Category Archives: WATER

Mark Hume: Tyson Creek Private Power Project a Disaster That Shouldn’t be Repeated

WATER, ,
Share

Read this story from Mark Hume in The Globe and Mail on one particularly bad example of ecologically disastrous private river power projects (IPPs) in BC. The Tyson Creek project in Narrows Inlet on the Sunshine Coast actually involves a lake with a massive hole drilled at the bottom – resulting in major siltation problems in the fish-bearing streams and inlet below.

“There have been growing concerns in British Columbia about the impact of private power projects on streams and rivers. But
we should worry about our lakes, too, according to a file of internal
government documents related to the Tyson Creek hydroelectric project.

The
documents, obtained by Gwen Barlee of the Wilderness Committee, track
the licensing, development and subsequent but temporary closing of the
project when it caused the usually clear Tzoonie River to turn the
colour of mud.” (Nov. 27, 2011)

Read article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/mark-hume/tyson-creek-experiment-ought-not-to-be-repeated/article2251369/

Share

Free Speech, Censorship, and Why Ryerson’s Journalism Program Can Go F#@k Itself

Canada, Politics, WATER, Western Canada, , , ,
Share

On November 24th a “roast” was held for me and it was a fantastic night.

During my speech I raised the “Ryerson” incident that was recently revived.
 
About 10 years ago I received a call from a young woman from the Ryerson School of Journalism who asked if I would write the main article for their “Annual”. I accepted and asked no money in return.
 
I asked her if she knew who I was and what I did. She assured me that she did.
 
Addressing myself to the graduates, I did an essay on free speech and concluded with the statement that they had all better be “ready to self censor or that they would be censored”.
 
Some weeks later the same young woman called me again and was obviously in some distress as she told me that my article was “unsuitable”.
 
“Was it badly written?” I asked.
 
“Not at all – it was very well written…it’s just…unsuitable.”
 
“To whom?” I asked.
 
“It was just unsuitable.”
 
“Why?” I asked.
 
“It’s just unsuitable – but we have a couple of options here. We can pay you $100.”
 
“I don’t want your money,” I said.
 
“The second option is you can do another article.”
 
“There is a third option,” I replied. “You can all go fuck yourselves!”
 
My God! One of the top schools of journalism rejects an article on free speech! If ever I needed verification of my statement, here it was!
 
A few weeks later I happened to be interviewing the deputy dean of Ryerson and I told him this story, off air. He protested vehemently, assuring me he would look into the matter and would get back to me in a few days.
 
I never heard from the man again.
 
Fast forward to about three weeks ago when I got an email from a young woman from Ryerson asking me if I would give her an interview for the Annual. I agreed and made a time and date in Lions Bay for the chat. She was delighted and couldn’t wait – so she said.
 
A few days later I received an email from her saying that the subject, being put to a lot of journalists across the country, was “your biggest disappointment in your career,” and asking me what my answer would be. I immediately replied “the censorship of my article for Ryerson School of Journalism.” That happened to be true.
 
She wrote back saying that this wasn’t really what she was looking for.
 
Perhaps a day later she sent another email.
 
“While I would love to conduct the interview, the issue is not that you are criticizing Ryerson or the Review (which we have no problem with), but rather that what you wish to talk about doesn’t exactly fit in with our theme. I really want to stress the fact that this is not a cancellation due to the fact that you are angry with our publication; it is because this series is specific to “most” tales. Examples from previous videos show journalists talking about their dumbest moment on a deadline, their most awkward meal, etc. And while your story is interesting to be sure, it is not a “most” something from your journalistic career. I hope you understand.”
 
Somehow Ryerson doesn’t quite understand that a journalist who has fought for years for free speech in this country would think that being denied it was a big disappointment.
 
Let me now go to 1990 when another “roast” in my honour was held. I asked that all proceeds go to the UBC School of Journalism and with some help from Jimmy Pattison, a scholarship in my name was set up and when it was handed out I was asked to make the presentation.
 
Of course I agreed and was asked to say a few words, which I did, warning the graduates that when they got into the Canadian media they would either self-censor or be censored.
 
I have never been asked back! A scholarship in my bloody name and I don’t get to make the presentation.
 
The upshot of this is that the Canadian media is censored in the absence of appropriate self-control by the journalist, as demonstrated twice by the #1 or #2 journalism school in the nation and repeatedly for a decade by my old alma mater, the University of British Columbia.
 
How does this censorship happen?
 
For the most part, it’s simply an understanding that some questions and some subjects for columns and articles are just “not on”.
 
Let’s go back to 1991-2001 when the NDP governed BC. They were, even by the standards set by the Vander Zalm government before them, pretty awful. Every political pundit in the province, including me, held their tootsies firmly to the flame for that decade. Especially expert in their shots were columnists, one of whom brought them down almost single-handedly over the “Fastcat” ferries and Mr. Clark’s naivete over a gambling licence.
 
Now it’s 2001 and Gordon Campbell is in power and almost in the drive home from government gives a huge tax rebate to better off folks. The bumbling and fumbling, the loss of BC Ferries, BC Rail and the virtual bankruptcy of BC Hydro made Glen Clark’s misdeeds look liked childish pranks. It’s been a decade of paying off political pals, resulting in the government that was supposed to be fiscally superior more than tripling the real provincial debt.
 
The zealous media that thrashed the NDP has become a snoozing, slothful syndicate of political poodles reporting only that which simply couldn’t be ignored as news; the ignoring being done on a daily basis by the same columnists who did their duty and then some during the NDP years.
 
I hasten to observe that I don’t blame the journalists themselves – they have families, mortgages and kids’ education to pay for and I don’t think I would have been any better if I didn’t have a legal profession to fall back on.
 
Probably the worst example of media favouritism is the Vancouver Sun, whose editor in charge of the editorial pages was a fellow of the Fraser Institute, a right wing (to say the least) “think tank” that churns out big business babble to a fare-the-well. If you wish an example you only need look at the number of times Mary-Ellen Walling, the fish farmers’ flack, and environmental whores like Patrick Moore, get op-ed columns with no similar access to the other side of these environmental debates.
 
This is not mere mental meandering but very practical – when you see what’s happening with wild salmon because of farmed fish cages, what’s happened to BC Hydro and our rivers because of sweetheart deals it’s been forced to make, what’s happened and is happening to lakes to be mined, to say nothing of the pipelines from the Tar Sands, then tankers down the coast, you must ask yourself where has the mainstream media been? The answer is short and clear: Up Big Business’ ass.
 
You simply cannot have a functioning democracy without a media that keeps pressure on the government as they go. That doesn’t mean that the government isn’t entitled to praise when they do good things but that their every action is assessed with a jaundiced eye as in days gone by.
 
It must always be remembered that the government has unlimited use of public funds with which to bombard the public with their spin.

I close with a bit of doggerel slightly altered to fit:

You cannot hope to bribe or twist,
(thank God!) the BC journalist
But, seeing what the man will do
Unbribed, there’s no occasion to
 
As A.J,Leibling put it “Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.”

 

Share

Conservation Groups Slam Paltry Funding for Site C Environmental Review

Hydropower, WATER,
Share

Read this article from the Georgia Straight on the concerns of environmental groups over the prohibitively small amount of funding made available to participate in the Joint Panel Review into the proposed Site C Dam.

“A prominent B.C. environmental leader is slamming the Conservative
government for achieving “a new low” by capping funding for interveners
in the Site C dam’s joint environmental assessment process. ‘While $19,000 [per organization] may look like a fair amount of
money, when you’re talking about having to hire technical experts,
lawyers, and researchers, it does not go very far, especially when
stacked up against the kind of resources B.C. Hydro has at its
disposal,’ George Heyman, executive director of Sierra Club B.C., told the Straight by phone. ‘So it’s an extremely tipped playing field.’

The provincial and federal environmental-assessment offices
announced on September 30 that a harmonized environmental assessment
process, including a joint review panel, will be undertaken for the Site
C project. The proposed dam would be the third on the Peace River,
alongside the W. A. C. Bennett and Peace Canyon dams.” (Nov. 24, 2011)

Read full article: http://www.straight.com/article-546646/vancouver/groups-slam-site-c-assessment-funding-cap

Share

Why Independent Media Needs Your Support – And How You Can Help TheCanadian.org

Energy and Resources, Fracking, Water and Hydrocarbons, ,
Share

This, dear friends, is a plea for help. Let me illustrate that with an anecdote.
 
The great American attorney, Clarence Darrow once had a client praise him asking, “How can I help?” to which he replied, “Madam, since the Phoenicians invented money there’s only been one answer to that question.”
 
The Common Sense Canadian needs your help, which is especially so when you see what we and other organizations are doing up against corporations and governments which have an endless amount of money. For example, in the struggle to keep our power in BC’s hands we are up against General Electric and both the federal and provincial governments. With fish farms we’re fighting both senior governments and an industry which is immense.
 
The same applies with pipelines and tanker traffic – the enemy is both governments and endless corporation lucre.
 
Our need is magnified many times over by the corporatization of the major media.
 
We at the Common Sense Canadian also back, wherever we can, those fighting to save agricultural land and prime wildlife preserves. There are many valiant people and organizations with which we ally ourselves and they with us.
 
The leadership provided by Alexandra Morton, for one example, has had an extraordinary impact; as has the leadership of Donna Passmore, Rex Weyler, Jennifer Lash and Independent MLA Vicki Huntington. In naming these names I must say that there are many more, like the tireless Joe Foy and Gwen Barlee of the Wildlife Committee and indeed valiant fighters all around this province.
 
Now let me make this clear – we are not overwhelmed by the forces of environmental evil. Indeed we relish the fight; we’d prefer not to have a fight but if that’s what the bastards want, that’s what they’ll get. Most of us have been up against these forces for years and we know there will be many scars to come.
 
We at the Common Sense Canadian see ourselves as an outlet for others which is why we make space available for people to express their views. I would urge you to look at the quantity and quality of regular contributors. I assure you that you’ll be impressed by those who regularly contribute – for free on a regular basis. We also encourage others to pitch a blog through our pages.
 
In the absence of a mainstream media we try to take their place.
 
The task we face is bigger than groups like us, and you who help us, have ever faced. The governments and large corporations are coming at us on a massive mission that will scar our wonderful province for all time.
 
Every time we blink another army appears – recently it’s been the “frackers” who, going deep in the ground, with a massive use of water which they pollute beyond repair in the process, to capture huge quantities of gas not available through traditional drilling methods. This hasn’t been presented to us the citizens who need to know the answers to many questions; where do you get the water? Is that water that could and should be going to farmers and hydro electric facilities? What happens to that water after its been blasted with great force during the “fracking” process? Does it get into the water table and become unsafe to drink?
 
These questions are wrapped up in the issue of Site “C”. Quite apart from the normal and serious environmental concerns, is this power going to be delivered to fracking operations, coal mines and the Tar Sands so that we use an environmental nightmare to assist the biggest polluters on the planet?
 
These and many other questions should be determined by our elected officials after thorough consultation with all citizens and after a thorough airing in the House of Commons and the BC Legislature.
 
The environmental processes in place are a terrible disgrace. I’ve said this before but I’d almost prefer a root canal without  anaesthetic than go to another. They are stacked. with all awkward questions being “out of order”, complete with a corporation-government cosiness that makes you want to vomit.
 
We can and do contribute to the common cause – just look at the great work my colleague Damien Gillis does with his camera and his insightful articles he does while I use my lungs and computer to try to get the message out. (To paraphrase the great Robert Benchley “it took me 15 years to learn that I couldn’t write but by that time I was too famous to quit.”)
 
As mentioned earlier, we the citizens face a force of environmental degradation, to the immense profit of outsiders who thus are unconcerned about environmental and, yes spiritual, matters with only the people as our soldiers. That won’t deter any of us but you can keep us in the fight with financial help.
 
Please join us, if you can, at my roast on Thursday at the Wise Hall 1882 Adanac Street where for $35 ($40 at the door) you can expect some very well known people give me the mickey as I enter my 9th decade.

Also, watch this coming Monday for the start of our Common Sense Canadian membership drive for – as we unveil our hip new t-shirt that promises to the must-have fashion item of 2012!

Share

Breaking: Workers Building Pacific Trails Gas Pipeline to Kitimat Evicted from Construction Site by First Nations

Energy and Resources, Fracking, Oil&Gas, Pipelines and Supertankers, Water and Hydrocarbons, ,
Share

The following is a press release from hereditary leaders of the Wet’suwet’en and Unist’hot’en Nations of Northwest BC:

November 15, 2011 – Setting up a road blockade with signs “Road
Closed to Pacific Trails Pipeline Drillers”, an alliance of the
Unist’ot’en and the Likhts’amisyu of the Wet’suwet’en Nation have
evicted and escorted out Pacific Trails Pipeline drillers and their
equipment.

According to Wet’suwet’en hereditary chief Toghestiy, “We evicted
Pacific Trails Pipeline drillers from our territory this weekend. The
drillers in one vehicle actually cheered for our blockade and one
driller told us ‘Nobody wants to see any pipelines in the North –
especially one that operates as dirty as this one. Have a good day guys
and good luck.’”

“Pacific Trails Pipeline had moved in equipment to do directional
drilling around Gosnell River where our salmon spawn. Their exploratory
drilling and whole pipeline proposal will spell certain disaster in the
Peace River area. We have to protect our sensitive aquifers from the
destruction of pipelines – from the Alberta Tar Sands to our side of the
Rocky Mountains. You cannot make compromises with the life-sustaining
force of water” continues Toghestiy.

Kloum Khun, a Likhts’amisyu hereditary Chief who also participated in
the blockade, said: “We had a sign that said ‘No Pipelines’ and pointed
it out to the drillers. We told them to take out all their equipment
from our territory.”

The Pacific Trails Pipeline, official known as the Kitimat Summit
Lake (KSL) gas pipeline, is a proposed natural gas pipeline that will
move upto 1 million cubic feet per day of natural gas from Summit Lake
near Prince George to Kitimat using an underground 36 inch diameter
pipeline with an 18-metre right of way on each side. Much of this
natural gas is acquired through the environmentally destructive process
of hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking. After processing, the
natural gas would be shipped in supertankers from ports in Kitamat to
the international market. In February 2011, Pacific Northern Gas sold
its stake in the project to the Apache Corporation and EOG Resources
(formerly Enron).

The Pacific Trails Pipeline has a similar proposed right-of-way as
Enbridge Pipeline in Wet’suwet’en territory. According to Toghestiy:
“Enbridge is using the fact that Pacific Trails is proposing the same
right of way as Enbridge to mitigate their own ecological footprint on
our territory.” During a May 2011 interview with Fox News, Enbridge CEO
Pat Daniel discussed Enbridge’s move into the natural gas market and the
possibility of “synergies” between the Enbridge’s Gateway Project and
the Pacific Trails Pipeline.

The $5.5-billion proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline would
carry 700,000 barrels of crude oil a day from Alberta to Kitimat. In
August 2010, representatives of Enbridge in Smithers, Michelle Perret
and Kevin Brown, received formal notice from Wet’suweten hereditary
chiefs Hagwilakw and Toghestiy that Enbridge did not have permission to
build a pipeline on their lands and was trespassing on unceded
Wet’suwet’en lands.

Freda Huson, a spokesperson for the Unist’ot’en Clan of the
Wet’suwet’en, says her community was not consulted about these proposed
pipelines: “The corporations never informed us or consulted us about
their plans. Pacific Trail Pipeline’s proposed route is through two main
salmon spawning channels which provide our staple food supply. We have
made the message clear to Enbridge and Pacific Trails and all of
industry: We cannot and will not permit any pipelines through our
territory.”

The Unist’ot’en Clan of the Wet’suwet’en participated in the First
and Second Indigenous Assembly Against Mining and Pipelines in BC. Says
Mel Bazil: “The plans of Christy Clark and the BC government to push
mining and pipeline developments into our territories will fail. We
reject the short-term interests of profit that motivates those mining
and pipeline developments that are trespassing on our unceded Indigenous
lands.

– 30 –

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Freda Huson: spokesperson for Unist’hot’en: (778)210-1100 or (250) 847-8897
Toghestiy: (250) 847- 8897
Kloum Khun’s: (250) 847-9673
Mel Bazil: 250-877-2805

Share

Hunting and Fracking Battle for State Lands in Pennsylvania

Energy and Resources, Fracking, Oil&Gas, Water and Hydrocarbons,
Share

Read this report from the New York Times on the invasion of prime hunting lands in Pennsylvania by the natural gas fracking industry.

“Some of this state’s most prized game lands lie atop the Marcellus Shale, a vast reserve of natural gas.
And now more and more drills are piercing the hunting grounds. Nine
wells have cropped up on this one game land of roughly 7,000 wooded
acres in Potter County, and permits have been issued for 19 more.

An old dirt road that meanders up a ridge here has been widened and
fortified. Acres of aspen, maple and cherry trees have been cut. In
their place is an industrial encampment of rigs, pipes and water-storage
ponds, all to support the extraction of natural gas through hydraulic
fracturing, a process known as fracking.

‘Who wants to go into their deer stand in the predawn darkness and
listen to a compressor station?’ lamented Bob Volkmar, 63, an
environmental scientist who went grouse hunting the other day through
these noisy autumnal woods. ‘It kind of ruins the experience.’”(Nov. 12, 2011)

Read full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/12/us/pennsylvania-hunting-and-fracking-vie-for-state-lands.html?_r=2

Share

Rafe on Supporting the Common Sense Canadian – Plus Our New Op-ed Blog

Energy and Resources, Pipelines and Supertankers, WATER, , ,
Share

The Common Sense Canadian has been going well over the past year-plus and this seems to be a good moment to reflect on what we’ve done, not done, and will do.
 
First please understand that we are just two people. Our funding is very limited and, to speak boldly, we need considerably more. We’re deeply grateful to those who have donated and special thanks to those who have signed on for a regular donation. We’ll be launching a special promotion next week for November and December, encouraging more of you to become monthly sustaining contributors – even $5 a month helps, as it’s funding we can count on into the future.
 
Second, one way you can immediately be of help is to attend my 80th birthday Roast on November 24th next – tickets cost $35 in advance ($25 for students) and all proceeds go to the Common Sense Canadian. (Incidentally, the name derives partly from Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense which sparked the American Revolution. Paine is a great hero to Damien and me.)
 
The most critical issue we now face comes from the success of this offering. Our “hits” and regular emails from readers tell us that we’re making contact with a large number of British Columbians and that has become a unique “problem” – more and more people want us to get involved with the war they’re having with the establishment over an environmental issue in which they are heavily involved. And, in a moment I’ll tell you what we’re going to do to assist these wonderful folks in BC and Canada.
 
For historical reasons Damien and I find ourselves with three issues that dominate our time – Fisheries, private power projects (IPPs) and power projects generally, and pipelines/tankers. This by no means dulls our concern about other issues such as the Gateway Project and its many facets, mining issues such as Raven coal project on Vancouver Island and the so-called Prosperity Mine and other issues that  so many of our courageous citizens are involved in.
 
We have set up a page called “Your Voice”, where we welcome op-ed blogs on issues we don’t regularly cover (you can read our first entry there now – a piece from David Williams, President of Friends of the Nemaiah Valley, on the cultural impacts of the proposed Prosperity Mine). This column will be accessible from our home page and also included in our weekly mail-outs to readers. I want to emphasize this – we take all these issues seriously and just because a blog is published doesn’t mean that we won’t help in other ways as well when the opportunity arises.
 
We reserve the right to edit for errors and length as well as issues of good taste and defamation – and we can’t guarantee that we’ll publish every piece. But if you have an issue you’re dealing with and would like to inform more people about it, please contact us with your proposed op-ed.
 
Damien and I welcome this opportunity to expand the horizons of the Common Sense Canadian.
 
We must be our own media in this province of anaemic mainstream media who peddle, uncritically, the establishment line.
 
Please join us!
 
Rafe and Damien
 
 

Share

Abbotsford Councillor Patricia Ross Takes Stand Against Water Privatization

Urban & Transport, WATER, ,
Share

Read this story from TheTyee.ca on Abbotsford Councillor Patricia Ross’ brave stand against a private model for water services in her community being pushed by the town’s mayor and others.

“Ross is the sole incumbent to oppose a public-private partnership
(P3) that would see the private design, build, partial finance and
operation of a water works project in Mission’s Stave Lake, a contract
of 25 years. Originally a partnership with neighbouring Mission as a way to address future water shortages, in April the district dropped out of applying for a federal P3 grant for the project, in the wake of strong public opposition.

To Ross, Abbotsford broke a ‘gentleman’s
agreement’ by going ahead with the P3 without the partnership of
Mission. But she has other concerns, including the private operation of
the water system, cost uncertainties, and what she sees as the lack of
choice given to the public in the matter — concerns shared by other
opponents, including some new council hopefuls.” (Nov. 10, 2011)

Read full article: http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/11/10/Abbotsford-P3-Deal/

Share

New Report from Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives: Fracking Up Our Water, Hydro Power and Climate

Energy and Resources, Fracking, Hydropower, Oil&Gas, WATER, Water and Hydrocarbons, , ,
Share

Read this vital new report from Ben Parfitt and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives on the impacts of fracking technology and resource development in BC.

“A new study concludes that BC’s ballooning shale gas industry is the
natural gas equivalent of Alberta’s tar sands, placing the province’s
water and hydro resource at risk as well as jeopardizing climate change
policies.

Despite industry and government assertions that natural gas from
shale rock is a ‘green’ alternative to other fossil fuels, the study
released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and
Wilderness Committee finds the opposite, and lays much of the blame on
the controversial gas extraction technology known as hydraulic
fracturing, or ‘fracking.'” (Nov. 9, 2011)

Read report: http://www.policyalternatives.ca/fracking

Share
Talisman's water pipe from the Williston Reservoir - under construction this past October

Energy Minister Lied About Consulting Public on Frack Water Pipeline

Energy and Resources, Fracking, WATER, Water and Hydrocarbons,
Share

Did BC Energy Minister Rich Coleman outright lie in the Legislature when he promised public consultation for a massive new pipeline to draw billions of litres of water from BC’s biggest hydroelectric dam, the Williston Reservoir, to supply the natural gas industry? A new documentary from Global TV leaves little doubt he did just that.

This past weekend, Global TV’s national investigative journal, 16×9, aired a 16 min story titled “Untested Science”, on the exploding natural gas hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”) industry in Northeast BC and Alberta. I assisted with the film, contributing a significant amount of footage from a forthcoming feature documentary project I’m working on with another Vancouver filmmaker, Fiona Rayher.

For me, the most poignant aspect of the must-see story was its coverage of the enormous use and contamination of fresh water for these fracking operations, which blast a mixture of high-pressure water, sand and toxic chemicals deep underground to crack open shale formations, thus releasing gases trapped within. The practice has become highly controversial everywhere it’s practiced around the world – generating a ban in France and moratoria in places like Quebec and parts of the Northeast United States. Meanwhile, BC, a global hotbed for the industry, has largely escaped public and regulatory scrutiny – but that’s starting to change, as this 16×9 documentary demonstrates.

The story clearly shows Minister Coleman, responding in the Legislature this past June to a question from Independent MLA Bob Simpson – who, along with fellow Independent MLA Vicki Huntington, has worked hard to put fracking under the microscope in Victoria – regarding the then-proposed water pipeline by fracking giant Talisman Energy and Canbriam Energy into the Williston Reservoir.

Mr. Simpson asked whether the proposal by Talisman Energy and Cambrian Energy to remove 7.3 Billion litres of water a year from behind the dam has in fact already been approved, without public consultation. Here’s how Coleman replied:

“There will be an extensive process of public consultation, discussion and negotiations with First Nations before anything would go ahead.”

Two months later, the companies got their approval – in the form of 20 year water extraction licenses from the BC Government – absent any public consultation. The highlight of Global’s program is the bumbling response of Coleman to their questions about why he lied in the Legislature when he promised “an extensive process of public consultation.” Here’s part of Coleman’s feeble answer: “…And that could have been a mistake in language by me…I mean, basically what I was trying to say is that we would do government process with regards to water licenses.”

By the time I was up in the Peace Valley in early October, the construction was already well underway, proceeding at a furious pace. I counted 3 different coupling machines at work, fusing together 50-60 foot lengths of black polyethylene pipe, approximately 10-12 inches in width – for two side-by-side pipelines.

A worker there described the process to me. The machine heats up one end of each pipe, then presses them together until they bond. Each machine can fuse a new length of pipe every half hour or so. With at least three machines running, the construction of the 37 mile pipeline from the edge of the reservoir to the companies’ nearby fracking leases was progressing rapidly.

I drove out to the end of the line, where the twin pipes will eventually plunge into the reservoir and begin hoovering out 10 million litres of water every day – mind you, before it gets turned into electricity for British Columbians by passing through the dam’s turbines (it’s of course also permanently removed from the Peace River’s downstream ecologies). While filming the work underway there, a silver truck from Talisman barreled up to me. The driver rolled down his window and began barking questions at me; as soon as he ascertained I didn’t work for the company he told me to “Take my pictures and fuck off.” He claimed it was private property, to which I replied that we’d have to agree to disagree on that point – in perfectly well-mannered, expletive-free speech (okay, maybe not quite). I finished my filming at a deliberately leisurely pace, packed up and left.

What I didn’t get into with this fellow from Talisman was the fact that my family’s ranch, Goldbar at 20 Mile, sits beneath that there reservoir. It was flooded years ago to provide the people of BC with affordable electricity – not for the fracking industry to get its water. And therein lies the problem with this whole scenario – or one of them, anyway.

British Columbians are being told by Coleman and his government that we need to flood yet another section of the Peace River Valley for Site C Dam; and yet all of the power from that dam is destined not for BC households and small businesses, but to power the fracking industry and up to six new mines in the region (BC’s electrical demands are on a steep decline, to the point we’re currently abundantly self-sufficient in electricity).

Meanwhile, we’re sucking unmade electricity – in the form of water – from an existing hydroelectric reservoir, to provide another vital resource for fracking. And all this electricity and water go to industry at a fraction of what it’s worth. We’re currently selling power to big industry for about half what you and I pay on our residential bills – and that gap is only set to widen.

So here is the question facing British Columbians, when it comes to the fracking industry and the matter of Site C Dam:

Do you support subsidizing the oil and gas and coal industries with endless amounts of fresh water – including taking it from our public hydroelectric dam – plus building a $10 Billion new dam, to be paid for by your tax dollars and much increased power bills, all so these industries can get their power for half to a third what you pay for it?

That’s the deal Energy Minster Rich Coleman and Premier Christy Clark would have you do. Just don’t expect them to ask you this question. They’ve made their position on public consultation abundantly clear.

Share