Save Our Rivers Society is proud to present a new documentary by Damien Gillis, "Rivers at Risk: Bute Inlet," featuring interviews with local citizens fighting to protect their treasured watershed - one of the world's top eco-tourism and sport fishing destinations - footage from recent highly-charged public meetings about the proposed mega-project, and high-definition aerial footage of this natural wonder on BC's Sunshine Coast.
Save Our Rivers Society urges all British Columbians to watch this video and forward along - as it not only documents the proposal by General Electric and Plutonic Power for the biggest private hydro power project in Canadian history, with massive, irreparable environmental damage for this delicate ecosystem - but also is a summary of the whole Campbell private river power program and its many threats to our environment, economy, democracy, and, ultimately, sovereignty.
Watch the full 24 minute documentary here in high resolution
Or in medium resolution for slower connections
Or watch in three separate eight minute chapters:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Also, watch this 3-min Google Earth fly-over video showing the whole project and all its proposed transmission lines, roads, diversion pipes, and powerstations - an amazing sense of the real impacts the massive project would have on the landscape. Courtesy of Watershed Watch Salmon Society, produced by Dave Leversee.
A few details about the project:
Proponent: Plutonic Hydro Inc. / General Electric would have a 60% controlling interest
Number of creeks dammed: 17
Total Annual Output: 2,980 GWh
Total Estimated Project Cost: $4 billion, making it the largest single private power project in Canada
Estimated Annual Gross Revenue: Approximately $350,000,000 - 40 year contract including indexed escalation = approx. $20 billion
Wildlife affected: grizzly bear, salmon, resident salmonids.
Power lines: 428 km
Roads: 265 km
Bridges: 100 bridges
Production: 1027MW
Total crown land grants required for all of the above: Up to 45,000 hectares
Friends of Bute Inlet