Press release from the West Kootenay EcoSociety:

Nelson, British Columbia – The proposed Glacier/Howser private power project has hit a major environmental snag and is again floundering over fish. In a surprising move, the provincial Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) stopped the clock on the review of the controversial private power project due to impacts on fish and fish habitat noting these posed a “significant challenge” for the proposed project.

“This is a significant step for the Environmental Assessment Office. It shows that AXOR hasn’t done their homework and there are such serious risks to the environment that the government had to stop the clock. It is a step in the right direction,” says Lee-Ann Unger, West Kootenay EcoSociety. “ However, the fact that the EAO cannot reject the project, regardless of its environmental impact, clearly illustrates problems with the process.”

The EAO suspended the environmental review of the 100MW Glacier/Howser project half way into the 180 day assessment process. They are requiring AXOR, the project’s proponent, to gather additional information on fish and fish habitat impacts before they complete the process. The review would be resumed if and when AXOR provides this information. The timeline for the suspension has not been confirmed. Surprisingly, there is no legislation in place to provide the EAO with the ability to reject a project regardless of its environmental impact.

Environmental assessments are designed to assess project components, work with proponents to mitigate project impacts and to make recommendations to the Minister of Environment and Minister of Energy, Mines & Petroleum Resources. The Ministers make the final decision on whether a project is to be approved.

“In simple terms this project should not go ahead, not now, and not in the future. It should be dead in the water. Its construction would come at too high an environmental cost,” Unger states. “AXOR has had ample time to collect information for the assessment. More time is not going to make this project environmentally sound. It’s time for AXOR to pack up its environmentally irresponsible plans for Glacier and Howser creeks and move them out.”

This project, the largest of its kind proposed for the Kootenays, has been dogged by controversy due to the negative impact it would have on important bull trout populations, a number of threatened and endangered species including grizzly bears, and plans to permanently divert water from four creeks.

The EAO suspension comes on the heels of a series of events including more than 1,100 people flooding a government public meeting on the project in Kaslo, exceeding the town’s population; the BC government receiving more than a thousand public submissions on the project, with more than 90% of these expressing opposition to it; and a joint submission made to the EAO by the Ktunaxa Nation Council, Okanagan Nation Alliance and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), which deemed the project’s potential impacts to fish and fish habitat unacceptable.

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For more information or for photos contact: Lee-Ann Unger

A letter from Alex Atamanenko, MP for BC Southern Interior, published in the Rossland Telegraph:

Dear Premier Campbell:

On 24 July 2009 I submitted a letter to the Environmental Assessment Office, expressing concerns with the proposed Glacier Howser Private Hydroelectric Project.  Attached please find a copy of this submission.

An overwhelming majority of people in our area are against this project as evidenced by over 1100 people who showed up to a Environmental Assessment hearing held in Kaslo, in addition to over 450 people who attending a public meeting in Nelson.  It is my understanding that the public hearings in the Lardeau Valley and Invermere were also, almost to a person, outspoken against this project.  To my knowledge, of the many emails and letters I have received on this subject, only the proponent’s and a mining contractor’s were supportive.

The attached letter outlines many of the concerns in regard to the environment such as the impact on transmission lines on the Purcell Mountains Wilderness Area and the Old Growth Forest Management Areas.  As well, to my knowledge, there has been no study to assess the cumulative effect of the hundreds of developing and proposed Independent Power Project (IPP) infrastructures of dams, diversions and transmission lines around the Province on the many affected watersheds in rural BC, and our province’s wildlife, fish and terrestrial habitats and eco-systems.

Many constituents have also expressed their outrage at Bill 30, which basically has taken the right away from local governments to control developments that affect their communities.   Citizens in this region felt further shut out of any democratic process when the proponent for Glacier Howser refused to hold any public hearing in the nearest large population centre of Nelson.

First, there is a Stop Glacier/Howser site, http://www.glacierhowser.ca/.

This is the first river privatization proposal for BC that would totally divert the creeks, leaving the downstream flow diminished by up to 80%, seriously affecting the existing ecosystem.

Despite demands from local governments and organizations the Environmental Assessment Office and the proponent, AXOR, refuse to hold a meeting in Nelson.  This means we need everyone to attend the meeting at the JV Humphries school gym in Kaslo, Tuesday, June 23.  We will start with a rally at 6:15 PM and then attend the public meeting at 7 PM.  Bring costumes, posters, banners and your voice to this extraordinary event.

Poster for the June 23 rally: click here to view or download a full-size version.

The open houses for the environmental assessment of the Glacier/Howser project have been set for:

Tuesday, June 23: J.V. Humphries School Gymnasium, Kaslo, 5:30-9 PM

Wednesday, June 24: Lardeau Valley Community Hall, Meadow Creek,  5:30-9 PM

Thursday, June 25: Invermere Community Hall, 5:30-9 PM

Written submissions can be sent in up to July 27 to Glacier.Howser AT gov.bc.ca.

Project information page from the Environmental Assessment Office. and their invitation to comment (PDF). And last but not least, here's the press release (PDF) from the West Kootenay EcoSociety.

The ill-conceived BC Energy Plan presently being implemented by the Campbell government outlaws BC Hydro from developing any more power in the future. Instead BC Hydro must now purchase electricity from private power producers who are essentially being given rights by the government to all our watersheds here in BC.

The idea is being sold to the public as “run of the river” or “green” energy. Although some do fall within those parameters, in truth most of these projects are immense industrial endeavors that create environmental devastation involving dams, diversion tunnels, clear-cutting and road building through old growth forest for new transmission lines. In return for a paltry license fee of $10,000 large corporations are looking at projected profits of one hundred million dollars plus per year. The people of British Columbia stand to gain nothing from this giveaway of our public resources. What we get is a trashed environment and increased hydro rates.

Currently there are over 600 licenses on rivers and streams in BC, with an identified potential for 6000 licenses over the next decade. So long Supernatural British Columbia!

Watch this new 11-min short documentary, "Rivers at Risk: Glacier & Howser Creeks," by POWERPLAY producer Damien Gillis on the battle to protect a treasured piece of Kootenay wilderness from private power development.  This video is the second installment in Save Our Rivers Society's new "Rivers at Risk" series, which profiles different rivers around BC threatened by private power development - told in the words of the local citizens batting to protect them.  Featuring stunning high definition footage of this spectacular BC wilderness, revered by outdoor enthusiasts.

Watch video - high resolution
Having trouble streaming the high-res version?  Watch video - medium resolution

Five pristine rivers around Duncan Lake - near Kaslo in the spectacular West Kootenays - are threatened by a 120 MW private river power proposal by Axor Corp.  The plan is to divert up to 90% of each of these rivers, including beloved Glacier and Howser Creeks, into a 4.5 metre-wide 16 KM tunnel to generate electricity and private profits for Axor Corp. and its investors.  As the water will never return to the original creeks from which it is diverted (instead dumping it into the Lake below) this cannot be rightly called "run of river" power.  The impacts on the local environment - including further degradation from the 25 roads and 250,000 cubic metres of waste-rock muck generated by project - will further endanger resident blue-listed bull trout and other important ecological values.  One of the most environmentally troubling aspects of the proposal is the plan to get the power out of the valley by way of a 100 metre-wide 91KM transmission corridor carved out of old growth forests through the pristine Purcell mountain range.  But perhaps opponents' biggest concern is the erosion of democratic values and loss of public control over our resources, especially our watersheds.  In a time of climate change and shrinking natural resources, it's imperative that we hang onto our water and energy security - two values that are directly undermined by the BC Liberal government's secretive agenda to privatize our rivers and public power system under the false guise of "energy self-sufficiency" and "green power."  As this video and the situation around the Glacier/Howser proposal illustrate, there is nothing in this private river power scheme that benefits the public or the environment.

Join us in five different West Kootenay communities for a premiere of this video and presentations by Rafe Mair, Damien Gillis, Lee-Ann Unger of the West Kootenay EcoSociety, and the COPE 378 "Take Back the Power" campaign:

NELSON:              Sunday, November 30  7 PM - Nelson United Church
NAKUSP:              Tuesday December 2  7 PM - Bonnington Arts Centre
MEADOW CREEK:   Wednesday, December 3  7 PM - Lardeau Valley Hall
KASLO:                 Thursday, December 4  7 PM - Langham Theatre
ROSSLAND:          Friday, December 5  7 PM - Rossland Miner’s Hall

Letter to the editor by Nory Esteban published in the Invermere Valley Echo: Still worried about IPPs.

Excerpt: "This project will divert up to 80% of the mean annual flow from Glacier, Howser, Birnam, Behrmand and Suck Creeks into a massive tunnel 16 km. in length, drilled through the adjacent mountain to a power station at Duncan reservoir in the West Kootenay."

Two articles from the Invermere Valley Echo:

By Ian Cobb: "War" over water underway

Quote from Joe Foy: "What made the Upper Pitt situation so disturbing was the fact that at the open house, hosted by the IPP-pursuing company, 'the company was completely in charge. Remember that. The government people (ministry bureaucrats) could not speak until it was cleared by the company people. It will happen here, too. When you hear stuff like that, you should be very angry. It's absolutely shameful. The companies do not own our rivers and streams -- yet.'"

By Lindsay McPherson: Rafe Mair addresses key IPP issues

Excerpt: "Mair encouraged residents to get informed, learn where their elected officials stand on the IPP issue, and to explore alternatives to run-of-river projects.

"'I'm not carrying a political axe,' he stated, noting that he wasn't endorsing the NDP.

"'This is a political issue, but it's not a party political issue.'"