Category Archives: WATER

Colin Hansen’s fibs about river privatization

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When I’ve finished you will see why I call the Gordon (Pinocchio)
Campbell government gigantic fibbers – to avoid the more appropriate “L”
word.

Let’s go back to what Finance Minister Colin Hansen had to say about
private energy projects and if you “Google” “Colin Hansen power” you
will see and hear for yourself. It is a tissue of fibs.

1. He says BC is a net importer of power. That’s a falsehood. BC Hydro
is a net importer some years but BC as a province is a net exporter,
That can be proved by looking at the figures from the National Energy
Board which monitors exports. Moreover, when BC Hydro imports from
Alberta it does so at “off peak” hours thus very cheaply and because
Hydro can “store” energy as water in their reservoirs, it exports that
power below the line during “peak” periods making a very tidy profit. To
think that our Finance Minister doesn’t know that, explains a lot about
financial affairs he and the premier have grossly mismanaged and told
fibs about. Hanson says that independent power producers are small
outfits and that the rivers continue at “their normal stream”. This,
again, is an outrageous falsehood! Look at our website at
www.thecanadian.org or www.saveourrivers.ca and see the visual evidence
for yourself through Damien Gillis’s videos.

2. Hansen says that only .03% of rivers will be used. The actual
figure is double that but the important fact for British Columbians is
that at least 600 rivers are targeted all of which have substantial fish
values and the power plants will kill the ecology these rivers sustain.
He neglects to mention the very substantial clear cutting required for
roads and transmission lines.


3. Hansen says these projects are widely supported by many
environmentalists. I can think of three – Tzeporah Berman who is seen by
most environmentalists as a turncoat for her own profit, Dr. Marc Jaccard
who is in the pay of the BC government and Dr. David Suzuki who only
supported it if rivers were safe and, as I understand it – David can
speak for himself, of course – he has serious reservations about the
Energy Policy as being implemented.

4. Hansen says that these projects are “clean and green”. It is safe
to say that when you see the words “clean and green” the very opposite
is true and that very much applies to the bunch who call themselves
“Citizens for Green Power”, an organization which shills for the private
power producers.

See the video yourself – the only true statement is the minister’s
name.

Also remember that Pinocchio himself and the three who have been Energy
Minister over the past several years have maintained that this private
power is to give BC energy sufficiency by 2016.

Let me now tell you the real story.

I have spoken around the province, written in articles and stated on
radio and TV the following:

1. BC is not in need of energy and won’t be for a very long time to
come if we practice conservation, (a word foreign to us, sadly), upgrade
present facilities, put generators on flood control dams and take back
the power we’re entitled to under the Columbia River treatment.

2. BC Hydro is forced by the government to enter contracts with
private producers to buy power, on a take or pay basis, at double or
more what they can sell it for on the export market.

3. I have said that this private power must be sold by BC Hydro
because it can only be produced during the annual run-off thus is not
available to BC Hydro in the colder months when Hydro can use it. Don
McInnes, Head of Plutonic Energy, partnered with General Electric,
stated that you would “have to have been on Mars not to know that this
energy was for export”.

4. I’ve stated that because BC Hydro must lose huge sums a year
financing private energy producers (the contracts total about $40
BILLION at this point), it will no longer be able to pay its handsome
annual dividend to the BC Government but that they will still pay the
dividend by increasing rates to us the BC public!

What we have not heard from Pinocchio and his ministers is an admission
that this power is not for BC use as claimed, has nothing to do with
making BC self sufficient and moreover is being subsidized by the public of
BC through its crown corporation, BC Hydro.

Now, however, the truth is out, though you had to read it in the Globe
and Mail, not Canwest which is the laundry for the BC government’s dirty
linen.

On Page S3 of the Globe and Mail for July 30 there is an interview under
the headline POWER POLITICS, Will the Clean Energy Act clear the way for
British Columbia to become a significant exporter of renewable energy?

Bill Bennett, the Energy Minister, the cabinet blab, states “we are
actively working toward developing export opportunities to markets such
as California. Many states and provinces want to reduce their emissions
by replacing energy generated from carbon intensive fuels and we are in
a unique position to offer these jurisdictions clean and reliable power
generated at competitive prices. (I’ll say!! RM) We will need to work
with independent power producers as we seek and advance these
opportunities.”

“BC Hydro, as required under this act (the so-called Clean Energy Act –
RM) will present to government an integrated resource plan on export
opportunities. In the meantime, the government is committed to working
collaboratively with the independent power industry.”

To digress for a moment, you are probably asking yourself, as I have
asked, if this is such a terrific idea, why isn’t it being done by BC
Hydro, our own company, so that all the profits would flow to the BC
Treasury?

For the purposes of this article I simply underscore the obvious – what
I’ve been saying and writing has been absolutely true – this private
power is not for BC consumption and that all the profits of this swindle
go to private companies, not to the public of British Columbia where
they belong.

We also must conclude, on the evidence of the minister responsible, that
the sobriquet “Pinocchio” is indeed fitting for Gordon Campbell, the
premier of this province who is justifiably shown by our cartoonist
Gerry Hummel with his pants on fire.

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Canwest’s avoidance of sea lice and river privatization

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Perhaps I’m a bit optimistic but I see the Canwest writers coming out, just a teeny bit.

If you had just arrived from Mars and looked at old issues of the Vancouver Province and the Vancouver Sun going back a decade you would never, for a moment, know that there have been any environmental issues in BC let alone the disastrous Rivers and Fish Farms catastrophe. In fact you would assume that Premier Gordon (Pinocchio) Campbell is a very popular politician. No doubt you would shake your head when you read the results of published polls and see the depths to which Mr. Campbell’s popularity has fallen.

You would see the odd article in the Sun by Scott Simpson on these two issues but they’re like letters servicemen send from war zones – enough to show concern but nothing specific about what’s really going on.

Mike Smyth in the July 25th edition of The Province goes much further in criticism of the Campbell government than at any time over the past decade. He talks of the cover-up of the BC Lotteries scandal, the screw-up of the HST, the muzzling of the Child Advocate, the privacy scandal, the Freedom of Information mess and the MLA expenses debacle.

Nothing about the government cover-up of sea lice stats, which should, but won’t, bring down the government!

Here we have an ongoing plan to desecrate our rivers so that BC Hydro can pay double what it’s worth to give BC Energy that it can’t use. From Palmer and Smyth, nothing. Zilch.

Here is an issue that presently has run to $40 BILLION! BC Hydro must pay for energy it doesn’t need, something that dwarfs the Glen Clark fast ferries fiasco without a comment from the intrepid Canwest political writers.

Here we have the fish farm issue, international in scope, with Alexandra Morton probably BC’s most tenacious fighter, on an issue she has taken up with the likes of the King of Norway, and it’s as if she weren’t there!

I sense this may have something to do with the fact that I’ve been on these issues – Smyth is mad at me big time. He has reason to be but that doesn’t excuse him avoiding issues because I’m on them.

Mike might answer that that’s not the reason, which puts me in mind of the lawyer in a southern courtroom (where things are a bit laid back) who, to the obvious displeasure of the judge, smoked a big cigar throughout the trial.

After the case was lost, the lawyer said to the judge “I think it’s terrible that you should decide against my client just because I smoked a cigar during the hearing”.

“That wasn’t the reason I found against you”, replied the judge.

“Well”, said the lawyer, “it’s a better reason than any you gave in your judgment”.

C’mon Mike, grow up!

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Sustainability and public policy

Canada, Politics, WATER, Western Canada, ,
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We the people must do more than oppose environmental nightmares encouraged and sometimes committed by government.

Most, if not all, of the projects The Common Sense Canadian has been involved in, stack the deck from the outset. None could better make my point than Fish Lake in the Chilcotin area which got past the BC Environmental Assessment process like a hot knife through butter.
A federal review panel has has found major faults with the project – in terms of impacts on the environment and First Nations who depend upon it – but the final decision will be made by the Prime Minister.

Fish Lake is a good place to start for today’s rant but it could have started at any number of other projects.

Before we even consider environmental catastrophes like Fish Lake we must, as a society, make up our minds on this fundamental question: when decisions are made, do jobs and taxes trump the environment? If that’s so, we should cast off our cloak of hypocrisy and say so, leaving the Ministry of Environment the sole role of determining what rules will govern HOW, not IF the project is to proceed.

As anyone who has attended these public hearings can tell you,
one is only entitled to deal with the “how” not the “if” – unless you’re the company, in which case you are permitted to present for the meeting and for the media glowing descriptions of the benefits of the project with no risk of contradiction.
The companies invariably hold the meetings in out of the way places in halls that would scarcely handle a Sunday School meeting.

All companies committing environmental catastrophes tell us about the employment they will create. In all cases – you can depend on this – the figures are, to put it kindly, fudged. An excellent example comes out of private power producers who talk about the employment prospects from their dams – oops! I mean weirs – where in fact the only employment is for short term construction,
most of the jobs being low-paying and going to people from outside the project area.
After the dam – oops again, I mean weir – the computerized plant has one or two jobs only.

The tax issue is interesting, for when Premier Gordon (Pinocchio) Campbell was asked what was in it for BC with private power projects, he named off HST, corporate income taxes, municipal taxes, and income taxes on employees.
These same benefits would come from building a red light district.

We, the public, must continue to demand proper hearings on environmental issues as a matter of right.
But there is a much larger issue which we’ve all been avoiding: how long can we continue as a society which practices uncontrolled consumption?

For several years I chaired meetings for Metro Vancouver on sustainability issues. These were not hearings in the true sense and weren’t billed as such. They were opportunities to discuss the feasibility of a project or a policy, the object being that the panel of experts and the audience would be able to detail the problems to be overcome for the benefit of the politicians and staff. This was fair enough
because municipalities do provide citizens opportunities to question whether or not to proceed with a project, as any developer can attest!
I only raise this to tell you that at many of the meetings, as I introduced the panel and the subject, I would ask “where does this all end? Do we just continue to grow and grow assuming that there will always be another field to plow up for houses?” The question was never answered.

This is the decision we must make as citizens – and Fish Lake, private power projects, fish farms, logging, and oil pipelines/tankers all in issue now, bring this question into focus.

Rex Weyler, a co-founder of Greenpeace, made this point a few weeks ago at a public meeting. He simply, but provocatively, asked whether or not we can simply go on consuming and expect to have the goods we consume and still retain our environment? And that’s what Fish Lake and other projects I’ve mentioned are all about. For if our philosophy is that failure to “progress” means we must, like a Ponzi* scheme, move on to the next river, the next valley,
the next species still left in the ocean, we will suffer the fate of all Ponzi schemes – we’ll implode.

We don’t have to rip our environment apart in order
to have a prosperous society, as many world societies – Holland, Belgium and Switzerland come to mind – demonstrate. We are a resource-based economy because we can be not because we must. Fish Lake, private power companies, logging companies, fish farms and piplelines/tankers teach us that the resources we can now exploit
are no longer far away, thus safely out of mind – but still just around the corner.

Unfortunately, 200 years or so of ever-increasing exploitation of resources have created a society that doesn’t want to change. It’s like the fishermen in Newfoundland when their fishery was closed – they demanded the right to do what past generations had always done even though there were no fish left.
Our society wants to fish where there are no fish left, just as we demand the right to mine no matter where the ore is, or the environmental cost of so doing;
we want to log because that’s what we’ve always done; we want to destroy farmland for new neighborhoods and shopping centres just as always has happened; we want the right to fish and destroy habitat at the same time and we want to risk serious and permanent damage where pipelines and tankers go.

The case is irrefutable – we cannot continue this way.

Instead of saying “let’s find new ways to live and earn the money to do so; let’s really learn how to conserve; let’s stop our imbedded habit of built-in obsolescence so that we can use products longer”, we are in denial.
Instead of meeting a very obvious problem head-on and looking for solutions we will carry on until the last fish is killed.

Fish Lake is a message, a symbol that we do have to stop somewhere, re-group and look for ways to re-cast our society so we can live well without destroying our precious environment.

* A Ponzi scheme is an investment fraud that involves the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors.

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Seeing green: Normally clear Narrows Inlet estuary turned a murky green by a silt dump from a private power project on nearby Tyson Lake

Down the Drain: Massive Silt Dump from Private Power Project Threatens Fish

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Who knows where Tyson Lake is, or cares? And who gives a damn about Tyson Creek, the Tzoonie River, and Narrows Inlet?

Clearly the Federal and Provincial Governments couldn’t care less.
And maybe they don’t have to because at 9 Megawatts the company messing up the area doesn’t have to go through any environmental assessment process. In BC, if a project is under 50 MW, no process is required and, as you will see, the environmental impact of smaller projects can be lethal. (Incidentally, California doesn’t consider any hydro project over 30 MW as green!)
That’s why the “size” rule is not just stupid but hugely injurious to our environment.

Let’s look at what happened with that “little” project, above Narrows Inlet on the Sunshine Coast, which operates by draining Tyson Lake then sending it into Tyson Creek, thence into the Tzoonie River and Tzoonie Estuary. Imagine the lake as a giant bathtub, with a man-made hole and drain in the bottom.

Here’s how Scott Simpson put it last May in the Vancouver Sun:

Within a few weeks of beginning operations, the facility began releasing cloudy water into Tyson Creek – suggesting that a disturbance had taken place under the ice-covered surface of Tyson Lake and caused a large release of silt into the lake. It appears that drawing down the lake for power generation caused the surface ice to scour a delta situated at one end of the lake.

The cloudy, or turbid, water was observed in the Tzoonie River and all the way out to the river’s estuary in Narrows Inlet. (From Pollution worries halt Sechelt power project)

Here’s what Bob Price – a local resident who has closely documented the situation and submitted his findings to the authorities, with little response – has to say:

Over this past year, with constant dawn to dusk float plane, water taxi industrial noise…no mountain goats on the Tzoonie Narrows cliffs. No marbled murrelets spotted. No osprey in the inlet. No Trumpeter swans wintering in the estuary. No bears on the shoreline. No beaver seen in the Tzoonie Estuary. No owls heard at night.

And the environmental impact of bottom draining an alpine lake?

How are two massive silt dumps, into the Tzoonie watershed right when fragile and defenceless alevins are migrating from their gravel beds to the sea? The magnificent Tzoonie is home to Coho, Chum, Sockeye, Steelhead, Cutthroat and Dolly Varden. Oh yeah…Coho fry spend a year in their home river.

And when friends pulled up their crab trap, in the normally crystal clear estuary June 6, 2010… containing a freshly fillet and bloody Red Snapper as bait…12 hours later, the trap was recovered – the snapper fillet was blanketed in glacial silt…a first in 20 years also. No crabs.

Here’s how the project works (or doesn’t work!), from Daniel Bouman, Executive Director of the Sunshine Coast Conservation Association:

About the Tyson Creek IPP: This project uses Tyson Lake as a head pond. A tunnel, carrying the penstock pipe, was bored under the lake and a hole was blasted through the lake bottom to allow water to flow into the penstock and down to the generating station, after which the water is allowed to return to Tyson Creek, which has a fish bearing reach below the generating station. A re-watering pipe carries water from the tunnel back up to the creek’s natural outlet on Tyson Lake. This allows minimum flow requirements (5% of the mean annual flow) to be met.

While the project has been shut down for five months now, since the silt dump incident, the damage to fish has been done. And owner Renewable Power Corp. is seeking relief from the Fisheries Act, fearing they may go bankrupt if they are forced to stick to pollution laws and keep the siltation down to allowable levels – which could kill their project for good.

Bob Price has been onto both the Federal and Provincial governments going back some 18 months – beginning long before this disaster ever happened, which would be the optimal time for DFO and the Province to do their jobs. The province, as noted, doesn’t care because the project is under 50 MW/h. When Mr. Price first warned DFO of what had happened, the C.O. “…had no boat available.” And a DFO officer came after the worst was over and stated that he had seen no environmental damage!

In order to understand how egregious DFO’s actions have been, here are the two sections of the Fisheries Act that apply.

The federal Fisheries Act protects fish and fish habitat. Section 35 of the Act states:
“No person shall do any work that results in the harmful alteration, disruption or destruction of fisheries habitat” [unless authorized].

Section 36 of the Act protects fish habitat from pollution: “No person shall deposit or permit the deposit of a deleterious substance of any type in water frequented by fish or in any place … [where it] … may enter such water…”

And the worst is yet to come, for other private power projects on lakes in the area draining into Narrows Inlet are planned to come on stream (literally!).

Tyson Lake is only the beginning. On the way are clusters of lakes including Ramona Lake and Phantom Lake, which are presently under construction. All the projects in these clusters will drain lakes and flow into Tzoonie River – except Phantom, which will drain into Salmon Inlet. These two inlets, as noted, are a hugely important source of fish of many descriptions. This added development will magnify the impact on the Tzoonie River.

It must thus be noted that these IPPs are different than many we’ve seen because – unlike river diversions – they use lake water by draining the lake, up to 20 meters annually, into penstocks, which then go through the generator and into transmission lines.

The problem with all these projects is that there is no meaningful public process. Meetings are indeed held – usually at a place inconvenient to the interested public – and are meaningless. For by the time the meetings are held licenses have already been granted and the public has no power to do anything but make suggestions as to environmental assessment rules – which, of course, will be ignored.

It’s critical that the public understand that since the Campbell government took away the right of municipal bodies to zone these private power projects, through Bill 30, the meetings are pointless frustrations.

Here’s how Bob Price sums up:

After observing a huge siltation dump in Narrows Inlet, on March 21, 2010, and through subsequent inquiry, I discovered that an IPP worker on the shore of Narrows Inlet estuary – at the mouth of the Tzoonie River – stated that the cause of this was “a massive silt stumpage directly caused by this IPP presently bottom-draining Tyson Lake.”

This giant glob of debris rushed down Tyson Creek and has dumped a huge silt sediment glob down the Tzoonie River and an extensive residue remains in Narrows Inlet turning every bit of water light green. That silt can’t be too good for cutthroat trout and other indigenous species – coho, chum, sockeye, oysters, clams, starfish, cod, ling cod, snapper etc.

Is this impact to be expected to happen to the IPP proponent bottom-draining Ramona Lake as well? Phantom Lake, and other such high alpine lakes? The bottom part of Ramona Creek is a “blue listed” cutthroat trout stream.

Spring is the time for fish eggs to hatch and fry to work their way to the sea in the inlet. In the midst of this destructively sad, so-called “green” project and it’s massive “green” silt, the alevin are destroyed as they make their way from their gravel beds to the sea at this time of the year.

It’s bad enough that these IPPs are not only an eyesore, but they are proving to be environmentally destructive to boot. To insects, for fish food. They don’t breed in fast moving water in steel pipe. Fish don’t survive when they inhale copious amounts of fine silt. Each draw down of the lake will result in the same silt dump.

Do our stewards of the environment, federal and provincial, keep records? Communicate? Assess? Investigate? What on earth do these officials do as part of their assessment? What is the mitigation plan for such an eventuality? An immediate response is required as this sediment dump is a violation of the Fisheries Act that governs these species.

Here is where Mr. Price makes the point that we all must understand. The governments cannot be forced to be the proper stewards of our environment by the public they are supposed to serve.

You will hear Gordon (Pinocchio) Campbell say, ad nauseum, that these environmental assessments are the most stringent in the world, blah, blah, blah.

Well, folks, the old Soviet Union Bill of Rights was the greatest protection of citizens in the world. It matters not what the environmental rules and tests are if no one is allowed to examine the results, cross-examine the people responsible, and impose appropriate penalties.

Who cares for environmental rules and regulations when, as here with the Tyson Lake disaster, there are no consequences? Where else in the world can one destroy an environment and be protected against responsibility by the very people mandated to protect it?

All the above points out conclusively that the two governments cannot, in any way, be held accountable by the public. The only public hearings held are after the project is a done deal and those public hearings can’t affect the outcome any way.

The desecration of our environment continues and the public have no say whatsoever; that, dear friends, is Gordon Campbell’s energy policy.

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The new gold rush

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Editorial by Gerry Warner in the Cranbrook Daily Townsman. “The province is being flooded with ‘prospectors’ that have staked more than 800 rivers, streams and lakes in the province, hoping to become private power producers and make a fortune by exporting the province’s energy bounty. Fortunes stand to be made, but these fortunes are not necessarily good for B.C.” Read article

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