Upper Pitt

[Chuck]

Did I hear right? Fishing here will be ended due to seven power projects planned. Also five hundred total (to date) power projects planned throughout
the province on creeks and rivers by private developers will have a detrimental effect on fish and ecosystems. I guess gravity will be the downfall (no pun intended) of our pristine small rivers.

[MichelD]

Seen Ashlu this spring?

[boxhitch]

The province of BC has been opened up for "Independent Power Producers" . There are several hundred proposals ranging in size and method of producing electricity. The hydro-based projects will effect many water ways and the wind farms will take up space on the ridge tops, if they get beyond the planning stage.
Back-country access will be changed, wildlife and fish habitat will be impacted, And the Grid required to network these many projects will lace through the country side.
But we will have power into the future to run our air conditioners.

http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=12554&highlight=independent+power+producers

[boxhitch]

http://publicpowerbc.ca/
Lots of info here.

[ruger#1]

Are we making more power for California, so they wont have to pay us again, there is already a lawsuit on the tables for B.C. to get the money back. Lots of luck with that one.

[boxhitch]

I'm trying to find it, but there was an article awhile back stating BC consumes all the power it produces.

[boxhitch]

Green power? Don't let a name fool you

MARK HUME
VANCOUVER -- Gwen Barlee and Joe Foy are veteran B.C. environmental campaigners who, over the years with the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, have engaged in battles to save forests, protect rivers and save endangered species from extinction.
They are far from naive.
But this weekend, as they sat down to discuss strategy about the looming threat posed by hundreds of independent power projects in B.C, the first thing they had to admit was that they felt duped.
They, like many other British Columbians, are worried about global warming and so when the government started talking about the need for more "green power" to save the world, they bought into the idea of micro-hydro projects.
The idea sounds simple.
Find a fast-flowing stream that has a waterfall or other natural barrier to fish migration.
Build a small dam above that point, divert the water into a penstock, power a turbine, and return the water to the river so the fish downstream can
But last week Ms. Barlee had a look at a "green power" project being built on the Ashlu River, near Squamish.
She was shocked.
Huge swaths were being cut through the forest to facilitate power lines.
The power plant itself was a major construction site.
Blocking a public road was a gate staffed by workers who demanded to see her identification and told her taking pictures was forbidden.
"Here I thought they were building a nice, little, green-power plant," she says.
"It turns out it is a major development, with major environmental impact."
She notes there are 498 licences for micro-hydro projects in B.C. -- and people had better wake up to what it really means.
"What we are talking about here are public rivers going into private hands . . .
This was my first look at what one of these things actually entails, and I was blown away. Appalled. I was incredibly naive to accept these projects as green."
Mr. Foy agrees. "We have been going to meetings concerning the plan to put eight of these dams on tributaries of the Pitt River," he says. "But there is no public oversight.
"Instead of dealing with government officials, we find ourselves in a room with stock promoters who are in this for profit. If you were dealing with the government you could say, 'We should look at this in terms of the public interest.' But the private developers can't do that. They are looking only at what's good for them. They see nothing wrong with damming salmon rivers or putting power lines through public parks. When we question that they say, 'So what's wrong with that? This is green power.' "
The proposal on the Pitt, by Northwest Cascade Power Ltd., would dam eight important tributaries that flow into the main river, which joins the Fraser River, near Vancouver.
One of two proposed power line routes would cut through a provincial park.
Danny Gerak, owner of Pitt River Lodge, a fishing resort, says that when he first heard about the proposal he, too, bought into the green-power dream.
Only in the past week, after having met with company officials and touring some of the proposed dam sites, has he changed his mind.
"I am dead set against this project," he says. "It is massive in scope. The dams they propose will cut off fish from moving upstream, contrary to what they say, and they are going to divert the water away from . . . important fish habitat.
"The combined impact of these dams, together with the roads and power line right-of-way, will change this valley forever. It will be devastating."
Mr. Foy, his naiveté shattered, says the Ashlu was lost without much of a fight.
But his organization is gearing up for a battle over the Pitt.
"I have told the developers, 'You are in for a war. You just can't do this.' . . . There are clearly places where these kind[s] of projects should never be built, and the Pitt River is one of them."
Some of the larger micro projects in B.C. will undergo environmental reviews, but those generating less than 50 megawatts will not.
The cumulative impact of the projects is unknown, but stream by stream it will add up to major environmental degradation.
Green power? Hardly. The ancient Chinese had a better term for it. Death by a thousand cuts.
mhume@... (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/okbcwf/post?postID=jE5PHssVmA6C8BPRp-CmB7F_t1Ddk4noXm0QmPF4onzhCECG4ovpkIXo8zkL7vmAl257 l5zZIBcQMCQ_kB2fDuw)

[Paulyman]

I was at the Ashlu creek worksite yesterday and was shocked to see what had been done to the area.The aspect of the project that i found to be very interesting is that they plan to tunnel through the mountain side for 1.5 km's to the headwater they plan to use.

[MichelD]

That flats at Ashlu from the Squamish River road to the canyon bridge that they completely clear-cut used to be this real neat flat sandy old river bottom with huge old trees habouring deer and bear.

I wonder how long before we can drive up Ashlu again if ever.

Green power indeed.

[Paulyman]

That flats at Ashlu from the Squamish River road to the canyon bridge that they completely clear-cut used to be this real neat flat sandy old river bottom with huge old trees habouring deer and bear.

I wonder how long before we can drive up Ashlu again if ever.

Green power indeed.


your actually allowed to drive up Ashlu, when i approached the gate yesterday the security gaurd took down my licence plate # and then let me drive on through.