The Wilderness Committee Opposes the Construction of the Site C Dam Because

2013 11 25 To: Site C Dam Environmental Assessment Panel Written General Session Submission on Site C Dam project - by Joe Foy, National Campaign Director, Wilderness Committee <contact information removed> The Wilderness Committee opposes the construction of the Site C Dam because: * The Site C Dam project has not received the free, prior and informed consent of the First Nations governments in whose territory the impacts of the dam would be felt. On 12 November 2010, Canada officially endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which commits Canada to obtaining consent before proceeding with such projects. The Treaty 8 Tribal Association is composed of the Saulteau, West Moberly, Doig, Prophet and Halfway River First Nations The Treaty 8 Tribal Association is opposed to the Site C Dam and is concerned that if built, the Site C dam would destroy crucial wildlife breeding habitat, making it more difficult for their nations to engage in traditional hunting and fishing practices. Flooded too would be burial sites, sacred sites and heritage sites – all extremely important to the First Nations. When the WAC Bennett Dam was built in the 1960s the understanding of human rights in the world, and in Canada, was much different than it is now. In 2013 it is not acceptable to proceed with the Site C Dam project in the face of such strong opposition from First Nations. * The Site C Dam project would flood over 6,000 hectares of farmland. Food growing land of this quality and climate conditions is rare in northern BC. If the Site C Dam were to go forward it would represent the largest deletion of land from BC's Agricultural Land Reserve in its history, and would be a severe blow to farming in the northern region of the province. Deletion of this farmland from the Agricultural Land Reserve would send a poor message to developers all over BC, that it’s open season on farmland. Some family farms in the Peace River Valley have been there for generations. Other family farms have been bought out by BC Hydro. The Site C Dam project should be cancelled, BC Hydro should return the farmland to farmers and family farms should be allowed to do what they do best – produce food – without the threat of flood. * The Site C Dam would flood rare valley bottom wildlife habitat in an area that has already been severely impacted by the two previous dam projects and by oil and gas development. Many in the region now see the Peace River Valley as a green oasis in a sea of development. Previous dams have almost eliminated the local caribou herds and polluted some fish populations with mercury. BC Hydro should be working to mitigate past damage – and not working to cause even more damage to additional wildlife species. * The Site C Dam would make it more difficult for the government of BC to live up to decades old promises to mitigate the environmental impacts on downstream habitats caused by the previous two dams. When the W.A.C. Bennett Dam was built on the upper Peace River in the late 1960s, the amount of water flowing down the river into the north end of the Peace-Athabasca Delta in northern Alberta was severely reduced during the time it took to fill the reservoir. Water levels in some parts of the delta dropped by several feet. A severe drought that followed kept those water levels low once the reservoir was full. Problems with timing and amount of water flow have continued – resulting in impacts to wildlife habitats in the delta, which is mostly in Wood Buffalo National Park. Placing yet another dam on the Peace River will make mitigation efforts for impacts to the delta, more difficult – or impossible. BC Hydro should be held accountable for repairing all downstream damage to wildlife habitats and should not be given permission to build the Site C Dam, which would close the door on recovery. * The Site C Dam is not needed to provide electrical energy to the people of BC. Our province has more electrical energy than it can use, requiring the province to sell power at a loss, or to spill water over our dams from time to time. One can find spectacular recent photos on the internet of BC Hydro Dams like the WAC Bennett Dam spilling huge amounts of water, rather than make electrical power. Why? Because BC already has more than enough electrical power for our needs, now and into the future. If we needed more power (which we do not) we could take advantage our Columbia River Treaty right of access to hydro electricity produced by the Columbia River dams in Washington State. But we do not need the power so we do not take our treaty entitlement in electricity. * Building the Site C Dam would be very expensive, which means that electrical energy produced from the dam would be very expensive to produce. There is a strong possibility that industrial users of this power, if the dam were to be built, would require the people of BC heavily subsidize any power that industry would use - increasing residential power rates, and/or the provincial debt. The current cost estimate for constructing the Site C Dam is $8 billion – with some estimates that the dam could come in at more than $10 billion! .

Load more