A press release from the Purcell Alliance for Wilderness: 

A large group of local residents marched into an Environmental Assessment Office open house for the proposed Glacier/Howser hydroelectric project in Meadow Creek in the West Kootenay region of B.C. demanding a public meeting with the proponent, Axor Group, Inc. of Montreal on Wednesday, June 27. Dissatisfied with the open house format and the project itself the citizens wanted to hear all of their neighbours’ questions and the company’s answers. Their demands were denied by the EAO. Undaunted, the residents set up chairs and invited project manager Simon Gourdeau to answer questions. He complied and, in turn, the residents expressed their own views about the negative impacts of the hydro project.

So when Mr. Gourdeau stated that B.C. has a 15% deficit in electricity production, Gary Diers of the Purcell Alliance for Wilderness quoted a Pembina Institute study stating: “With the exception of several low water years, 1995, 2001, 2004, BC has been a net exporter of electricity in each of the last 10 years. In addition, he noted that locally the heavy needs for electricity are in the winter whereas this project provides electricity in the summer. “This project and the 500 other licenses for private power in B.C. are not about energy self-sufficiency for B.C., rather they are about privatizing our water resources and privatizing electrical production in B.C.,” summarized Diers. And everyone heard the conversation.

Diers went on to explain how B.C. is already selling the electricity to the States that is produced downstream from a storage dam in the nearby Duncan drainage for much less than B.C. is planning to buy electricity from private producer Axor. “So we are selling the electricity from the environmentally devastating Duncan dam because we don’t need it and now Axor plans to dam Glacier, Howser and East, the creeks running into the Duncan, for more electricity we don’t need at great environmental cost. This project simply makes no sense for the people of B.C.!” Again, everyone heard the conversation.

The conversation continued with concerns particular to this project including the destruction of blue-listed Bull Trout habitat; the mountains of waste rock muck from tunneling to be piled along the creeks; the heavy impacts to the MacBeth Icefield Trail; impacts on blue-listed Grizzly Bears and Wolverines; cumulative impacts with the proposed Jumbo Glacier Resort; questionable sustainability; massive deforestation from a 91.5 km transmission line, 25 roads and seismic lines; building roads in precipitous terrain; along with many other issues.

While not within the purview of the EAO, the democratization of the meeting brought out deep concerns by residents that yet another round of energy projects was being foisted upon them by the present government. The people of this area, in the heart of the Columbia Basin, have not forgotten the last round of energy projects which displaced 2300 residents from their farms and homes, destroyed the prime wildlife habitat of the region, and inundated First Nation sites including their burial grounds. In later years, the Columbia Basin Trust was formed because the people of the region had not been properly considered in the drafting of that energy policy and because they should be able to determine their own destiny. So now there are 500 licenses for private power granted throughout B.C. with dozens of them in this area and 30 projects already in production. Again, all of this environmentally destructive privatization is going forward with no public review and no cumulative environmental study of all these projects combined.

Aside from the obvious environmental problems with the private Glacier/Howser Hydroelectric project, it is no wonder that the people of this region are opposed to energy policies that are detrimental to their environment, that show no clear benefit to themselves, and that are dictated to them from the provincial government.

The proposed Glacier/Howser Hydroelectric project is a $240 million 125MW private project 100 km north of Nelson, B.C. They were awarded a B.C. Hydro contract in the 2006 Call for Power and now begin the Environmental Assessment Office review.

PURCELL ALLIANCE FOR WILDERNESS, Contact Gary Diers 250-366-4455gadiers AT yahoo.ca