information for Chasm Power Corporation as being Ted Taylor of Langley, B.C., and provided an email and telephone number. The Revelstoke Times Review attempted to contact Taylor. The receptionist at the number said Taylor was in at the time and took a message. The call was returned but not in time for inclusion in this week's issue due to deadline.
The website associated with the email provided by ILMB (http://gsinfinity.com/) says that GS Infinity is a Langley-based importer and distributor of lead-acid batteries.
A search of land and water license applications indicate that Taylor is the proponent behind several IPP projects in the area. They include one for the Incomappleux River, St. Leon Creek, Beaton Creek, Pool Creek, and Asher Creek. All of those projects are located to the east of the Upper Arrow Lake, roughly between Revelstoke and Nakusp.
The applications are listed under three different company names -- Chasm Power Corp., Galena Bay Power Corp., and St. Leon Creek Power Corp.
Craig Williams of IPP Watch, a website that collates information relating to applications for IPPs across the province, says that many speculating on the value of the licenses put applications for individual rivers out under different company names so that the entities can be sold to other companies in the future. McPhail says that the license is not transferable between companies, but licenses have been transferred when companies as a whole are sold to other parent companies.
Opponents of the provincial government’s handling of the IPP process say the cost of the initial application for a license is far too low, leading to a “gold rush” of speculators seeking to stake out a river with no intent of developing the project but rather the goal of selling the company that holds the license for a profit.