To the editor:
I am writing in regard to the Jan. 11 letter from Sandra Robinson, headlined Dams provide clean energy.
Ms. Robinson’s idea that building dams on British Columbia rivers is the solution to our energy problem is not correct. Not only would the damage caused by damming the Peace River for the third time be incalculable, but also Site C is being planned for the wrong reasons.
Site C is not the logical alternative to the Alberta oil sands; it is, instead, a planned subsidiary for them.
Firstly, there’s the damage Site C would cause.
B.C. is a province of river valleys. They are our wealth, the rich source of agriculture, our communities, recreation sites, and the haven for wild creatures.
Williston Dam, a completely earth-built dam, was built where the original Peace converged to a spectacular rocky canyon. Above the dam, the tree-covered banks of the river were earth, not rock, and now the water continuously eats away at the banks of smaller feeder streams.
With dangerous debris still a hazard, the Williston dam area is dangerous, accessible only by fast-powered riverboats, and will never be, contrary to claims, a universal recreational area. The second dam is also built on the rocky canyon.
Site C, at the mouth of the Moberly River, would be the beginning of farming territory where the sides of the Peace are earth, gravel and
wclay. The subsequent erosion damage would be never ending. To destroy the production, the beauty of that valley for any reason would be idiotic. For Lower Mainland people who have never ventured “beyond Hope,” the Peace River is away up north somewhere. Who cares about the North? Nobody lives there, anyway, right? Wrong.
Secondly, the plans for Site C were made 30 years ago, over the objections of folks in Fort St. John and the Peace country, but probably thanks to the well-organized protests to the project, they were put on hold.
Now, however, there’s a new need as replacement water for drilling the new gas fields
around Fort Nelson, which, in turn, is needed to power the oil sands farther east on the Athabaska River.
Last summer when the Peace was at an all-time low, the oil companies had to curb their daily intake of water from the river. I suspect power produced by a Site C, instead of supplying the needs of ordinary B.C. people, would instead be targeting the thirsty industry of the Alberta oil sands.
Thirdly, Ms. Robinson is quite correct on
several counts: we should not be importing “dirty energy,” as she calls it.
We should stop wasting electricity as if there were no tomorrow. Conservation should become obligatory.
Countries in Europe understand that, as wind turbines are being used from Denmark to France with good results.
It so happens that on a hill south of Dawson Creek, there are 34 of these giants making power from that incessant Peace country wind. It’s a start.
But flooding that beautiful Peace valley? That way lies madness.
Barbara Dalby
108 Mile Ranch