Upper Lillooet River Power Limited Partnership C/O Julia Mancinelli, Environmental Manager, Innergex Renewable Energy Inc
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Ecofish Research Ltd. Suite F – 450 8th Street Courtenay, B.C. V9N 1N5 Phone: 250-334-3042 Fax: 250-897-1742 [email protected] www.ecofishresearch.com MEMORANDUM TO: Upper Lillooet River Power Limited Partnership c/o Julia Mancinelli, Environmental Manager, Innergex Renewable Energy Inc. FROM: Autumn Cousins, B.Sc., Heidi Regehr, M.Sc., Ph.D., R.P.Bio., and Deborah Lacroix, M.Sc., R.P.Bio., Ecofish Research Ltd. DATE: November 20, 2017 FILE: 1095-54 RE: Upper Lillooet Hydro Project Environmental Assessment Certificate #E13-01 Amendment Application for Schedule B to Seek Approval to Remove Requirement for Signalling System and Signage per Condition 35 1. INTRODUCTION The Upper Lillooet Hydro Project (the Project) is located northwest of Pemberton, British Columbia (BC), on the Upper Lillooet River (Map 1). The Upper Lillooet River Hydroelectric Facility (HEF or Facility) is one of the facilities of the Project, which was recently commissioned by the Upper Lillooet River Power Limited Partnership (ULRPLP). ULRPLP is seeking to modify Condition #35 of Schedule B (Table of Conditions (TOC)) of the Project’s Environmental Assessment Certificate (EAC) (#E13-01, EAO 2013). This condition, in part, requires that the Certificate Holder must, prior to operations, install an alarm or other signalling system acceptable to the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations (FLNRO) at the Pebble Creek Hot Springs and at the powerhouse to warn of potentially dangerous flow releases and that signs must also be posted at both locations to inform the public on how to respond to the signals. As per Schedule A of the EAC, operations begin once the Leave to Commence Operation is issued (#E13- 01, EAO 2013). ULRPLP is requesting that the requirement for the alarm and associated signage be removed from Condition #35 of the TOC. When considering the requirements related to the alarm system and signage specified in Condition #35 of the TOC, it is important to understand the history and context of this condition. During the environmental assessment (EA), the Proponent identified the potential for risk to human safety during recreational use, due to the possibility of water level fluctuations in the Upper Lillooet River at the Pebble Creek Hot Springs (Map 2) and at the powerhouse. The Application for an EAC (EA Application) proposed that further analysis be conducted to determine if a signal system or other form of mitigation would be warranted at the hot springs (SNC 2012a; Appendix AR - Table 5). Further, although potential safety risk was identified at the powerhouse, this was associated with recreational kayakers, which the EA Application specified (SNC 2012a; Appendix AR - Table 7) that 1095-54 Page | 1 Transport Canada would be responsible for addressing if necessary (i.e., through approval(s) received under the Navigable Waters Protection Act (1985)). It is also relevant to note that the draft Condition #35 arose from the EA Application, not from any public, Aboriginal groups, or agencies’ input. During the strengthening of the draft EAC language that occurs towards the end of the EA process, the two safety issues were combined and the draft language evolved such that the signal system became mandatory rather than subject to assessment to determine if it is appropriate mitigation. This evolution in language is illustrated by the following excerpts of the draft working versions, retained by ULRPLP, and the final wording of Condition #35 (underline added for emphasis): • Draft condition as of August 28, 2012: “An alarm will be considered for installation as a safety measure at the Hot Springs to warn bathers of a change in water flow if the Dam Break Study demonstrates a significant stage change that may be a safety concern” • Draft condition as of September 9, 2012: “Prior to Project operation, the Proponent must install an alarm as a safety measure at the Pebble Creek Hot Springs to warn bathers of a change in water flow if the Dam Break Study demonstrates a significant stage change that may be a safety concern.” • Final excerpt of condition as of November 26, 2012: “Prior to operations, the Proponent must install an alarm or other signaling system acceptable to FLNR at the Pebble Creek Hot Springs and at the powerhouse locations to warn of potentially dangerous flow releases. The Proponent must post signs at Pebble Creek Hot Springs and at the powerhouses informing the public of how to respond to the signals.” ULPRLP retained Knight Piésold Ltd. (KP) to re-assess the consequence of an intake failure in both sunny day and flood induced scenarios based on the final design used for construction of the facility (KP 2016). On March 31, 2017, a Senior Dam Safety Engineer of the Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (FLNRORD) (formerly FLNRO) approved the results of this study (McLean 2017, pers. comm.). Specific to the potential safety risk identified in Condition 35, ULRPLP further retained KP to assess the potential safety risk to users of the Pebble Creek Hot Springs. KP modelled stage changes (changes in water level) at the hot springs and the powerhouse under a worst case operational scenario (i.e. full load rejection). The results of this KP study (provided as Appendix A) confirmed that there is no risk to users of the Pebble Creek Hot Springs pools nor to the powerhouse and associated infrastructure. Based on the results of the KP study (KP 2017), combined with the BC Environmental Assessment Office’s (EAO) Environmental Assessment Certificate Policy (EAC Policy) (EAO 2017) which advocates minimizing overlap with permitting, ULRPLP is seeking to amend the EAC to remove the requirement for a signal system and associated signage in accordance with Section 19(1) of the BC Environmental Assessment Act (BCEAA) (2002). In addition, ULRPLP requests that EAO consider 1095-54 Page | 2 combining all previous amendments with this amendment into one consolidated EAC to increase clarity for all parties. An Application for an EAC amendment requires that all valued components (VCs) identified during the EA process that may be impacted by the proposed change are assessed to determine if the residual effects predicted in the original EA Application will be affected. Ecofish Research Ltd. (Ecofish) was retained to determine if the conclusions of the EA, on which the Ministers based their decision to grant Project approval, are maintained with the proposed change. 1095-54 Page | 3 Map 1. Location of the Upper Lillooet River Hydroelectric Facility. 1095-54 Page | 4 2. PROPOSED CHANGE AND RATIONALE ULRPLP is requesting to amend Condition #35 of Schedule B of the EAC to remove the requirement for a signalling system, and associated signage, to be installed at the Upper Lillooet River HEF powerhouse and Pebble Creek Hot Springs. Condition #35 also requires that a trail must be created to access the Upper Lillooet River near the hot springs. This part of the condition has been completed and would remain unaltered through the proposed amendment. There are two components to ULRPLP’s rationale for the requested change. First, in accordance with the original intent of the EA prescription, a safety analysis determined that there is no risk to users of the Pebble Creek Hot Springs and negligible risk to the powerhouse related to flow changes in the Facility’s diversion reach. Thus, as specified in the original EA mitigation, the implementation of safety mitigation is unnecessary. Results of this pivotal safety analysis, which are critical in the assessment of the VC that interacts with the proposed change, is summarized in Section 4.1. Secondly, a key component of this amendment request is that other federal and provincial agencies are currently addressing public safety due to water level changes in their authorizations. The EAO’s EAC Policy (EAO 2017) states that conditions should be directed at “addressing the risk of adverse effects on valued components that are not sufficiently addressed in permitting and the regulatory framework.” This significant policy change was clarified through the finalization of the EAC policy after the Project was certified, which further supports the rationale for this amendment request. This issue and its role in the assessment of the proposed change are further discussed in Section 5. 3. ASSESSMENT METHODS During the EA process, potential adverse effects were identified and evaluated for selected VCs for all phases of Project development and mitigation measures were prescribed to avoid or minimize such adverse effects. Many of these identified constraints or conditions intended to mitigate potential effects were incorporated into Schedule B of the EAC (the TOC). Thus, because Schedule B of the EAC reflects the conclusions of the Project’s Application for an EAC, and because any changes to these conditions have the potential to modify such conclusions, the potential consequences of the requested amendment on the conclusions of the EA must be evaluated. The assessment presented in this amendment application evaluates whether the proposal to remove the requirement for the signalling system and associated signage will affect the conclusions of the EA Application, on which the Ministers based their decision to issue the EAC. The assessment methods for the evaluation of the potential consequences of the removal of the signalling system and associated signage on the conclusions of the EA Application were to firstly determine which of the VCs selected and assessed during the initial EA would interact with the proposed change. The VCs anticipated not to interact with the proposed change were discounted. The remaining VCs were then assessed for each potential adverse effect identified in the EA 1095-54 Page | 5 Application to determine whether conclusions of the EA would be affected if the requested change was made and whether or not additional or alternate mitigation would be required.