March 27, 2008
The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — A planned power project on the Upper Pitt River in the Vancouver area appears dead in the water after widespread opposition led the province's environment minister to say he won't support it.

Run of River Power Inc. wanted to generate electricity from the river and string a power line through Pinecone-Burke Provincial Park.

But B.C. Environment Minister Barry Penner said Wednesday that concerns from parks staff, opposition from the Squamish First Nation and a huge public outcry mean he won't recommend legislation to change the boundary of the park, about 40 kilometres east of Vancouver.

"I will not be bringing legislation to the legislature or to my colleagues seeking their support to change this park boundary," he said.

Penner said without an adjustment to the park boundary, the project may essentially be dead because the company has said it can't go ahead without land from the park to build a transmission line and alternatives would be too expensive.

Company chief executive Jako Krushnisky said he was shocked at Penner's decision because it seemed so hasty after the minister said he'd be consulting with his staff.

"The other thing that's extremely shocking is that the very First Nation folks whose territory where we were proposing to build these projects were not consulted (by the ministry)," Krushnisky said.

"We have a letter of intent with the Katzie First Nation, we've been working with them for the last year-and-a-half, we've been consulting with them as co-managers of the very park where we proposed to put this power line through."

The company built another project near Whistler in 2005 to supply electricity for 4,000 homes and isn't new to the process, Krushnisky said.

"We believe these projects continue to be relevant to the province's objectives of green renewable electricity and we'll consider our options moving forward."

But the project that was touted as generating enough electricity to power 55,000 homes each year with "green" energy has generated controversy from the start.

On Tuesday, about 1,000 people rallied at a public hearing, saying construction of seven small power plants on the Upper Pitt River would destroy rich salmon stocks, and transmission lines through the park would create an eyesore and harm wildlife.

Penner said the company knew from the beginning that it had a high regulatory burden because power projects are heavily scrutinized before they're approved.

"Every small hydro project in B.C. has to go through about 52 different regulatory approvals," he said.

"This one had an extra one - they wanted to amend a park boundary and so that was an extra regulatory hurdle for this thing to clear and I've decided today it's not clearing that hurdle."

Penner, who has approved two wind-power projects in B.C., said the province imports coal-fired power from Alberta and the United States but wants to generate its own electricity without spewing greenhouse gas emissions.

"We'd like to become self sufficient again but that doesn't mean we will approve every single clean energy project," he said.

The Upper Pitt River topped the 2008 list of British Columbia's most endangered rivers in an annual list by the province's Outdoor Recreation Council.

Joy Foy, spokesman for the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, applauded Penner's move on the project that he called a "disaster."

"This company proposed to take all eight tributaries of the Upper Pitt River and put them in pipes totalling 30 kilometres in length to run them through a series of powerhouses," Foy said.

"A number of those creeks would have landed directly on top of salmon habitat," he said, adding Run of River Power would also have needed to clear-cut several kilometres of forest through grizzly habitat.

"It was a crazy, crazy project," he said.

Foy said that since 2002, when the government stopped B.C. Hydro from developing smaller hydro projects, there's been a "gold rush" by private companies to stake the province's rivers and streams.

"We're the only province in Canada that's undergoing this rapid conversion, this proliferation of private projects in a province where citizens generally believe it's public power out there," Foy said.

A report commissioned last year by B.C. Hydro states that with a little conservation, the province's power needs would not be any higher in 2027, Foy said.

He said any claims by the government or private companies that B.C.'s power needs are increasing are false.

"That is a fallacy that's being foisted on us to make us more wanting to accept this rush to private power."

British Columbia currently has 35 private hydro projects, all of them involving river diversions that could affect wildlife and fish habitat, Foy said.

"Not all of them are in places where a thousand people might come out to a public meeting."